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Homeland Security
‘Funding Issues’ Doomed Nationwide Public-Safety Network, Says Chertoff
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By Austin Wright
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff expressed frustration that the federal government has yet to establish a national radio spectrum available to public-safety agencies during emergencies. The plan was proposed more than a decade ago and has been in the works since 2007.
Two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission reserved a 10-megahertz block of radio spectrum for public-safety use. Commission officials expected a private company to buy the space and build a radio network that would be leased to police forces, fire departments and other emergency-response agencies.
But the plan stalled last year when only one company bid for the space — at a price well below what the FCC was willing to accept. This spectrum, known as the D-block, remains unsold and unused.
“It is disappointing that we haven’t, for example, reached a decision on a dedicated spectrum and that we haven’t moved forward on basic interoperability in parts of the country,” Chertoff said Sept. 3 at a panel discussion in Washington on emergency communications. “It’s an issue of funding, and it has taken longer than people anticipated.”
A national public-safety radio spectrum would improve communications among emergency-response agencies when they work together to respond to catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Chertoff said. The federal government’s 9/11 Commission Report, released in 2004, said police departments in New York couldn’t coordinate response plans because the different departments lacked interoperable radio systems.
Chertoff, who served as secretary of homeland security from February 2005 to January 2009 and now works as a security and risk-management consultant, also urged public-safety agencies at the state level to develop compatible radio systems. He said the federal government should attach stipulations to grant money that would encourage states to install interoperability programs. That way, he said, emergency-response teams from different agencies would be able to communicate even if their radios operate on different frequencies.
“These investments save lives,” he said.
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