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Is Maryland prepared for a disaster?
Progress slow toward emergency radio systems
that can talk to each other
BY CARLA CORREA
Capital News Service
More than two years after
the Sept. 11 attacks, communications between emergency personnel
are still hindered by incompatible equipment and insufficient
radio frequencies, officials told a congressional hearing
Thursday.
Lawmakers and emergency officials at the hearing on "first-responder
interoperability" said a lack of funds and a lack of communication
between governments has kept federal, state, and local agencies
from building compatible systems as quickly as they should.
But they also said that the problem is not likely to be solved
by throwing billions of dollars at communities for expensive,
new equipment, if there is no guarantee that all jurisdictions
get compatible, working equipment. Local and federal officials
still do not have a concrete plan to improve the systems,
they said.
"There are no perfect national solutions to interoperability,"
Montgomery County Council member Marilyn Praisner said at
the hearing.
"The nuances of each region are too complex for a one-size-fits-all
approach."
Praisner, chairwoman of the National Association of Counties'
Telecommunications and Technology Committee, said heavy commercial
use of radio bandwidth blocks some public safety officials
from using their radio systems–crucial pieces of equipment
for emergencies ranging from car accidents to terrorist attacks.
For example, she said, Anne Arundel County has immense problems
with its public safety radio system, which operates on the
800-megahertz band. Emergency personnel in the county have
trouble using portable receivers near commercial radio antenna
sites that also operate on that same bandwidth.
Lawmakers said one option would be for the Federal Communications
Commission to allocate bandwidth for public safety purposes
only. But different jurisdictions use different radio systems,
so transition would be difficult.
George Ake, the coordinator of the Capital Wireless Integrated
Network, said it would be hard to convince agencies and municipalities
to switch after they have already spent money to update emergency
communication equipment on an existing band. Ake, who oversees
a project to implement a single transportation and public
safety network in the Washington, DC, region, said governments
are not likely to simply throw their current system away and
invest in a new one.
Praisner, who is also chairwoman of a government alliance
called TeleCommUnity, said another problem is that not enough
local elected officials are at the bargaining tables. That
means they may not know what to spend money on.
Lawmakers agreed that the government should set up a timetable
for interoperability, allocate more resources for first responders,
and free up enough of the airwaves so that emergency communication
is not interrupted.
"Somalia and Chad two years from now will have better interoperability
"if action is not taken, said Rep. William J. Janklow, D-S.D.
"What we want to do here is get down to the bottom line,"
said Rep. C. A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, D-Cockeysville. "We
need to be able to communicate beyond our own region and states.
Crime has no geographical boundaries."
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