Federal policy towards emergency responder interoperability : a path forward

Emergency responders have suffered from a lack of cross-agency radio communications for the past three decades. After numerous firefighters died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, partially due to a lack of interoperability with police officers on the scene, the federal government began implementing policies, programs, and funding to improve interoperability amongst state and local first responders. This thesis explores the scope and the effectiveness of many of the federal efforts towards interoperability that have occurred between 2001 and 2006. Since 2001, the federal government has made progress in a number of areas relating to the national interoperability of first responders. These include: creating and reorganizing interoperability programs, such as SAFECOM within DHS; promoting open standards for equipment manufacturers; freeing radio spectrum for first responder use; and partially funding the purchase of new, interoperable communication equipment through grant programs and national initiatives. However, these efforts were slow to start, with the majority of progress only occurring within the past two years. Furthermore, the government has not set broad interoperability goals, and there are continuing questions about the amount of financial support that the government has offered and will continue to offer towards the problem.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Technology and Policy Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Weir, Tristan John

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lawrence McCray.

• Technology and Policy Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34534

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34534