Police and Fire Chiefs Demand Better Emergency Communications
February 17, 2005
Leaders representing emergency responders charge that Federal Communications Commission has dragged heels for two years, failing to resolve emergency communication problem. According to a story in the February issue of Anvil Publishers’ Crisis Counselor newsletter, fire and police leaders are charging the Federal Communications Commission with negligence in its failure to remedy emergency radio communication problems that threaten the lives of emergency responders and the people they seek to help. The problem centers on commercial wireless interference in the 800 MHz emergency response radio band. The leaders charge the interference puts at risk the lives of the responders and the people they seek to protect.
According to Crisis Counselor newsletter editor Noel L. Griese, “Interference incidents have reportedly reached a critical level with nearly 1,000 cases reported in more than 30 states – and the problem continues to grow.” Griese, who is the author of three books on crisis communication, is critical of the FCC inertia. “It’s just plain inexcusable at a time when the nation is involved in a War on Terror that requires peak efficiency from emergency responders that this easily resolved problem continues to threaten public safety,” he said. Frustrated and fed up with the lack of action from the FCC, leaders of the nation's top public safety organizations held a news conference in the Zenger Room of the National Press Club in Washington on Jan. 29, 2005 in a last-ditch effort to publicize the problem and to embarrass the agency into dealing with the problem.
Participating in the news conference were Chief Ernest Mitchell, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs; Vincent Stile, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International; Chief (Ret.) Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Communications & Technology Committee, International Association of Chiefs of Police; Thomas Faust, executive director, National Sheriffs' Association; Thomas Frazier, executive director, Major Cities Chiefs; and members of the national police and fire community The media event was staged to announce a letter to President George W. Bush from the public safety leaders who represent first responders nationwide. The emergency response leaders charge that the FCC has been aware of the problem for nearly two years, but has been sidetracked by corporate interests. They called on the President to support a Consensus Plan with broad-based public safety support that would eliminate the radio interference plaguing first responders.
Public safety organizations have been struggling for months with interference caused by the intermingling of licensing in the 800 MHz spectrum with commercial wireless operators. The Consensus Plan, developed by public safety organizations along with private wireless companies, proposes to realign the 800 MHz spectrum to give public safety its own dedicated portion of bandwidth to operate free from interference. The Plan would not impose any cost on public safety agencies, municipalities, or the American taxpayer.
