By Dana Bykowski
August 30, 2004

On August 6, 2004 the City of Ft. Wayne submitted a $4 million grant request to the U.S. Department of Justice for increased funding for communications technology in the event of a terrorist attack or emergency situation for the Ft. Wayne region. SentryPoints assisted the City of Ft. Wayne with the drafting of the proposal to the Department of Justice (DOJ). SentryPoints also worked very closely with local first responders and emergency management services to gather information for this particular project. SentryPoints conducted a demonstration of enhanced capabilities for local public safety officials prior to the grant submission to DOJ.

This grant will be awarded by DOJ in September of 2004 with funding to follow in the new federal fiscal year of October. This grant would give Ft. Wayne access to greater additional funding for communications equipment that would allow the city to communicate more effectively with state and local emergency officials in the event of a terror threat or national emergency.

"Ft. Wayne is focusing on the development of public/private partnerships, based upon trust, that reduce the region's vulnerability to terrorism," said Ft. Wayne Mayor Graham Richard.

SentryPoints, a Platinum Partner of the United States Conference of Mayors, was created to make cities safer and more secure for local officials and residents through a combination of innovative software and expert assessment and consulting services. SentryPoints, is uniquely qualified to help cities become safer and assess and prioritize areas of risk for municipalities and their surrounding geographic areas; integrate the operations of local fire, police, EMS, emergency management and municipal management; coordinate effectively with state and federal response agencies during an emergency; and establish a real-time common operating picture of crisis events and response efforts.

Ft. Wayne, the second largest city in Indiana, is also a member of the Indiana Alert Network (IAN) region of the Homeland Security Information Network — Critical Infrastructure (HSIN-CI) program. The goal of IAN and HSIN-CI is to maximize real-time sharing of situational information without delay and with immediate distribution of intelligence to those in the field who need to act on it.

For more information about SentryPoints, please contact Dana Bykowski at the U.S. Conference of Mayors

at (202) 861-6703 or dbykowski@usmayors.org.