DHS Unveils Wireless Radio for Emergency Response

The Department of Homeland Security has unveiled a pilot program that will allow public safety officials in the District of Columbia to communicate on one network, without having to purchase any additional equipment.

In an article on the NextGov website, Gautham Nagesh says the DHS will test the program in DC, and it is designed to integrate land mobile radio networks that police, firemen and emergency medical service workers use with cell phone broadband networks and wireless Internet devices, including laptops and personal digital assistants.

“With the new technology, a public safety official can communicate with personnel in the field using a cell phone, land radio or computer all on the same network,” Nagesh says. “The technology also allows them to contact colleagues in different departments or nearby municipalities without reprogramming their radios or having a dispatcher connect them.”

The software may also be used to locate personnel using GPS and cell phone triangulation so officials can follow the movements of field workers in real time. Officials responding to a disaster can immediately scan an area to see who is nearby and notify them of the situation, regardless of the person’s department affiliation or the communication device they use.

“Most first responders communicate with radios,” David Boyd, director of the command, control and interoperability division at DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate told Nagesh. “We can’t afford to replace everything in their infrastructure. That’s a pie in the sky notion.”

Instead, Boyd told Nagesh the DHS looked for ways to use existing land radio networks while adding new functionality offered by the more advance technologies.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080827_1113.php