Report: Cities' communications still lacking

REPORT: CITIES' COMMUNICATIONS STILL LACKING
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Mimi Hall]
Emergency responders in most cities don't have the equipment and skills needed to communicate with each other during a crisis, according to a report to be released today by the Homeland Security Department. Only six of the 75 cities and regions surveyed received top scores for "interoperability," or the ability to reliably communicate by radio. They were Washington, D.C., and its suburbs; San Diego; Columbus, Ohio; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Laramie, Wyo. The report comes more than five years after the 9/11 attacks highlighted communications problems among fire, police and other emergency responders in New York City, at the Pentagon and at the crash site in Somerset County, Pa. The problems were especially acute at the World Trade Center, where firefighters couldn't hear police warnings to get out of the towers before they collapsed. The lowest scores on the report went to Chicago; Cleveland; Baton Rouge; Mandan, N.D.; and American Samoa. New York City scored in the middle. Congressional Democrats, who assume leadership of both chambers on Thursday, are likely to address the issue as part of a campaign promise to pass all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. The commission in 2004 cited the urgent need for "compatible and adequate communications among public safety organizations."
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070103/a_communications03.ar...