[W1SMH] Responder turf wars delay disaster response

[EnviroCop1 at aol.com]

Security Chief: Responder turf wars delay disaster  response

WASHINGTON- Unless police, firefighters and other  emergency responders end 
turf wars and talk to each other during disasters,  billions of dollars spent 
on high-tech communication systems will go to waste,  Homeland Security 
Secretary Michael Chertoff said Monday.

Chertoff  said the value of the technology provided through federal grants 
has been  diminished by local and state disagreements over control of the 
equipment.
 
"What these various turf issues mean _ or these lack of priority issues  mean 
_ is that first responders, even if they're given the tools, don't have the  
availability to use these tools to share vital information," Chertoff said. 
"And  therefore lives and property are put at risk."
 
Chertoff said his department has provided $2.1 billion over the last three  
years to buy the equipment and train emergency responders to use it. "I've  
actually seen this stuff work," he told a communications conference.
 
But police and fire officials said those funds only scratch the surface of  
what's needed nationwide.
 
Most emergency workers _ like police, firefighters, and hospital staff _ do  
not talk to each other on the same radio frequency, hobbling a fast and  
coordinated response. Those communications gaps proved fatal during the Sept.  11, 
2001, terror attacks, when responders from different agencies at the World  
Trade Center in New York were unable to coordinate rescues _ or receive  
information that could have saved their own lives.
 
In a report card issued last December, members of the former 9/11  Commission 
that investigated government missteps leading to the attacks gave a  failing 
grade to efforts to hook up emergency responders. "It is scandalous that  
police and firefighters in large cities still cannot communicate reliably in a  
major crisis," the commission members concluded.
 
Officials representing U.S. police and fire departments acknowledged some  
turf squabbles over the communication systems _ including which responders  
should have access to it, what codes should be used and who, overall, would be  
responsible in disasters with overlapping authorities.
 
But they said the costs of getting the technology in hand still far exceed  
what's been provided.
 
"The price tag to get them all to interoperability _ down at the line level  
where a cop can talk to EMS directly _ is going to be vastly more expensive,"  
said Joseph G. Estey, police chief in Hartford, Vt., and immediate past  
president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
 
He said $2.1 billion "does not even begin to address it on the scale that  it 
needs to be addressed."
 
So far, public safety officials in 10 urban areas have reached what  Homeland 
Security called a minimum level of connected communications. That  level, 
however, only ensures that local response commanders coordinate with each  other 
within an hour after a disaster or other emergency strikes.
 
Those cities are: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Jersey City, Los Angeles,  Miami, 
New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington and its surrounding  
suburbs.
 
Though they have received the bulk of the federal funding available,  
connecting responders in large cities is far more difficult than in rural areas  or 
small towns, said Eric Lamar, a 23-year veteran of the Fairfax County, Va.,  
fire department and communications expert with the International Association of  
Fire Fighters.
 
He said it makes more sense to ensure that firefighters from different  
agencies, or police officers from nearby jurisdictions, can talk to each other  
before putting everyone on the same radio frequency.
 
"Here, in large metropolitan areas, you could easily have four to five fire  
departments, four to five law enforcement agencies and a series of other  
government offices" responding to an emergency, Lamar said. "Sorting that out in  
a way that would be effective would really be quite a challenge. There's 
enough  problems in making sure that four to five fire departments can talk to each 
 other _ forget anybody else."
 
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