Greater Austin Crime Commission
Public safety is a community concern
February 8, 2012
Public Safety Network Still Not There
One of the biggest problems with public safety in America is communication...especially during emergencies and disasters. During the tragedies of September 11, 2001, firefighters and police officers were unable to communicate with each other. This inability to communicate caused much unnecessary difficulty in keeping order and controlling the situation. That was nine years ago. Public safety officers ran into the same problems years later during Hurricane Katrina. The absence of a public safety network still exists today.
"Despite $7 billion in federal grants and other spending over the last seven years to improve the ability of public safety departments to talk to one another, most experts in such communications say that it will be years, if ever, before a single nationwide public safety radio system becomes a reality."
Advocates of public safety groups, along with some members of Congress, argue that public safety officials need a bigger amount of broadband spectrum in order to make sure that they have sufficient network capacity during an emergency.
On the other side of the issue, officials from the FCC and others believe that the best method to pay for such an expensive and extensive system is to sell airwaves to companies that will build a network, but make sure that it will be available for public safety agencies during emergency situations.
Neither side seems to be budging, so until a compromise is struck, a public safety network may be out of the question for many more years to come.
To view the NYT article on the issue, follow this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/business/07rescue.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2
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