Command Center for Increased Security and Information Sharing for a Large Midwestern Airport
Project Description
A large Midwestern Airport contracted SDI to build a new command center for them based around the idea of a Federal Fusion Center. A Fusion Center is defined as a "collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise, and information to the center with the goal of maximizing their ability to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity."
Working together, the airport administration and police department defined two main objectives for their center. First, the center will be manned to manage and coordinate major events at the airport. And second, it will be used 24/7 to monitor suspicious, possibly terrorist related, activity around the airport.
The project involved the repurposing and design of approximately 1350 sq. ft. of space in two rooms of one of the airport buildings – to build a command center and adjoining conference room – and the implementation of state-of-the-art video and computer technology to support it. The plan for the center was for it to be linked to existing airport video and security systems providing the personnel manning the center with access to all available information at the airport to aid in proactively providing better security.
To build this center, SDI was responsible for all:
- Design – The command center design accommodates up to 11 initial workstation positions with scalability to add more as needed. To provide multiple agencies involved in the center operations with easy interaction, SDI integrated an 18 foot long video wall with all of the positions and provided access ports for walk-in hook-up and teleconferencing capabilities.
- Purchasing – SDI procured all materials and assets, including new furniture (desks, tables, and chairs), computer workstations and A/V technology necessary to support all operations.
- Construction – SDI coordinated city and contract workers to restructure the rooms.
- Networking – SDI created a private network for the Center, but also arranged for open access to the rest of the airport and the Internet. Through this network, linked agencies access their own information resources and share information with the rest of the team manning the center.
- Implementation – The SDI team installed the A/V technology and configured and installed all of the workstations in the rooms and linked it all together. The center has full access to all technology resources at the airport to manage events and monitor suspicious activity at the airport.
- Electrical wiring and cabling – To give the rooms the ability to function even in a power outage, all wiring was isolated and rerun to a dedicated circuit panel running on its own power backup. New network cabling was run to accommodate all designed needs of the center but additional cabling was installed to provide scalability with immediate results.
- Custom Application Development – SDI built two custom software applications to support the center – a Wikipedia-like searchable information sharing database and a real-time tote board dashboard showing current Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) and police 9-1-1 events.
- Project Management – To make the construction and development of the center a smooth process, SDI project managers efficiently planned and coordinated all aspects of the project.
Project Goal
- Design and Build a state-of-the-art Fusion center that provides a technical and operational platform for Multi-Agency Law Enforcement Collaboration.
- Design and Build a center that enables, facilitates and supports multi-agency information sharing to enhance and improve incident and crisis management.
- Design and Build a Fusion center that enables, facilitates and supports multi-agency criminal and terrorist investigation, research, monitoring, detection and response activity.
- Integrate the different monitoring and security systems (ACS, CAD, Video, ALPR, etc.) available at the airport into one system for the management of crises and monitoring of potential security breaches.
- Provide a flexible, scalable environment capable of addressing any crisis situation.
- Provide a comfortable and secure working environment with easy access to all available technology.
SDI Services
- Safety and Security
- IT Infrastructure
- Command Center Advisory Services
- Technology Procurement
- Technology Strategy
- Physical Security/Command Center Environment Support
- Custom Applications Development
Project Results
SDI built a state-of-the-art Fusion Center within budget for the client airport providing the airport with a high-tech resource for the management of crises and potential security risks. This center allowed them to immediately start monitoring all potential threats to the airport before they become real threats and to attract other agencies to share more information with them. This sharing of information and resources gave the airport an even higher level of security and responsiveness than previously known and increased their efficiency in responding to events and coordinating effort.
SDI empowered the airport to address security threats before they become security breaches or problems.