NICE News Special Edition - Volume 3, Issue 4

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MEET JEFF HORWITZ, 9-1-1 SYSTEM AND RESOURCE MANAGER, ARLINGTON COUNTY ECC

Pictured: Jeff Horwitz, 9-1-1 System and Resource Manager, Arlington County (VA) Emergency Communications Center, Office of Emergency Management

Anyone who has had a lifetime career in public safety knows it's not your ordinary 9 to 5 job. For some, it means being available 24/7 - and wearing lots of different hats. Take Jeff Horwitz, for example. Jeff is the 9-1-1 System and Resource Manager for the Arlington County (VA) Emergency Communications Center (under the Office of Emergency Management). But he's also the County's VoIP 9-1-1 Manager, Wireless 9-1-1 Manager and ECC Telephone Coordinator. In his spare time, he oversees the emergency call lists database and the Reverse 9-1-1 system for the County, in addition to performing a host of other essential duties.

"It's not your regular job," Jeff explains. "There's so much spontaneity. But that's all part of the excitement."

Jeff's long-time work associate, Arlington County Radio System Manager Lisa Thompson, wrote to tell us about Jeff and the tremendous energy and "can-do" attitude he brings to his work every day. "He is the most dedicated, selfless, cheerful person you'd ever hope to meet," she raves. "His attention to detail is unlike anything I've ever seen. Because of him, we have everything we need to do our jobs, right at our fingertips. He insists that we call him 24/7 if we need anything. He's a dynamo every day and he consistently makes our 9-1-1 center better."

Jeff came up through the ranks at the Arlington County ECC as a call-taker/dispatcher, a position he held for close to a decade, before becoming an acting supervisor, and then moving on to his current position. "Emergency communications was a good fit for me - because as much as it may sound cliché, I've always liked helping people," explains Jeff. "People are most vulnerable when they're calling 9-1-1. It's not a get rich job but it's definitely a feel good job."

Now-a-days, although Jeff rarely finds himself interacting with the public, he still gets that same feel good sense from helping others. "Now I'm devoting my time and resources to helping the people (the call-takers and dispatchers) who help the public," he says. "If I can provide tools and resources to make their job easier, then they can do a better job responding to emergencies and helping the public."

A large part of Jeff's job involves resource management - which entails coordinating, managing and updating literally hundreds of ECC resources - everything from emergency call lists and electronic resource folders to "grab-and-go" bags (that contain emergency information for evacuations.) "The number one requirement of my job is to know my resources," says Jeff. "I don't need to know the answer to everything - but I do need to know where to go to get the answer. That requires a lot of pre-planning."

"Maintaining the 9-1-1 system and being responsible for properly maintaining our current list of resources is an overwhelming responsibility and yet Jeff takes his job in stride," says John Crawford, Commander of the Arlington County (VA) Emergency Communications Center. "We have all come to rely on Jeff's many areas of expertise, his specialized skills, and turn to him often for advice. He is one of the most enthusiastic professional employees we have in the ECC."

From a practical standpoint, resource management may seem all about the nitty-gritty details, but Jeff says on a higher level, it's really about preparing for the unexpected. "Most of the resources aren't needed on an everyday basis, but when you need them, they need to be accessible and they need to be accurate," he explains. "One of the biggest challenges we face in public safety is preparing for the unprecedented. Even though we deal with emergencies everyday, we never know what event or series of events we'll face." Horwitz knows this first-hand. When the Pentagon was attacked by terrorists, it was the Arlington County ECC that handled the 9-1-1 calls and dispatched first responders to the scene.

Resource management also entails keeping the 9-1-1 phone system up-to-date so calls can be seamlessly transferred to other jurisdictions when needed. "We're in a very dense urban area," explains Thompson. "In just 30 minutes by car, you can be in the District of Columbia or the state of Maryland. So our call-takers need to be able to transfer calls to other jurisdictions. Jeff's job is to make sure those transfers all happen flawlessly."

According to Thompson, Jeff has added thousands of contacts and phone numbers to the ECC's 9-1-1 call processing system. "People who've come to see our center and looked at our system have all said that it's the most robust system they've ever seen," Thompson claims. "The work that Jeff has done makes the call-takers' job a thousand times easier."

Horwitz is also the ECC's resident expert on VoIP and wireless. "Today, good old fashion landline technology is the most reliable for 9-1-1 but many people are porting over to other services," says Horwitz. "For example, last year, 58 percent of our 9-1-1 calls were wireless. VoIP is also a challenging technology for 9-1-1 centers because you can literally receive misdials from anywhere in the world," he adds. "If the consumer doesn't update their service provider with their new location, emergency calls can get routed to the wrong location."

Although Arlington County has an advanced integrated mapping system, the location of an emergency caller placing a 9-1-1 call through VoIP or wireless is not always straightforward or identifiable. Horwitz assists as needed with emergency call traces at all hours of the day and night. "Many of the problems we deal with are spontaneous and need immediate resolution," he notes. "For example, we may get second hand information from a suicide hot line. All they have is a ten digit phone number from the caller and they need us to find out who the provider is and then contact that provider to get subscriber or tower information to track the caller down."

To expedite this process, Horwitz has created a database of VoIP and wireless providers along with phone and fax numbers for after hour contact. "When you have a need to trace an emergency call, that's not the time to be searching for contact information. You need to have a good relationship with the providers and you need to plan ahead," he says. Toward this end, Horwitz also maintains trace forms that have been pre-approved by the providers' legal departments, with much of the data fields pre-entered, so all they need to do is complete the form and fax it. "We have everything ready to go and pre-approved," he says. "This cuts down the amount of time needed to get that information. Every second counts."

Horwitz has even been known to troubleshoot VoIP problems on a more personal level as was the case recently when he received an email from a citizen who was concerned about his VoIP phone service. "He was really concerned that if his family had to dial 9-1-1 that it wasn't going to work properly so I got involved and contacted the VoIP provider to ensure his call would be routed properly," says Horwitz. The grateful citizen sent Horwitz a thank you email that Horwitz posted on his wall. "When you get something like that from somebody it reaffirms why you chose this career. Because you can make a difference," he adds.

These days, in addition to his regular duties at the ECC, Horwitz is making a difference in another way as well - by lending his expertise to help ready the County's new 9-1-1 center. Horwitz's days now include a flurry of meetings and conference calls as the project draws closer to completion. The new center, he says, will be equipped with new state-of-the-art technology, including an elaborate video wall system. The current ECC will serve as the backup center for the new ECC, which is scheduled to go live this fall.

"The move itself is a million details," says Thompson. "A successful cutover is months and months and months of tedious work, and Jeff is playing an important role." It was Horwitz who lobbied to network the two centers together - another lesson learned from 9/11. "When we had the Pentagon incident on 9/11, we had dispatchers standing 3 deep at the consoles and they couldn't sit down," Thompson says. Connecting the main and backup ECCs will provide seamless operation and much needed capacity in the event of an unforeseen future large scale incident.

"I'm always trying to better our systems and develop them further, even in ways that our equipment providers might not be aware of," Horwitz explains. "At Arlington ECC, we're never complacent that we're doing enough for the public. We're always trying to find the next thing that can take us to a higher level of public safety."