'A failure to communicate' Within Emergency Services

'A failure to communicate' Within Emergency Services
The Hill Op-Ed
By Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT

"What we have here is a failure to communicate," a prison guard told Paul Newman in the 1967 classic "Cool Hand Luke." Our nation's first responders suffer the same problem. But this is no movie.

Three and a half years after the Sept. 11 attacks, too many police officers, firefighters, emergency medical workers and other first responders and preventers still lack the basic ability to communicate effectively with one another during emergencies. Our ability to respond to an array of catastrophes, including terrorist attacks, will be incomplete until we close these potentially fatal communications gaps. It will take money, an unprecedented level of cooperation and much perseverance. And it will take committed national leadership.

Terrorist attacks, natural disasters and hazardous-materials accidents are not neatly packaged events. They demand the attention of first responders from multiple towns, cities and counties and from local, state and federal agencies. In the digital age, first responders should be able to share voice, data and video communications to maximize their search, rescue and recovery skills. They should not have to juggle five different radios, as some do now, to keep in touch.

The Department of Homeland Security has identified what is known as "interoperability" - the ability for first responders in different agencies, jurisdictions and levels of government to communicate in real time, on demand, as key to meeting the preparedness goals the department has set for the nation. That's why the National Governors Association reported that achieving interoperability is the top priority of state homeland-security advisers.

Effective communication is essential to emergency response. More important, it saves lives. According to the Sept. 11 commission, 100 New York firefighters are believed to have died on Sept. 11 because of communications-technology problems. Information police helicopters gathered about the imminent collapse of the second World Trade Center tower never got to firefighters inside the building. The inability to communicate occurs on a daily basis when law enforcers chase suspected criminals across political boundary lines, when police hunt for missing children, or simply when an engine company goes to the aid of a neighboring fire department.

A number of hurdles stand in the way of achieving interoperability - including the high cost of communications equipment, insufficient radio bandwidth and the continuing reluctance of different agencies to cooperate with one another. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act, signed into law by President Bush in December, began to address some of these problems by requiring the federal government to establish a program to encourage interoperability at all levels of government.

But that was just a start. What is really needed is coordination and cooperation as we have never seen before among federal, state, local and tribal public-safety agencies, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will have to provide the national leadership to break down the cultural barriers and inherent rivalries that so often inhibit cooperation.

As the beginning of a solution, we will reintroduce legislation we introduced last year to improve interoperability among all first responders at all levels of government. This year's bill would authorize $3.3 billion over five years to help first responders purchase interoperable communications equipment. It would provide more resources and responsibility to the Homeland Security office charged with overseeing the drive toward interoperability and calls for a national strategy to achieve interoperability. It also would establish a competitive research and development program to examine new technologies and cost-effective ways to reach the goal.

We are not naive. Achieving interoperability is a monumental task. A nonpartisan task force of the Council on Foreign Relations recommended spending at least $6.8 billion over five years, and Homeland Security estimated the cost of modernizing equipment for 2.5 million public-safety first responders across the country at $40 billion. It is possible the job could be accomplished for much less if strong national leadership drives cooperation and adoption of smart new technology solutions. But there is no denying that a substantial commitment of resources will be needed.

If we don't address these communication problems, there can be little doubt that we will suffer unnecessary loss of life in the future, just as we have in the past. The brave men and women who risk their lives responding to emergencies of all kinds cannot protect the public - or themselves - if they cannot talk to one another at the disaster scene. If we are to be a fully prepared nation, we can no longer indulge the "failure to communicate."

Collins is chairwoman and Lieberman is ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

http://lieberman.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=238192