Plans for national emergency radio system 'languish' in Congress

[kenisned]

The article references September 11th and the inability for PD and FD to have common comms.

That was not a national problem, that was a NYC problem. A well known condition that was allowed to persist for a long, long time.

Can it be addressed? Sure, of course. I would start with 1 command post for the incident. Have 1 cop and 1 firefighter stand next to each other at the command post. Done.

There are other simpler ways, that won't cost billions. The proper use of the Interop channels would go a long way.

 

[chrislxq]

We can communicate with a Space Shuttle, an Airplane many miles in another city, and a Rail Train in another State, but we can't plan a radio system with Interop for Public Safety. We have enough frequencies to make it work. Let's be smart and use what we have, not 700/800. Think smart and simple in these times.

 

[902]

The only certainty in the last 10 years is that "9/11" has been co-opted to everyone's personal, political, and corporate agenda.

• "INTEROPERABILITY" IS SECONDARY TO "OPERABILITY." (I am shouting as loud as I can). The root of the issue was a catastrophic failure of an already limited (single voice path) communications system. If your "operable" system was inadequate for any reason, making it "interoperable" would not make it any more adequate and could potentially impair operations.
• "INTEROPERABILITY" HAS MORE OF A PSYCHO-SOCIAL COMPONENT THAN TECHNICAL. You throw enough money at something and it can happen. Nonetheless, you cannot force its use if the organizations have no unity of command. If agency A feels no need to coordinate with agency B, no amount of technology will help.
• People need to work within the incident management structure. Heaping everyone onto one channel (as the paradigm of "interoperability" suggests) would create a charlie-foxtrot of galactic proportions. In some alternate reality somewhere, where everyone went home that night, a stood up unified command environment with properly engineered and functioning OPERABLE radio systems may have sent critical traffic to each division through its liaisons.
• We have yet to consider how much information is TOO MUCH information in a command and control environment. If we had the bandwidth to do it (and some of the talking heads of industry suggest this would be useful), what would the incident commander do with streaming video from cams embedded into PPE? Which cam out of maybe 4,000 at a high-impact incident has the relevant information? Would such technology create synergy or impugn decision making by company officers who are hands-on in the (dirt)? Would unfiltered raw data create tunnel vision distracting toward the most spectacular rather than creating a global "big picture?"
• And, assuming "Public Safety Tel" builds out, what happens when infrastructure is physically affected or the system is impaired? None of the proposed devices, kept to mass-produced commonly available chipsets to insure "low cost" (add $2,000 to anything that's branded "public safety," especially if grant funds can be applied to it) include direct or non-infrastructure dependent technology. What's the solution for that? Carry FRS radios to talk "off network" (assuming the UHF spectrum containing FRS is not auctioned off to satisfy the voracious appetite for more broadband carriers and increased revenues)? Remember bullet point 1 above - the root issue was an unanticipated CATASTROPHIC FAILURE.

At the end of the day, this should be less about throwing money at ventures (no doubt there's a lot of money at stake) - and more about research and development toward practical tools that help people get through the event as safely as possible and go home at the end of their tours.

 

[MtnBiker2005]

Law enforcement still unable to communicate ten years after 9/11 - Published 7 September 2011
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/law-enforcement-still-unable-communicate-ten-years-after-911

 

[n0lqt]

Yes, we can communicate with ONE space shuttle in orbit. We can communicate with aircraft in the air all over the country, and yes, the BNSF dispatcher in Chicago can communicate with his trains 400 miles down the track.

NO, we cannot however communicate with one hundred thousand space shuttles in low earth orbit, lunar orbit, L5, in transit to Mars, and on the tarmac at Kennedy all at the same time with one system (TRDRS still doesn't work well after 25 years)

We cannot communicate with an aircraft on the ground in Dallas from New York Center traffic control unless the ATC just happens to know the pilot’s cellphone number.

UP dispatchers in Omaha have no way of communicating to a BART train motorman in in the Bay Area.

Unfortunately, what most people forgot when they use the cell phone system as their example is that the cell phone tower system has been evolving with the sole idea of inter-system communications for over 40 years and with an investment of several hundred BILLION dollars (more likely even into the trillions of dollars)

The problem with "one size fits all" solutions, is that eventually, you are going to run into the 400 pound fat lady standing next to Twiggy. "They just ain't going to be able to wear each other’s tube top...." One single radio system solution for all departments/agencies simply cannot work. What would work is to let Bertha buy her own clothes and let Twiggy buy her own clothes, but be sure the two of them talk before going shopping so that they don't buy clashing colors.....

Some areas have done this and their interop systems actually work. Others, like NYC, have not and we see what results. NYC's biggest problem is the "This is my castle, and I don't have to ask anyone’s opinion on what color I paint it," attitude between agencies. Port Authority doesn't want to play nice with Fire. Fire doesn't want to play nice with Emergency Management. The Feds don't want to play nice with anybody....

Here's where the politicos can actually do some good. WITHOUT allowing the individual agencies to have over-ride, appoint a panel of non-radio industry, non-management people (read that field personnel) whose sole responsibility and authority is to decide how these disparate groups can talk to each other without having to have a signed permission slip in triplicate from the agency head. Accept that panel’s report without making changes to benefit the ex-brother-in-law’s radio business, and then implement it along-side the current systems. [/soap-box mode=off]