Case Study

iXP Creates Public Safety Communications Master Plan for Buckeye, Arizona

Buckeye, Arizona

Sector: Government
Focus: Strategic Planning Consulting/Program Management

Situation

The Town of Buckeye is a small community poised for phenomenal growth. With over 600 square miles in their city planning area, this once rural farming area west of Phoenix will explode from its current 35,000 population to more than 600,000 in the next 20 years. To manage this explosive growth, Buckeye officials realized that they needed to establish well-founded long-range plans and strategies for a wide range of municipal services, including the public safety services provided by their police and fire departments.

Critical Issue

The Town of Buckeye recognized that a public safety communications infrastructure was critical to their current and future ability to deliver service to their community. This infrastructure needed to be affordable in the early years of the Town’s growth but also scaleable to allow for the explosive growth in the future.

Reasons

Recognizing that a well-planned and expandable public safety communications infrastructure was crucial to their long-term success, Buckeye turned to iXP to develop a public safety communications master plan to guide their future funding, design, implementation and operations processes.

Vision

XP worked with the Police and Fire Departments to establish a clear vision for the current and future service delivery demands Buckeye faces and the communications functionality they would need to meet these demands. This vision was constructed so there was a clear understanding of the operational, governance, technology and facility impacts that could be anticipated as the Town moved through the significant growth they were facing.

iXP Provided

iXP conducted a thorough review of the current communications environment in use by the Police and Fire departments, including the operations of the Police Department’s dispatch center. Research was also conducted on public safety communications systems in use by neighboring agencies, and critical interoperability needs were identified. Background material was also compiled on emerging technologies and regulatory constraints that could influence the future communications environments utilized by the Town.

Results

The extensive review and research was then synthesized against the growth projections and operational needs of the Police and Fire departments to provide a communications master plan that can guide the implementation and staffing of a new Communications Center and the development of the voice/data radio infrastructures needed to meet the Town’s requirements in the years ahead. This plan provided a roadmap for the operational, technology, facility and fiscal activities that would need to be accomplished as the Town transitioned from its rural farming past to its suburban city future. iXP is also assisting in the development of radio spectrum licensing documentation and will soon be engaging in support of the overall implementation of the master plan’s vision.