For example, if a credible threat is determined by a national agency such as the CIA, this information is currently distributed down to whatever level of emergency agencies is deemed appropriate. However, with this new wireless communication model, the national agency who initially triggered the event can track the number of respondents that have been deployed to the situation as well as the actual message flow (including message content) sent by every agency on every level.
There was also value discovered in enabling out-of-department personnel to monitor and track messages sent to/by another department. For example, a state police agency could monitor and track messages that were deployed and confirmed by local HAZMAT and Fire Departments from a central software location.
Some of the testers suggested the addition of an “incident form” to be placed on the wireless hand held device. This would be used as a “field initiated” solution for updating the status of an unfolding event close to real time. Management would then not need to call multiple managers in the field but rather could bring up a report that is updated from multiple field force personnel. For example, an on-site police coordinator could send in the following example: