The Northern Shenandoah Valley ITS-Public Safety Initiative is designed to bring together Shenandoah Valley community leaders, medical professionals, transportation officials, law enforcement and public safety representatives, the private sector, and elected officials in order to plan for and implement leading-edge technologies that will improve the integration of emergency and transportation communications in the Valley.

Commonwealth of Virginia
Map of the Shenandoah Valley

THE NEED

The recovery and survival of emergency victims and those in threatening situations depends on dedicated help from professionals within emergency medical services, transportation, 9-1-1, law enforcement, and fire/rescue. Enhancing the sequence and coordination of response among these professionals saves lives and reduces long-term injuries, saves resources, and improves transportation management. Integrating the efforts of stakeholders by introducing new technologies will facilitate improved patient outcomes for individuals involved in accidents on I-81 while improving the efficient clearing of incidents so as to minimize the impact on the movement of people and goods.

COMCARE'S APPROACH

There are three components to the Northern Shenandoah Valley ITS-Public Safety Initiative:

1. Stakeholder Awareness and Education

Outreach and stakeholder development, designed to identify and bring together the critical leaders in the Northern Shenandoah Valley as well as related or impacted agencies, organizations, associations, state government departments, agencies or offices, and federal government departments.

The task engages Shenandoah Valley community leaders, medical professionals, transportation officials, law enforcement, public safety representatives, the private sector, and senior elected officials in order to bring together stakeholders, design and facilitate working sessions, present benefits of existing projects, discuss the challenges, and learn from one another.

2. Strategic Planning for Integration and Deployment

The outreach and education activities discussed above transition into a planning process to develop a strategic plan to promote the integration and deployment of the necessary structures, systems and resources for the enhancement of emergency response to accidents and incidents in the Northern Shenandoah Valley.

As part of the planning process, public and private sector vendors are invited to showcase their products and services to the Steering Committee. The Committee members review, discuss, and evaluate various ITS-Public Safety applications in order to identify specific mid and long-range targets.

The members of the Steering Committee in the Northern Shenandoah Valley are intimately familiar with the political climate, available resources, and the will of the participating agencies to deploy ITS-Public Safety technologies. This knowledge base was an underlying factor in moving forward to identify the format, goals, objectives, rough cost estimates, and estimated timeline for developing a strategic plan for the deployment of ITS-Public Safety technologies.

3. Identify and encourage private sector investment in specific ITS-Public Safety deployments.

Rather than conclude this project with the development of a Strategic Deployment Plan, the Steering Committee identifed and attracted several private sector vendors to establish a test bed for their products and services in the Shenandoah Valley.

FROM VISION TO REALITY

Leaders in the Northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia are seeking additional funding to build interfaces between their Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems and to explore additional opportunities for data interoperability.

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