Are you familiar with the SAFECOM Program, the principal federal initiative founded in 2002 to help public safety organizations achieve interoperable communications? If not, you will be soon.

Now that the Department of Homeland Security has been on its feet for more than a year, SAFECOM's work is intensifying under the Science & Technology Directorate, the research and development arm at DHS. As a result, the obstacles to interoperable wireless communications between fire, law enforcement, EMS and other public safety organizations at emergencies are finally starting to fall.

There is no time to lose, says SAFECOM Director David Boyd, Ph.D., because the first cost of not achieving interoperability is lives. People die because of the walls between communications in local, fire, law enforcement and EMS personnel. Time lost passing messages from one sector to another through dispatch systems is paid for dearly in lost lives. This has been known for years, but after the unthinkable casualties on Sept. 11, 2001, it will never be forgotten.

“If you think of what happened at the Twin Towers,” says Boyd, “when the first building collapsed, an alarm went out over police radios that alerted police personnel so they could get out. The fire radios, which were on a different spectrum, didn't work well, and they weren't able to warn firefighters in the second building. Had we had interoperable communications then, fire would have had the same capabilities law enforcement had.”

Saving lives and dollars

Delays in communications between fire, EMS and police and other public safety entities in emergencies also cost citizens' lives in everyday emergencies as well. Effective response requires coordination, communication and the sharing of vital information. Voice communications are critical, but public safety operations are becoming increasingly dependent on the sharing of data, images and video.

Saving lives is the number-one reason for SAFECOM, says Boyd, but the program is also about saving dollars. Interoperability will potentially reduce a fire department's costs in two ways, he says. “One is that if we have interoperable equipment, it means there is potential for agencies to share infrastructure and yet still control their own communications, and thus dramatically reduce the costs of systems in place.

“The second way is that if systems are interoperable systems,” says Boyd, “you can upgrade your system a few pieces at a time, because you can add equipment whether it's from a different manufacturer or with a different, newer set of capabilities, and it will still be operable on a basic level with other systems. We can't do that now because those interoperable features aren't there.”

Boyd notes that communications systems must work together seamlessly during mutual aid calls to adjacent communities and at major emergencies. For example, when an urban search-and-rescue team arrives at the site of earthquakes and hurricanes, it shouldn't have to bring along extra radios so it can communicate with the locals. “That's very clumsy,” he says. “That is why you wind up with operations centers that have all kinds of radios, which gets really confusing if you try to figure out who to talk to.”

Large problem with mini goals

Few leaders of emergency services organizations would disagree with the need for interoperable communications. But how will we get there?

The scale of the problem is staggering. There are an estimated 32,000 fire and EMS agencies and 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the nation. Most have “stovepiped” communications systems that were built to meet a department's individual response needs but not to communicate with other agencies. Then consider that some 100 federal agencies also have incompatible communications systems, and that public safety radio frequencies are distributed across eight isolated frequency bands — from low-band VHS to 800MHZ — and you begin to appreciate the extent of the SAFECOM challenge.

SAFECOM has begun the process, however. The first step was bringing everyone together to agree on what's needed to solve the problem. SAFECOM and the Department of Justice's Advanced Generation of Interoperability for Law Enforcement Program, known as AGILE, held a three-day planning meeting in December 2003 in San Diego, Calif. The summit, which brought together for the first time practitioners and stakeholders from public safety groups at the local, state, tribal and federal levels to provide recommendations, produced an action plan with key initiatives to be met in 18 months, in two years and in 20 years.

Boyd says it will probably take all of 20 years to put a fully interoperable system in place for public safety agencies. According to the SAFECOM/AGILE planning report, 2023 should see an integrated “system of systems,” in regular use, that allows public safety personnel to communicate via voice, data and video with whom they need on demand, in real time, as authorized.

In addition, by 2023 public safety will have the networking and spectrum resources it needs to function properly. Public safety organizations will be able to respond anywhere, bring their own equipment and immediately work on any network when authorized.

For 2008, SAFECOM says that public safety interests — rather than vendors — will drive communications and interoperability solutions and standards. In addition, all public safety agencies will have a minimum level of interoperability, as defined by the “national operability baseline.” At least 10% of the nation's public safety agencies will be fully operable across all disciplines and at all levels of government.

