Published in Radio Resource Magazine By Sandra Wendelken March 19, 2014 The New Jersey State Police (NJSP) and other public-safety officials in New Jersey and New York coordinated a successful weeklong regional communications effort around Super Bowl XLVIII, which included geographic areas far beyond where the actual football game was played. Unlike the Denver Broncos’ lack of success during the Feb. 2 game, a 43 – 8 rout by the Seattle Seahawks, public-safety communications went well with only two system busies around 11 a.m. the day of the game. NJSP was appointed the lead law enforcement agency for the Super Bowl, held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. “Our mission statement was to ensure public safety was provided the highest level of interoperability and situational awareness possible,” said Capt. David Brady, chief of NJSP Communications Bureau. “We tried to use all the technology we have, and we tried to use all the best practices we could.” The event brought together a large group of technical and operational experts who began planning two years before the game. The agencies made significant investments in infrastructure at the county, state and regionals levels. The two football teams arrived a week before the game, and communications operations didn’t end until the teams left late on the afternoon of Feb. 3. Public-safety agencies had to secure the hotels where the teams stayed, in addition to National Football League (NFL) events in New York City, practice fields in Jersey City, MetLife Stadium and surrounding complex, as well as the transportation and mass transit corridors. The New York Police Department (NYPD) command center at 1 Police Plaza and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s joint operations intelligence center in Newark, N.J., were also highly engaged. The various command centers were tied together with interoperability software from Mutualink and Haystax Technology. The state operates a 700/800 MHz Project 25 (P25) network supplied by Motorola Solutions. NJSP handed out as many as 600 to 700 cache radios for outside users to operate on its network. The system had about 1,500 users the day of the game. Read the full article on RRMediaGroup.com >