Jason is responsible for leading and providing vision for the Kansas City Scout project. He has traffic and operations engineering background, which is coupled with a charismatic personality. In general, Jason leads Scout's efforts in creating and sustaining valuable partnerships, developing policy and procedures with other traffic and law enforcement-oriented organizations and emergency service agencies that are, most often, first responders to freeway incidents. Those partnerships, policies, and operating procedures are integral to determining how Scout operators will respond to an array of incidents affecting you on the Scout freeway system. He is also responsible for the Motorist Assist Program in Kansas City.

Jason also participates and represents Scout on many regional and nationwide committees and transportation boards, such as: Destination Safe, Operation Impact, ITSA and ITS Heartland, MOVITE, KCITE, and many others.

Jason has been with the Scout project from the beginning of operations and was instrumental in hiring and training the entire operations team. His input was essential in creating all Scouts current policies and procedures. Overall, Jason is a leader in his field and has an energetic passionate approach to insisting that Scout be a world class Intelligent Transportation System.

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Jeremy has been with Scout since 2007, his main responsibility is to oversee the day to day operations of the Traffic Management Center. He manages the Scout staff and administers the scheduling of the Traffic System Operators and supervisors. Jeremy was instrumental in the development of the Scout Operator Training Handbook and is the lead person involved in training new Scout operators and establishing refresher courses for Sr. Traffic System Operators.

Along with Jason Sims, Manager of Kansas City Scout, he organized the first Kansas City Intelligent Transportation System Symposium. He also is involved in the preparation of monthly, quarterly and annual reports and assists in maintaining Tracker Measures for state mandated reporting of Scout information. Additionally Jeremy aids in the development and update of departmental manuals.

Jeremy possesses a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University. He has previous work experience in site development, storm water management design plans and storm water sewer layouts as well as bridge inspections.

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Gina is Scout’s Community Relations Coordinator, which means she is the voice for Kansas City Scout. If you'd like more information about Scout and how it affects the local commute contact Gina. In fact, she's your best bet if the information you need is for a mass audience, involves a deadline, an interview, or requires a presentation and quick turn around.

It's up to Gina to invite you in to Kansas City's world of traffic management. That means behind the scene tours of the high-tech operations center and periodic updates on how well Scout is performing. Gina will also handle media interviews, public requests, and provide a flow of information during major incidents on any of Scout's roadways. She is also responsible for the content you see on Scout’s website.

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Rusty retired from the Lenexa Police Department in 2006 after 30 years of service in law enforcement. He served nearly 24 years with Lenexa PD and was employed by the Kansas City Kansas and Shawnee Police Departments' prior to that. The majority of his career was devoted to the area of traffic safety.

Following his retirement, Rusty was the Law Enforcement Liaison for the Central Region at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In that role, he worked with law enforcement agencies and the highway safety offices in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.

Not a stranger to Kansas City Scout, Rusty participated in the initial planning meetings for the Scout system and in May of 2007, Rusty began a second career as the Incident Management Coordinator for KC Scout. In this capacity, he is responsible for promoting Traffic Incident Management in the Kansas City Metro area. Traffic Incident Management is the process of coordinating resources of different partnering agencies and private sector companies to identify, respond to, and clear traffic incidents as quickly as possible while protecting the safety of on-scene responders and the traveling public.

Shortly after moving into the position Rusty began meeting with Kansas City area Chiefs of Police and Sheriffs Associations to explain his new position and to enlist their assistance in implementing quick clearance procedures and improving incident response time to incidents in the metropolitan area. Rusty continues to work with emergency response personnel to make incident response safer, and to keep the roadways open and the traffic flowing, as a result of his efforts and hard work the Scout system has seen a thirty percent reduction in the amount of time it takes for incidents to clear.

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Mark rejoins the Scout staff as a project manager for intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Previously, from September 2001 to December 2003, he managed the construction/implementation of the initial 75+-mile Scout project while working on numerous other construction jobs as a Resident Engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Now, as Scout’s ITS Project Manager, Mark manages work projects that improve and/or expand the Scout system. Among other things, that means he has to make sure field elements -- such as closed-circuit television cameras, electronic message boards, and traffic sensors -- are included in future, mainstream construction projects during their design phase. By doing that Mark not only helps ensure expansion of the Scout system, he also ensures that subsequent ITS designs follow Scout's lead.

Mark is also responsible for overseeing the majority of Scout’s contracts – typically from beginning to end. Mark not only helps write the contracts he sees that they meet necessary guidelines and requirements. Mark’s also the guy who makes sure the contracts are followed and enforced after they’ve been implemented.

Mark's work requires him to work with MoDOT and KDOT authorities , the Federal Highway Administration, and a number of contractors and consulting firms hired under contract.

Mark is also responsible for identifying ways for Scout to share its traffic information with other entities -- interested parties such as commercial vehicle operators and public transit services, for example.

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Don is Kansas City Scout’s Information Technology Manager. That means he manages various technology that Scout uses to operate its traffic management system – technology such as video cameras, electronic message boards, microwave radar detectors and other sensors that provide information via a fiber-optic network to Scout’s Traffic Operations Center. That information is converted into digital data and uses technologies such as Ethernet, ATM and SONET to make its way to the operators in the TOC. Once the information reaches the TOC, it goes into an Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) software program. Scout operators use the information from the ATMS software to help them manage traffic along Scout’s 75+-mile system from their location in Lee’s Summit. If a message board needs to warn drivers about a closed lane, the operators can light up a message board on the affected route. Or, if operators need to verify the location of a highway accident, they can maneuver Scout’s cameras to find it. The ATMS will also prompt operators how to react and who to alert during specifically identified incidents.

It’s obvious that keeping Scout’s technology glitch-proof is goal number one, and that, by itself, keeps Don’s hands full.

Don also stays busy overseeing various IT-related contracts, testing, and product deliveries. He’s the guy to talk to if you’re a local traffic agency curious about whether Scout could integrate – or work in conjunction - with your traffic system, or if you’re just curious about the details of Scout’s operation.

Since Don’s long list of tasks has him on the go, you may find it easier to E-mail him than to reach him by phone.

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