Subject: [NEXTEL-1] First-responder communications vulnerable

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 17:38:49 -0400

First-responder communications vulnerable
By Megan Cotten
United Press International

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2004

 (UPI)

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, exposed major vulnerabilities
in
U.S. communications systems. First responders with incompatible radios
could not communicate, cell-phone networks collapsed, and the New York
Stock Exchange shut down.

"Almost three years later, the critical telecommunication networks first
responders bank on every day to save lives remain fragmented and
vulnerable," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., chairman of the
National
Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations Subcommittee of
the
House Government Reform Committee, during a hearing Tuesday.

The hearing was called to look at problems in government planning and
the
barriers created by incompatible communications equipment among
emergency
safety agencies.

There are more than 2.5 million first responders -- police officers,
fire
fighters, emergency medical personnel, public-health officials and
others -- within more than 50,000 public-safety organizations
nationwide,
according to the Wireless Public Safety Interoperable Communications
Program housed within the Department of Homeland Security.

Volunteers constitute 85 percent of fire personnel, and nearly as many
emergency management technicians are volunteers with elected leadership.

An array of technologies, equipment types and spectrum bands are used by
various agencies, making communication between agencies difficult during
times of crisis.

On Sept. 11, "More than 100 firefighters likely never heard evacuation
orders to leave the north tower, although police officers in the same
structure were able to escape," said Capt. Glenn Corbett of the Waldick,
N.J., Fire Department, who is also a professor at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice. "Lack of radio interoperability and separate command
structures of New York's fire and police departments stood in the way of
the survival of these firefighters."

In response, the Federal Communications Commission has designated
certain
channels in the public-safety bands specifically for interoperability.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2005, the FCC will require newly certified
public-safety
mobile radio units to have the capacity for interoperability.

But a lack of compatible technologies is not the only problem slowing
communications improvements -- it is a lack of planning, said John
Muleta,
chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.

"The planning that's done today is very local," Muleta said. If plans
were
made on a larger scale to coordinate efforts, "I would say that would be
80
percent of the issue."

William Jenkins Jr., director of homeland security and justice at the
Government Accountability Office, agreed. "The fundamental barrier to
effectively addressing wireless-interoperability problems for public
safety
has been the lack of effective, collaborative, interdisciplinary and
intergovernmental cooperation and planning," he said.

Agencies need to be brought together so that they agree on plans of
action
and agree to work together in times of crisis, Jenkins said.

But whose responsibility it is to bring the agencies together isn't
clear.
When Shays asked Jenkins who was in charge of bringing agencies to the
discussion table, Jenkins said it was the job of the state and federal
governments -- but when pressed by Shays, he said he didn't feel it was
defined.

It should be the job of the Homeland Security Department, said Shays,
"and
I think it's a classic example of how everybody's in charge and
therefore
nobody is."

The consensus of the panel was that regardless of whatever needs to be
done, it would be an arduous process.

"It's not going to happen in one or two or three years," said David
Boyd,
program director of SAFECOM, a Homeland Security program designed to
improve wireless communications among federal, state and local
public-safety agencies.

Muleta said that in five years, he would be satisfied if organizations
were
using the same system to respond to emergencies with agreed-upon plans
of
action.

"I would consider it a failure," said Shays, if in five years
organizations
were still in planning phases.

But the panel, partially comprised of top Homeland Security officials,
seemed to have the same dismal outlook when forecasting the timeline for
improvement.

There are many holes in the road to progress, and a lack of guidance
from
the federal government is one of them, said Jenkins.

First, "there needs to be a staple guideline for equipment," said Glen
Nash, a senior telecommunications engineer for the California Department
of
General Services.

"The first people on the scene are often the volunteer firefighters who
do
not have the funds to buy new equipment every three years."

And although agencies can apply for grants from the federal government,
the
current wireless interoperable communications capabilities of first
responders nationwide have not been determined, Jenkins said.

The Department of Homeland Security intends to carry out a nationwide
survey to gather this information by 2005, but it is still researching
on
how best to conduct it.

Second, target dates need to be set for accomplishing tasks, said
Jenkins.
"For example, if an agency doesn't have a plan, then it doesn't get a
grant."

The FCC recognized the importance of state leadership and concluded that
states should manage the public-safety interoperability channels in the
700
MHz communications spectrum.

It should be noted, however, that states are not required to develop
interoperability plans, and there is no clear guidance on what plans
should
be included even if they do.

The Department of Homeland Security recently created the Office of
Interoperability and Compatibility, which it expects to be fully
established by November.

Source: United Press International
Copyright © 2001-2004 United Press International
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040720-014048-2234r

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