fix might be to expand the notification to adjacent agencies and share the 205 plan for saturation
patrols. She said information is being sent through the PSAPs but is not always reaching the right
people or shifts in time, so she said they were looking at sending notices directly to agencies such
as Elk Grove Village PD and providing training as needed.
Mr. Nebl said that approach made sense and said interoperability was working through patches to
a SWIT talk group, including during current operations with DuPage, Cook, and Lake agencies.
He said once the new SWIT template and secure zone updates were deployed around March or
April, they should be able to reduce or eliminate some patching because agencies could
communicate directly on secure talk groups. He said notices were being shared by PSAP email
and law enforcement Slack channels, and he said agencies could be added to the email blast if a
contact was provided.
Chair Selvik said Elk Grove Village was not on the blast, and Mr. Nebl said he would add them
once a contact was provided. Chair Selvik said Elk Grove Village reported difficulty monitoring
through Cook County, and Mr. Nebl said SWIT should work and the issue might be user
navigation, based on recent experience walking an agency through the secure zone.
Vice Chair Clark said he questioned whether statewide talk groups were appropriate and asked
about encryption. Mr. Nebl said statewide encrypted talk groups were appropriate because
agencies often operated outside the DuPage footprint, and he said the new template would
expand statewide encrypted options from two to four. He said Cook County talk groups were still
on STARCOM but limited to Cook County coverage, which was why statewide was preferred,
and Executive Director Zerwin said statewide use also avoided pulling local resources.
The group said they were generally aligned and could revisit the issue later if needed. Chair
Selvik said Elk Grove would not be given access to DU STWD TAC1” and “DU STWD TAC2,
and Mr. Nebl said Elk Grove would interoperate through a reserved SWIT talk group with
patching as needed, with patching expected to decrease after the March updates.
Member Benjamin said more patching could tie up more talk paths and increase bonks. Mr. Nebl
said patching multiple talk groups consumed DuPage talk paths, and he said reducing patching
would conserve resources, especially during busy periods. Executive Director Zerwin said the
March changes to the SWIT could make the issue a moot point by the next meeting.
10.
DEDIR SYSTEM
Executive Director Zerwin said firmware updates were going well, although Fire was still behind
at a couple of agencies. She said they found that radios that had been sitting unused at agencies,
including batteries, needed to be exercised monthly, and a radio that had not been powered on in
a while might need to stay on for up to 24 hours to receive multiple firmware updates. Executive
Director Zerwin explained that if a radio looked complete but was still on their list, it likely
needed more time powered on to finish updating.
Executive Director Zerwin said the freeze meant agencies could still submit tickets, including
alias changes and new employee programming, and those would be tracked and some would be
handled as time allowed, but most changes would be pushed out all at once at a later point. She
said staff would coordinate with Motorola on whether to apply that update before or after
encryption, and that they were close to finishing first touch encryption, with only a few agencies
and a small number of Sheriff’s radios remaining. She said staff had been using site visits and
