Draft Table of Recommendations for Public Emergency Communications for Arlington County, Virginia 

Ranking 		System Name 			Alerting 	Information Passive Means? 	Population Coverage	Cost to County 	Cost Effectiveness 		Population Considerations 				Comments 
Top Five Priorities 

1 		Advanced Reverse 911 with Fax Blast	*	*		*	wide			low		high			Effectiveness for hearing impaired, non-English 		 Improved system can target tailored populations with brief message. Has modular capabilities 	

2		Sirens				*	*		*	wide			medium		high			Effectiveness for hearing impaired is low 			County should acquire electronic version with PA capability. Need MOA with Ft. Myer, Pentagon emergency 
																								coordinators 
3 		County Emergency Radio Station 		*		*	wide			low		high			Hearing Impaired. Population deep in buildings		Need dedicated County station for Arlington-only advisory info. Consider Low Power FM license (100 watt) or shared station with local college shcool program

4 		Improved RSAN with no charge 	*	*			narrow			nil		high			Low utility for population without cell phones, pagers or 	RSAN is an established program that needs stronger marketing to public. Public communications administration policy change needed to eliminate cell phone provider company charges for emergency messages. 
																		internet. Cell phones require text messaging service 
5 		Subsidized or free pagers for 		*	*			narrow (targeted)		low-medium	medium			N/A						Addresses PEC challenge to reach hearing impaired. Vibrating pagers only effective when worn and should compliment other systems (NOAA, RSAN, EAS, etc.)
		hearing impaired 

Medium Priority Group 
		EAS Improvements 			*	*		*	wide			NA		high			Low effectiveness for Non-English speakers unless  		Need to expand participation by local stations for local alerts. Need multilingual EAS translations for TV banner and radio alerts on non-English or selected broadcast stations. Satelite and apartment/condo dwellers not served locally.
																		non-Need to expand participation by local stations for local alerts.

		Expanded Call Center (CrisisLink)		*			NA			medium		medium			Needs TTY to support hearing impaired. Multi-lingual staff	Can relieve ECC load, provide answers to population during emergencies for non-emergency advice and referral. Staffed by trained volunteers on emergency basis. Requires assured access to office space and phones on contingency basis.

																		highly desirable									
		Bulk purchased preprogrammed 	*	*			Norrow (targeted)		Pass through cost	medium after initial investment	Encourages use of NOAA radios for low and fixed 		Many NOAA radios currently sold present programming challenge (A.K.A. the "Blinking 12:00 VCR effect") to select correct SAMEs broadcast and to select desired alert types . Easier setup (preprogrammed for Arlington 
																		income residents					area) and reduced price offered through County bulk purchase would greatly increase participation by residents. Also consider bulk purchase of radios with hear disabled adaptive features. 
		NOAA radio for resale to 
		residents 

		NOAA Required in Office 		*	*			Medium 			NA		Medium			Does not address existing residences 			Would require all businesses to have operating NOAA radio on premises. Change county building code to  require all new buildings/residences to have NOAA capability installed. 

Follow-on Priorities 
		Subsidized or free NOAA radios 	*	*			Narrow (targeted)		pass through cost	medium after initial inventment	Targets low-income or fixed income residents 		Would widen use of NOAAs. If considered, should be incorporated into bulk preprogrammed purchase. 

		211					*			NA			high		low-medium		Provides alternative source of information to residents 	In use in Chicago. Full time staff and equipment refers callers to City services. Cost is considered high in comparison to expanded call center 
																		when 911 is saturated 

Already In Place 
		NOAA radios 			*	*			Narrow			established											Established system well utilized in mid-west for tornado warnings 
		
		EAS 				*	*			Wide			systems											Wide Established Replaced CONELRAD system 

		Cable TV Channels 69/71 			*			Narrow			with											Limited to cable users. 

		County & School Web Sites 			*			Narrow			nil											Need to ensure links to emergency information pages clearly labeled 

		Metro Signs 			*	*		*	Narrow			new											Requires ECC - Metro coordination 

		Expressway signs 			*	*		*	Narrow			costs											Can cause traffic slowdowns. Only helps those who are driving and see signs 
		
		Neighborhood Watch Block 																				Effectiveness entirely dependant on strength of neighborhood participation 
		
		Mobile Massed Sirens		*	*		*	Narrow 														May divert personnel and equipment from higher priority tasks 

Future Solutions 
		Global Ring 			*			*	Wide			NA					Would target anyone with a land-line phone 		Current phone system can not handle voltage to conduct 30 second warning-alert ring. Engineering changes may be cost prohibitive, but effectiveness of system for alerting broad population (passive means) considered potentially very high -- makes concept attractive 

		Selective Cell Calls 			*			*	Targeted			NA					Would target cell users in selective geographic areas 	Conceptual system could permit Emergency Managers ability to alert cell users in defined areas by activating  cell phones within designated cell areas. Capacity of system to ring multiple numbers unknown. 

Considered - not adopted 
		NOAA Tax Credit 			*				Narrow initially		medium		low			NA						Homeowners receive tax credit for owning NOAA -- requires legislation. 

		Hand Held 2-Way Radios 			*			Specialized		medium		NA			NA						Provided to CERT members, Civic Assn Presidents/emergency coordinators 
		
		Many Cheap Emergency Radios 	*	*		*	Targeted			low-medium	medium			Bulk purchase of inexpensive AM or FM radios set to	 Cost may be prohibitively high. Would depend on adoption of dedicated County emergency radio station to activate
		(MCER) 																county radio station that would alert and inform for low
																		income, fixed income or technologically challenged		 
Notes - Cost Estimates 	Notes - Terminology 
Low Cost = Less than $50k 	Passive Means - Does the population need to own or 
Med Cost = $50-500K 	operate something? If yes, then it is not "passive means" 
High Cost = more than $500K 
Printed: 3/8/2004 DRAFT