TOPICS
TOPICS
DHS says responders resistant to communications sharing
A top Homeland Security Department official told a House panel that the agency has made significant progress toward providing first responders with interoperable radio technology but said "culture" was part of the problem.
Testifying before the House Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee, Jay Cohen, the department's undersecretary for science and technology, said first responders were not always enthusiastic about sharing communications.
"We have some communities where the police chief only wants the police to talk to him ...," Cohen said. To a large extent, "technology is not the problem with interoperability ... it's the culture," he said. Cohen said that although the department was preparing to test a "phone-home" interoperable system for first responders, the jury was out on whether it would be widely accepted.
The undersecretary said later that the department had signed a contract with Thales Communications, Inc., to test an interoperable radio system developed by the company. "It's designed for first responders; it's agile," Cohen said.
He said the Thales radios were similar to ones used by the military. "They cost $10,000 each," he said. "We are hoping to get that down to maybe $1,000."
Cohen said the reluctance of police personnel to let other first responders listen in on their communications was understandable in view of the "arrest-and-convict" nature of law enforcement operations. "There are police who do not want to share real-time criminal intelligence with ambulance crews," he said.
The need for promoting interoperable communications systems for first responders was dramatically demonstrated on Sept. 11, 2001, when many of the firefighters in New York's World Trade Center's North Tower failed to receive an emergency evacuation order broadcast over police radio shortly before the building collapsed. An estimated 120 firefighters died in the collapse of the tower.
COMMENTS
- I am still waiting for DHS/ICE to respond to my question about my husband detailed to the WTC 9/11 clean up to be ignored as both a federal police officer, Vietnam Veteran and no worker's compensation, no public safety officers compensation, no respect, no honor and not one phone call, not one report submitted, not one federal worker accountable in any WTC statistical data and used the statute of limitations to their advantate by not responding, acknowledging and/or according to legislation, homeland security act of 2002, AO-06-4, Person protective equipment, OSHA, DOL, DOJ and compensated illegal immigrants $4.2 million for their loved ones who died as a result from the WTC dust? Beth Posted December 25, 2008 12:27 AM
- Richard, the article was correct. While the FDNY lost a total of 343 members on 9/11, the article also points out that 120 of them died in the collapse of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, after an evacuation order had gone out over the radio. And Jim, well said, as always! Bob Castioni Posted April 17, 2008 8:09 PM
- Perhaps the problem isn't the culture of the respective agencies? Perhaps the real problem is that these agencies recognize that MUCH of the leadership in DHS couldn't find sand on the beach at low tide. They have seen the rampant ineptitude, mismanagement, and political opportunism to be found at the DHS. Don't you think the Hurricane Katrina response told them something? Don't you think that they see the cost overruns and system failures in the federal government's design and contracting process? WHY ON EARTH would they want to be subject to that? concerned citizen Posted April 7, 2008 10:24 PM
