Return of the Wild Ones
Communications Pre-Planning for Hollister Biker Festival
by Dave Larton
| Dave Larton is a dispatcher with the city of Gilroy, California. He is also the Vice President of the California Fire Chiefs Association, Communications Section (Northern Division) and on the training staff of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, Telecommunications Branch. |
| Illustrations: (select thumbnail to view detail image) |
 Working the late shift at Rally Communications in Hollister (from left): Lynette Madruga, a dispatcher with San Benito County; Ron Susztar, from the State Office of Emergency Services, Telecommunications; and Dennis Holland, a dispatcher for Monterey County. Preplanning for the large motorcycle festival called for extra staffing from outside comm centers. Dave Larton  Nicknamed
"Humphrey," this California OES Communications/ Command
unit provided a mobile ICS command post at the rally.Dave Larton  California
OES Law Enforcement Branch communications unit, towing an OASIS satellite
trailer, became an important remote communications unit for the 3-day
event.Dave Larton |
This article can be found on
page 26 of the Nov/Dec 1997
issue of 9-1-1 Magazine.
During the 4th of July weekend in 1947, a group of 4,000 motorcyclists descended on the small town of Hollister, California. By the time their 3-day brawl ended, many bikers had been arrested for public drunkenness and indecent exposure, some deputies had been locked into their own jail, and quite a few businesses had been damaged. This incident later became the inspiration for the 1953 Marlon Brando movie, The Wild Ones, and the name Harley Davidson soon became synonymous with outlaw biker gangs, rebellious youth, and disregard for society.
When biker groups announced their intention to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event by having another July 4th weekend convention in Hollister, San Benito County Sheriff Harvey Nyland was posed with a dilemma. San Benito is one of California's smallest counties, with less than 60 sworn police officers. Event organizers estimated that over a quarter of a million visitors would enter their jurisdiction for the event.
Several months before, Sheriff Nyland and Undersheriff Curtis Hill began meeting with neighboring agencies to determine emergency services needs for the event. Among those agencies contacted was the California Office of Emergency Services, Telecommunications Division. Coastal Region Coordinator Don Root began discussions with Nyland, Hill and San Benito County Communications Supervisor Barbara Craig on the county's communications needs.
It soon became apparent that reliable inter-agency communications would be a major issue for the event. Over 25 agencies from three counties would be participating, including the San Benito County Sheriff, Monterey County Sheriff, Morgan Hill Police, Hollister Police, State Fish and Game, State Parks and Recreation, San Jose Police, Los Gatos Police, Santa Clara County Sheriff, the California Highway Patrol, state and county probation and parole, the FBI, ATF, the State Office of Emergency Services and the state Department of Justice. Eleven additional paramedic ambulances would be brought in. Fire apparatus from around the area was put on standby. All of these agencies have different radios, different frequencies, and different procedures.
The geography of the area was an important factor as well. "The county has a mountainous terrain that makes communications difficult," said Root. "With several other organizations coming in on different frequencies and channels, it was imperative that we give them all the ability to communicate with each other."
Craig and Root realized that such an undertaking would require the services of an expanded communications staff. A Communications Incident Command structure was broken out of the original ICS model, and staff was recruited to assume Communications General Staff responsibilities.
Linda Olmstead, Communications Supervisor for the Monterey office of the California Highway Patrol, was brought on as Communications Operations Chief. Dave Larton was recruited from the City of Gilroy's Communications Center as Communications Plans Chief, while Root became Communications Logistics Chief. Frequent meetings between Craig and the Communications ICS staff began to assemble a workable Communications Plan for the many different agencies represented at the event.
A mobile communications command unit was brought in from the State Office of Emergency Services headquarters office in Sacramento. A mobile dispatching PSAP was set up in the indoor shooting range office of the Hollister Police Department, with four radio console positions programmed with law, EMS, fire and Highway Patrol frequencies. Multiple telephone trunks were installed by Pacific Bell to create another stand-alone dispatching center at Hollister PD, separate from the mobile unit and the main PSAP at the County communications facility. It was determined that San Benito County would handle all normal county radio and telephone traffic, while the mobile PSAP at Hollister PD would handle all event communications.
To facilitate communications, two OASIS (Operational Area Satellite Information System) satellite trailers were set up to supply additional telephone and data trunks to the State office of Emergency Services headquarters in Sacramento, and to the OES Regional Emergency Operations Center in Oakland. Approximately 200 OES cache Bendix-King and Midland programmable handheld VHF transceivers were brought in to Hollister from as far away as Sacramento and Riverside, and programmed with emergency services communications frequencies. The radios were issued to law and fire personnel to standardize communications channels and to put different mutual aid agencies on the same frequency for the event. Portable repeaters using generator power were set up in several locations throughout the county to accommodate the additional event frequencies. Six different venues throughout the county called for additional radio channels to augment San Benito County's already overworked system.
Barbara Craig recruited dispatchers from throughout the Central Coast to staff dispatch and call taker positions at both Hollister PD and San Benito County Communications. 24-hour-a-day event dispatching was required for four days, using dispatchers who had never worked together before, dispatching for agencies that they did not normally dispatch, using consoles that were unfamiliar to them.
"It presented a real challenge to dispatchers and supervisors," said Craig. "We had no idea of the potential problems that could arise from having 250,000 people come into the county all at once, so we felt the need to be ready for anything."
Pre-planning was paramount. "Once the event begins, it's virtually impossible to control it as it starts to create its own momentum," said OES's Don Root. "Pre-planning is absolutely critical to the incident, so everyone is basically on the same page before the event begins."
All in all, the 50th anniversary festival went smoothly. There were three traffic-related fatalities, but fewer than 100 arrests over the 4-day period. The visitors were, for the most part, well behaved, polite and had a good time with lots of food, beer and music. Incidents with law enforcement were relatively minor in nature. Although a law enforcement tactical team was standing by in case of emergency, they were not activated.
Will there be another biker celebration next year in Hollister? Feelings seemed to be mixed. The event cost the citizens of San Benito County over $300,000 in facilities, equipment and personnel overtime. Vendors also reported that, while visitors seemed to have a good time, they did not seem to spend a lot of money. It was estimated that only 52,000 visitors participated in the event, so cost recovery by San Benito County will certainly be a major consideration if there is another festival.
Inter-agency cooperation was essential to the successful completion of the event, and reliable emergency communications made the Hollister biker rally end on a positive note. If the bikers come to Hollister next year, San Benito County knows it will be ready.
