recommendation. The discussion went back to the channel the Sheriff’s Office was
asking to change and it was noted that both changes were already reflected in the most
current version of the templates. Chair Selvik asked Member Benjamin if there were any
other changes. Member Benjamin responded that he believed those were the only two
from the Sheriff.
Chair Selvik inquired if there were any questions from any agencies who were attending
the meeting online. Chief Stefanson from Woodridge PD responded that the templates
looked good to him. Member Connolly referenced the Sheriff’s request from above and
said any requested changes should keep in mind the difficulties of Viqi, the voice
command module of the APXNext model radios, to recognize complicated naming
conventions.
Ms. Zerwin mentioned that between this meeting and the October meeting, Mr. Theusch
would be holding a DEDIR System podcast and the templates would be an agenda item
for agencies to ask questions. Ms. Zerwin also said that to add to Mr. Connolly’s
comment regarding Viqi’s limitations, what the name looks like and how it is spoken can
be different so adjustments may need to be made because of spacing limitations and such.
A discussion ensued on the names and how they are read in terms of policy,
standardization, and ease of use, and how the recommendation to the ETS Board would
allow for the PAC and focus groups to adjust, as needed, to make operational corrections
within the spirit of the templates.
Member Clark inquired into whether under encryption the agencies with question marks
needs to be completed before approval. Chair Selvik felt the naming conventions need to
be completed and it would be ideal to have them ironed out, but not necessary. Vice
Chair Johl asked that whatever channels fire would have access to that will be encrypted
be spelled out so they know where these channels will fall within their templates and the
fire radios can be programmed correctly and rolled out.
Ms. Zerwin asked if there could be discussion on outside agency access to encryption and
Northwest Central Dispatch (NWCD) agencies moving to encryption on the fire side.
Vice Chair Johl began the discussion saying a communication had been received from the
Chief of Elk Grove Village because of police officer safety concerns as people are
listening to the fire channels and tracking the movement of police on fire calls. He said
NWCD would like to move in that direction but had not yet taken those steps, but that
encryption would need to be shared both ways between the bordering agencies and
NWCD. Ms. Zerwin said DuPage has the capabilities to move to encryption with
NWCD, but that other outside agencies with access for mutual aid on any of the borders
of DuPage are not yet equipped to move to encryption on the fire side along with DuPage
and that difficulties will be encountered. Mr. Connolly said that there were two new joint
secure ops channels created for fire so that there was a secure place for fire and police to
work together to minimize this issue. He continued saying that half the Interops and
Unifieds were proposed to be encrypted so users could be moved to the encrypted
channels and when outside agencies have that capability, they could join. Mr. Connolly
said this is a partial solution and how well this works operationally will need to be
determined. Vice Chair Johl said he suggested this plan to the fire chief at NWC
Dispatch. He said they will have the same issues as DuPage, border agencies without
encryption they work with every day, how are they going to talk to them?
