Public Safety Alliance?

DaniGrrl

DaniGrrl

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I just read about http://www.psafirst.org/ this morning. It makes perfect sense to me, but as a total outsider to the system, I'm wondering what you guys think and if anyone here is active in trying to help this happen?
 
Thank Bush II, but it's more than that.

Yeah, save and make available freqs for public safety and make it more congruent across the country. I'm for it. Every chief will be in favor until their autonomy is impinged.

The commo clusterbubble of 9/11 was not entirely due to anything addressable. Hundreds of handheld radios, scores of vehicle radios, dozens of command post radios, all firing up makes for a situation you cannot work in. Then, consider the urban radio environment, where intact buildings, metallic debris (or even enough plain old concrete and/or dirt) block almost all radio traffic. And if you set up the megasystem to even begin to accomodate this sort of uber-disaster, how do you keep it technically current, in repair, with adequate training, and mission-current?

The interagency command communication troubles could largely have been addressed through digitally prioritized routing and compressed phone line communication..yeah, dial up, and one command post picking up the phone and speed dialing another one and telling them the situation.
 
Maybe I'm being obtuse, but I can't tell if you're for or against the idea.
 
I think he is trying to say that while it is a good idea in theory, the practicality of it makes it unfeasable.

If so, I agree, a huge amount of money could be spent which would not improve things in the slightest.

Every police, fire, and ems agency has always had the ability to buy what their neighbors have, but for years actually chose not to be compatible in most instances to preserve from being merged.

Not picking on them but look at fire and police departments. Every community seems to want their own. They don't want to pool resources, nor share responsibilities.

In my home in the US, I am sitting less than 3 miles away from 8 different cities each with thier own FD. They don't purchase equipment from the same manufacturers in bulk. Several have radios that don't communicate with their neighbors and there are even 2 different thread standards on the hose couplings making them incompatable. All 8 of these departments combined don't see more than 3 fires in a year.

But they all have chiefs and a plethora of officers. Multiple redundant positions. One city has 7 pieces of apparatus and 3 guys on duty. One of them a 100' ladder despite the fact the largest building is only 50'. More than 97% of the calls are medical, and only one paramedic on duty at a time.
 
Ah, that makes perfect sense. The reality never lives up to the idea. I wonder if it's worth doing in the hopes that maybe, someday, perhaps...
 
PSA=Licensing of Frequencies, Not Interoperability

While I agree with furthering interoperable communications on a wide-spread level, the truth is that the PSA is only about licensing and which frequencies are available for first responders. Yes, it would put us all in the same "block" of frequencies, however each department/system would likely still be on different channels within that block.

The biggest things are coming down at the State levels now. For instance, Michigan has created the Michigan Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS). This is a wide-area digital (APCO P25) trunked system that allows users all over the state to communicate with each other. I have at my disposal all towers in the State so I can talk from hundreds of miles away to my base station or another portable radio -- effectively able to communicate anywhere there is coverage. In addition, they've done a good job at allocating interop channels at the local (typically county) and state level. We also have patches to Northern Ohio and other nearby municipalities that may require or provide mutual aid.

Two downsides, in our state at least:

Not every municipality has bought in. Many counties and regions have recently invested much money in other systems before MPSCS was available. They are now hesitant to put more funding into another new system. So interoperability isn't available everywhere.

Also, this is an IP-based digital system. There are many points of failure and, despite redundancies, failsofts, etc., there is no guarantee that the system will always be available and working especially when we need it most.
 
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