Emergency Communications

Advances in communications infrastructure could give cities valuable tools to help police officers and firefighters respond to emergencies.

One of those advances is FirstNet, short for First Responder Network Authority, a dedicated wireless, high-speed communications network for public safety personnel. The network emphasizes reliability and interoperability, providing consistently fast communications over high-quality wireless spectrum.

San Jose became the first city to deploy FirstNet to all of its public safety and emergency response staff. In addition to police and fire, it connects the city manager, office of Emergency Management, the transportation department and airport, public works, environmental services, and the city’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services departments.

“Outdated and unreliable communications have slowed down our public safety response for far too long,” said Ray Riordan, director of the San José Office of Emergency Management. “In an industry where every second matters, it’s about time that we change the face of public safety communications. … We can’t predict when the next emergency will strike, but with FirstNet, we can be better prepared to respond, recover and keep our people safe.”

Part of the idea of connecting all the departments is to give first responders access to critical information at a time when seconds matter. The combination of bandwidth and databases could, for example, give police instant access to building floor plan information when responding to an active shooter situation.

But the data can flow both ways. Wearable devices worn by firefighters could send real-time information back to incident commanders giving them useful information to help keep responders safe. These wearables may be able to share information about the air quality and the heart rate and blood-oxygen levels of the wearer, helping commanders decide to pull someone out of a burning building before they collapsed.