Interoperable Communications Still Major Challenge Across America
By Yuriy Dyudyuk, USCM Intern
March 6, 2006
The House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Science, and Technology of the Committee on Homeland Security held the second of four hearings March 1, dedicated to examine the continuing challenges of achieving interoperable communications during times of emergency.
Entitled, “The State of Interoperable Communications: Perspectives from State and Local Government,” the overarching message from the subcommittee was whether a community is faced with a natural disaster, an attack or the daily operations of emergency personnel, the ability to communicate at all levels is essential to a prompt reaction.
The first hearing examined the role and ability of state troopers, fire volunteers, health care facility operators, and managers of critical infrastructure and high-risk targets to communicate during times of emergency communications.
Interoperable communications, the ability of emergency responders to communicate in real time, remains an unaccomplished goal despite the recommendations of the 1996 Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee (PSWAC) that called for the clearing of the congested radio spectrum. Only recently has Congress adopted, as part of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation to prioritize interoperable communication and funding for such systems by including provisions in the Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Reconciliation Act that set February 17, 2009 for the return of portions of the 700 Mhz spectrum to public safety.
Central to understanding the current state of interoperable communications, the subcommittee referenced the Conference of Mayors 2004, 192-City Interoperability Survey.
Specifically, the subcommittee highlighted the following key points from the Conference’s survey:
Cities with a major chemical plant, 97 percent report that they do not have interoperable capability between the chemical plant, police, fire and emergency medical service (EMS).
60 percent said they are not interoperable with the state emergency operations center.
The most glaring statistic in the Conference’s survey is the lack of funding at the local, state or federal level. Interoperable systems are expensive and raising the needed revenue is an enormous challenge for our nation’s cities:
- Cities under 100,000 reported an average of $4.7 million in interoperable funding is needed to achieve full interoperability.
- The average amount of interoperability funding needed to achieve full interoperability for cities of 100,001 to 400,000 is $5.4 million.
- Cities over 400,001 reported an average of $30 million is needed to achieve full interoperability.
This past October, the Conference, as a key element of their 2005 National Action Plan for Safety and Security in America’s Cities, urged Congress and the Administration to provide urgent funding to assist cities and their first responders achieve full interoperability.
At the first hearing February 15, Subcommittee Chairman David Reichert (WA) said, “I’d like to be blunt here. It is intolerable to me that our nation’s law enforcement, fire service, and emergency medical services personnel still confront many of the same emergency communication problems that I did as a rookie cop more than 34 years ago.”
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