SAIC’s Public Safety Integration Center

While the communications industry provides many alternatives for voice and data transmission, buying racks of equipment alone does not solve the problem. In order to effectively communicate and collaborate, public safety personnel need to know that their new equipment will be interoperable with their existing systems and with other responder systems in the area as well as with national and regional organizations.

At SAIC's Public Safety Integration Center (PSIC), located in McLean, Virginia, our focus is not on isolated technologies — it is on creating interoperable and collaborative systems and procedures to support effective homeland security.

With the PSIC, customers see first-hand how integrated systems can be quickly pulled together from a wide variety of legacy hardware and software and newer GOTS and COTS products.

For example, law enforcement personnel can hook up just about any kind of wireless radio system and check it out. Then they can put together an interoperable solution and see if they can do it without breaking the bank — and can do it quickly. Able to "mock up just about anything," SAIC sees the center as a major accomplishment.

Members of the Secret Service, police chiefs from the National Capital Region, and the sergeant-at-arms of the U.S. House of Representatives are just some of the recent visitors to the center.

Public safety radio interoperability is a fundamental capability in the center, which houses an audio interconnect device for linking disparate land mobile radio systems and commercial wireless networks together on a "demand-authorized" basis.

The center showcases a number of SAIC systems for first responders, such as the Area Security Operations Command and Control that we developed and integrated to help the Department of Defense better manage incidents; our Consequence Assessment Tool Set used for disaster analysis at the 2002 Winter Olympics; our Automated Exercise and Assessment System used by states to train first responders; and other solutions for integrating wireless communications and voice over IP networks.

Major vendors and service providers are coming to the SAIC facility to demonstrate their latest technologies, but there are no exclusive arrangements. They are encouraged to show their unique solutions, rather than using the opportunity as a trade show.

Working with technology vendors across the industry, SAIC has identified and is building solutions in six major areas at our PSIC. These solution sets are designed to enhance collaboration, access control, intelligence and surveillance, vulnerability and consequence assessment, interoperable incident management, and public safety communications.

For example, in a crisis, you don't need raw data; you need usable accurate information, and you need it right away. Our solutions can add geographic data to the mix of existing data and enhance it with a range of analytical tools, bringing immediate and comprehensive information and in-depth analysis to a situation room via the Web or over private networks.

The goal: give our customers the ability to make the right decision whenever and wherever it is needed, from on-scene first responders to national decision makers.

The PSIC is located at:

8301 Greensboro Drive
Mail Stop E-9-7
McLean, VA 22102

Related Information:

• See Emergency Planning and Response for a downloadable brochure about the PSIC.
• Automated Exercise and Assessment System (AEAS)
• Terrorism Response Training solutions