In the meantime, SAFECOM is working to provide much more near-term solutions, Boyd says. With today's potential for terrorism and major natural disasters, there's acute awareness at DHS that first responders can't wait 20 years for interoperable communications.

“We believe in 18 to 30 months we'll be able to achieve what we call an emergency level of interoperability,” says Boyd. “That is, we will be able to provide a capability so that every jurisdiction threatened by a major event — whether it's a terrorist or natural event — would be capable of establishing interoperable communications in the localized area around that incident. And that is by using technologies which in many cases are available today, developing the procedures that go with them and adapting the technologies….”

This interoperable communications system “in a box” will be transported to sites of major emergencies.

Immediate initiatives

Interim solutions will be necessary. Local public safety organizations, which operate 90% of the public safety communications infrastructure, already have significant investments in their communications equipment. They can't afford to change out their equipment in one, three or even five years.

“Part of our challenge is that we have to develop an interoperability structure or strategy that enables us to use what we call legacy equipment,” says Boyd. “The older systems don't fit easily into the interoperability picture … but we still have to make them work.”

However, as public safety agencies find the funding to replace their systems, SAFECOM will provide the support needed to move toward full interoperability. SAFECOM is looking to achieve serious results on a list of measures by 2005, and has already checked off three of those initiatives: grants guidance, statement of requirements and informational video.

1. Grants guidance

   In 2003, SAFECOM provided the federal government with integrated, coordinated grants guidance to “deconflict” grants from various federal agencies for public safety communications. COPS Grants from the Department of Justice and FIRE Grants under the Federal Emergency Management Agency now follow SAFECOM guidelines, supporting the same vision for interoperability. Boyd emphasizes that the grants guidance does not require any particular solution or technology. “What we insist on,” he says, “is that what you request be a part of a larger interoperability plan that takes into account other disciplines and other jurisdictions.”

2. Interoperability requirements

   In March, SAFECOM released the Statement of Requirements for Public Safety Wireless Communications and Interoperability. The 192-page document defines future requirements for communicating and sharing information between public safety groups, or as Boyd says, the “architectural framework for interoperability.”

   The document describes how first responders can use in-the-field information resources more efficiently when responding to a variety of emergency events. It's also intended to drive the communications industry to align its research and development efforts with public safety needs as well as to identify operational issues during discussions regarding laws and regulations.

3. Informational video

   As a tool to help jurisdictions build a case to improve interoperability, SAFECOM has produced Why Can't We Talk?, a free video that explains the interoperability problem. It's designed to help policy-makers understand the issue when making their decisions.

As for other initiatives, SAFECOM has the following slated for completion by July 2005:

• Conduct a study of the baseline of public safety communications to assess the current state of interoperability.
• Become a clearinghouse of technical assistance for interoperable wireless communications, including request-for-proposal templates, checklists for evaluating RFPS and potential communications systems.
• Write an interoperable communications standard, accelerate the completion of the Project 25 suite of standards for digital trunked systems and create a common radio nomenclature for first responders.
• Provide funding and promote coordination across the federal government to test and evaluate equipment to ensure that it meets manufacturer claims. Research also will support the development of new products and technologies, such as voice-over IP and software-defined radio.

It's about the people

SAFECOM is more about bringing people and ideas together right now than about expensive new equipment. Local public safety leaders — the fire chief, police chief, EMS chief — will drive this process forward … or backward.

“We try to get them to function as a team in their jurisdiction to develop a comprehensive solution that involves interoperability where they need it, but which also takes into account the fact that fire has a set of requirements that are unique to fire agencies; police have a set of requirements that are unique to law enforcement agencies; and emergency medical folks are somewhere in between,” Boyd says.

Of course, interoperable communications doesn't mean that all these public safety groups will talk to one another all the time. That's a recipe for chaos, according to Boyd. What's needed is controlled, authorized access. “When we talk about interoperability,” he says, “we mean an ability for an officer to talk to whoever he or she needs to, when they need to and when authorized to do so.”

