Subject: [NEXTEL-1] DHS helps localities use tech

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 13:58:24 -0400

DHS helps localities use tech
BY Dibya Sarkar
April 7, 2004

In the next several weeks, the Homeland Security Department will unveil
a new initiative to implement technologies and systems into local
communities and regions.

With strong cooperation from local and regional jurisdictions, DHS
officials will help the transition and integration of advanced
technologies into those communities from a bottom-up approach rather
than a top-down approach, said Nancy Suski, director of emergency
preparedness and response within DHS's Science and Technology
Directorate.

The department will test the Safe Cities initiative in a select number
of communities that have not been finalized yet because it's still going
through internal vetting, she said. Her division is also working with
the Federal Emergency Management Administration, DHS' Office for
Domestic Preparedness, DHS' Office of State and Local Coordination and
several state and local communities.

Suski said they will work with public and private stakeholders within a
community or region not only to develop horizontal integration but also
vertical integration to reach out to state and federal officials.

"The communities that we'll be working with will undoubtedly have issues
of interoperability," she said last week during a homeland security
conference sponsored by Equity International Inc. "We'll focus on
working together so when they call on their mutual aid agreements and
their neighboring cities show up to help, they can communicate with one
another."

She also said it's important to ensure these systems are sustainable and
can be operated and maintained during a long period of time in the
community. Training programs and the type of infrastructure should also
be considered so they can accommodate the next generation of equipment,
she added.

Safe Cities is different from other programs because these are
technologies that have already been tested. "It's not a test bed," Suski
said. "It's really ready for an operational testing in real-world
settings to become a part of the operational infrastructure. It looks at
the human interfaces that are required" and how it contributes to the
decision-making process.

It's also not technology specific. "I work very closely with my other
portfolio managers that are helping me on just the bio threat or just
the [chemical] threat or the [radiation] threat," she added. "How do all
those systems that each of those portfolios are working on come together
into a construct that really is going to help a community be protected
and be ready to respond in the event a catastrophe actually occurred."

http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2004/0405/web-safecities-04-07-04.asp

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