Lawmaker calls for quicker communications upgrades

The head of a House panel on national security on Tuesday said federal and state officials are moving too slowly to ensure that "first responders" to emergencies have communications systems that enable them to talk to each other.

"I think the Department of Homeland Security has to exert authority," said Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays, chairman of the House Government Reform National Security Subcommittee. "The FCC's got to make some huge decisions [about interoperability of communications equipment]. Every year they wait, it's going to be more costly."

At issue is the radio and other communications devices that police, fire and rescue workers rely upon for coordination during crises. During the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, poor communication cost the lives of more than 100 firefighters in the World Trade Center towers, witnesses told the subcommittee.

Shays said uncoordinated governmental planning and funding cycles, crowded spectrum, and a lack of bandwidth and standards contribute to the problems.

In a new report on first responders, the Government Accountability Office concluded that the main barrier to resolving wireless interoperability "has been the lack of effective, collaborative, interdisciplinary and intergovernmental cooperation and planning."

When Shays asked the first panel of witnesses to predict what progress might be made on interoperability within five years, he was not pleased with the answers. "I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy," FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief John Muleta said. "In five years, we'll have a lot of success on the planning level." Other witnesses echoed his remarks.

"It's got to be more than just planning in five years," Shays responded. "I don't think the glass would be half full. It would be one-quarter full."

Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., expressed concern that insufficient progress since the 2001 attacks has been made in improving safety communications in New York City, which she called a top target. "The radios that didn't work on 9/11 still don't work," she said.

Professor Glenn Corbett of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York said the city has made some progress on improving interoperability among police and fire officials but added that problems persist. For example, the fire department cannot communicate in much of the subway system, although plans are in place to improve the situation.

Problems also persist at the local level. First responders in Suffolk County, N.Y., which has invested $50 million in communications systems since 1993, still cannot communicate with their counterparts in nearby Nassau County during emergencies, said William Gardner, supervisor of the Suffolk County Police Department.

Other witnesses noted that many localities do not have the budgets for new technology and rely on older equipment, which must be made compatible with newer systems.