Johnson Controls links Cook County’s first responders to emergency communications network

Johnson Controls , Milwaukee, will begin the next phase of work on Cook County’s Project Shield, a communications system for first responders in municipalities across the greater Chicagoland metropolitan area. Cook County is the second most populous county in the United States with 128 municipalities and more than 5.3 million residents. The third phase of the project will create the nation’s largest regional broadband interoperable communications system for first responders. Initiated in 2003, Project Shield’s primary goal is to ensure the safety and security of Cook County residents by putting the tools to manage emergencies swiftly and efficiently directly in the hands of the first responders across Cook County.

The current, third phase of Project Shield extends the capability to an additional 80 communities within Cook County, including expanded capabilities in support of the Cook County Sheriff’s Radio Network. The exchange of video surveillance with the City of Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications enables an emergency alerting capability that allows a single message to broadcast to multiple mediums, including PCs, mobile data terminals, wireless handheld devices, cell phones, and pagers. Real-time video and data streams will be directly accessible in first responder vehicles, which will save time and provide first responders with

Phase Three of Project Shield will introduce the Cook County Communications Command Center (C5). C5 will integrate all regional and statewide public safety communications system for listen-only as well as two-way voice traffic with any other network programmed into the system. Additionally, C5 will enable interoperable push-to-talk capabilities between standard cell phones and PDA’s with public safety land-mobile radios.

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