Organizing Community-Level Emergency Response With Interoperable Communications

• NCJ Number: 213460
• Journal: Homeland Defense Journal Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2006 Pages: 20-22
• Author(s): Roman W. Kaluta
• Date Published: February 2006
• Length: 3 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

After discussing the general features of an interoperable communications system, this article describes several interoperable solutions that should be considered when organizing for homeland defense.

Abstract

An interoperable communications system enables public safety agencies with different types of communication systems to connect with one another, so that personnel from all the agencies responding to a large-scale emergency can communicate with one another in coordinating a time-limited, multiple-agency response. After the operation is completed, the separate agency communications systems disconnect from one another. The interoperable solutions that should be considered when organizing for homeland defense include tactical, transportable, mobile, and fixed solutions. A tactical solution is one that can be quickly transported and deployed. This is appropriate for coordinating multiple-agency responses to events that occur in remote locations and require quick deployment and coordination. Tactical interoperability solutions are usually small enough to be hand-carried and are capable of being used in almost any location. Transportable interoperability systems provide the user a self-contained, preconfigured system that allows for rapid deployment. Such a system is appropriate for natural disasters, which may require ongoing interoperability. On such occasions, first responders must have a communications system that can be quickly set up to establish a direct communications link with Federal, State, and local agencies as they arrive on the scene. Incorporating an interoperability solution into a mobile-response or command vehicle allows on-scene communications support; and when integrated with satellite reach-back capabilities, it becomes a wide-area communications resource. The installation of a fixed interoperability system is typically used for daily operations and provides an instantaneous link to different systems, usually through dispatcher intervention. 4 photo illustrations