Emergency Communications

Interoperability: A priority for Homeland Security?

By Sarah Laskow

Before the 9/11 attacks, interoperability was not high on Washington’s agenda. A little-noticed federal program had studied the issue, recommending a handful of “best practices,” and the few bureaucrats who took an interest in the problem worked without much encouragement.

“My boss said, ‘If that’s what you want to work on — interoper … whatever it is — go ahead,’” recalls David Boyd, who now heads a Department of Homeland Security division focused on improving communications. “It was at a meeting three years later that he finally said, ‘I get it. This is kind of important.’”

The 2001 terrorist attacks changed the rhetoric dramatically. Since 9/11, DHS officials and members of Congress who focus on homeland security have repeatedly assured first responders that interoperability ranks high on their list of priorities. But the budgets and staffing of the programs designed to focus on the issue tell an entirely different story. For most of the past eight years, the federal government’s interoperability initiatives have been under-funded, sparsely staffed, and buried in layers of bureaucracy.

Emergency Communications

Sprint’s real fantasy: Firefighters achieving interoperability

By Sarah Laskow

In one of its new commercials, Sprint Nextel cheekily imagines how firefighters might use the company’s new walkie-talkies to run Congress. Riffing on the fantasy, Slate complains about the sort of laws this process might lead to. But for PaperTrail, the commercial recalled a hard reality: Any gathering of firefighters from different jurisdictions, legislatively minded or not, likely wouldn’t be able to use their radios to communicate.