Achieving interoperable communications doesn't mean that local fire chiefs will be forced to use the same systems law enforcement uses or vice versa — or even the same brand. After you've found a solution that meets your day-to-day operating criteria, you should take the next step of ensuring the product meets interoperability requirements. Fire, EMS, law enforcement and emergency management must be meeting, planning and working on the details together. The same thing should happen regionally as well as locally.

As Boyd says, the biggest part of the interoperability challenge is the “people part of it.” The most high-tech, state-of-the-art solution won't work if all the players aren't on board. “It's crucial that interoperability be not just a part of every effort they make to identify, build and design a system,” he says, “but it also needs to be a part of their everyday planning and how they think about their day-to-day operations and protocols.”

Affordable solutions for emergencies

Achieving interoperability doesn't necessarily mean spending a lot of money on new equipment. In many cases, all it takes is careful planning and coordination. If your department is planning to buy new communications gear, it should be looking at SAFECOM guidelines, such as the Statement of Requirements, to see the future picture. If you're applying for a federal grant for communications equipment, you need to review SAFECOM's federal grants guidance.

Even if your department's communications system is 20 or 40 years old, there are affordable ways to achieve emergency-level interoperability by using switching technologies. “We're also looking at ways to build a poor-man's version of those that are even cheaper than the ones that are available now,” says Boyd. “They may have limited capabilities, but they could meet the needs of smaller, rural jurisdictions until we can get to full interoperability.”

Boyd is aware that 85% of the nation's fire departments are volunteer and most serve small, rural areas. Although budgets in almost every average department are cutting into the bone, he emphasizes that the most important solution to the interoperability issue doesn't cost anything: It's “working out ways to work in partnerships, agreements with other jurisdictions and with other disciplines so that fire personnel build a relationship with police and emergency medical folks and with their partners in other jurisdictions.”

The fires service's history of working out mutual aid agreements, which Boyd feels is more extensive than in other public safety fields, will be valuable as organizations move through this process. “If [fire service leaders] could just work to expand that process and help the other disciplines understand how they might be able to leverage that process, that will help,” Boyd says. “Because at the bottom line of this, the most important piece of it is the social piece — getting people to understand that they really need to work out how to work with each other before an emergency — not during it.”

In other words, keep talking to your counterparts in other public safety sectors and keep your eye on SAFECOM. “Watch for our meetings, watch for our notices and just begin to think about interoperability and how your organization might address it, even on a shoestring,” he advises.

And if you're lucky enough to be coming into some serious money to upgrade your communications systems, go as high tech as you can. Be sure your department is keyed into SAFECOM guidance, and you'll be ready when the interoperable future arrives.

Sample Scenarios

For any organization to implement change — to get from from Point A to Point B — you first need a vision of where you're going.

And so it is with interoperable communications for public safety organizations. In March, the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security provided that vision in the form of a SAFECOM-developed document, Statement of Requirements for Public Safety Wireless Communications and Interoperability.

The 192-page document describes how fire, EMS, law enforcement and other public safety groups need their wireless communications systems to work so they can communicate with each other when they need to, when authorized, at emergency incidents in the future.

To help paint the picture, the document includes descriptions of how systems need to work at typical fire, EMS and law enforcement scenarios — a residential fire, a cardiac call, a high-risk traffic stop — as well as at a major incident involving multiple jurisdictions and the entire spectrum of emergency response forces.

The document is intended to drive the communications industry to develop products to meet these needs as well as to educate public safety leaders about interoperable systems and protocols than can improve response to emergencies. See the complete document online at www.safecomprogram.gov.

Near-Term Goals

• Develop a process to advance standards to improve public safety communications and interoperability.
• Integrate coordinated grant guidance across all agencies, providing grants for public safety communications and interoperability.
• Provide training and technical assistance for communications and interoperability.
• Create a one-stop shop for public safety communications and interoperability.
• Research, develop, test and evaluate existing and emerging technologies for improved communications and interoperability.

Long-Term Goals

• Provide policy recommendations.
• Develop a technical foundation for public safety communications and interoperability.
• Coordinate funding assistance for public safety communications and interoperability.
• Create and implement a national training and technical assistance program.

FIRECHIEF.COM

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For More Info

SAFECOM Program
P.O. Box 57243
Washington, DC 20037
866-969-SAFE; e-mail: safecom@dhs.gov
www.safecomprogram.gov