Emergency Responders Need Equipment Compatibility, DHS Official Says

A high-ranking official with the Department of Homeland Security says interoperability might be a buzzword these days, but that doesn’t make it any less important. What does he say is standing in the way of implementing interoperable communications?

In an opinion piece on the Government Technology website, David Boyd, director of the Command, Control and Interoperability Division at the DHS’s Directorate for Science and Technology, says the reality is that while we can keep improving the technology, until we settle cultural differences, we won’t be able to implement the technology.

“Some emergency response agencies remain rooted in turf battles that make collaboration nearly impossible, while other agencies simply don’t consider collaboration in their planning,” Boyd writes. “Without collaboration, interoperability can’t occur. Command structures, procedures, protocols and shared agreements must be established among regional agencies for responders to provide swift, coordinated support during incidents.”

So what should first response agencies do? Boyd says there needs to be a bottom-up approach to addressing interoperability. It’s not up to the federal government to mandate how state and local agencies coordinate response, but instead the communities themselves need to make those decisions.

What the federal government can do is “lay out a road map, based on experience and best practices, whereby issues related to technology, standard operating procedures, training, exercises, governance and equipment usage can be shared with the emergency response community,” Boyd adds. “The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Interoperability and Compatibility is doing just this by providing guiding principles that may help solve an individual community’s problems, depending on that community’s budget, manpower, need and other factors.”

To read the full article, click here: http://www.govtech.com/gt/625804?topic=117680