NCJ Number
205614
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 71 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2004 Pages: 151-153
Date Published
April 2004
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the background and features of the the Capital Wireless Integrated Network (CapWIN), which was established to facilitate interdisciplinary and interjurisdictional communication among public safety agencies in the Washington metropolitan area.
Abstract
The creation of CapWIN was occasioned by a regional transportation catastrophe in 1998 when the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which spans the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia and supports more than 190,000 vehicles each day, was closed for more than 5 hours while police officers sought to restrain a man threatening a suicide jump from the bridge. Much of the traffic problem stemmed from the inability of emergency personnel on the scene to communicate with one another by radio to resolve the incident expeditiously. Subsequently, the Maryland State Highway Administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation initiated planning and activities that led to the creation of CapWIN. CapWIN will be among the first multistate transportation and public safety integrated wireless data networks in the United States. It is designed to provide firefighters, police officers, transportation officials, and other authorized emergency personnel with wireless access to multiple government data sources during critical incidents. This article details the steps taken to establish CapWIN for relevant agencies in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. The description of CapWIN encompasses its organizational structure and technology. Regarding the latter, the primary system components are field hardware such as notebook computers and handheld devices; the CapWIN client software; and the backend system that links the hardware, software, and external system interfaces together. First responders in the Washington area will soon have one more tool that will ensure a more efficient, coordinated response to multiagency, multijurisdictional events and facilitate faster incident resolution. Some lessons learned from the CapWIN experience are outlined.