In both the Columbine shooting rampage and the Oklahoma bombing, rescue activities were hampered by the inability of communications equipment to talk to one another. Typically, emergency groups arrive on a disaster scene with their own communications equipment. The radios can be of different types, either analog or digital, or may operate on different frequencies, prohibiting the possibility of direct radio communication.
Help is just around the corner.
Now, emergency organizations, including police, fire and SWAT teams in 12 U.S. locations, will find coordination less daunting with a new tool being distributed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Interconnecting cellular telephones, standard hard telephones or satellite radio networks, the system allows organizations to talk directly to similar organizations on the other side of a building or elsewhere in a disaster area. Another alternative involves placing a bunch of radios in front of an individual who then tries to relay messages from one organization's radio to another. After conducting bench-tests to make sure the equipment performs as it's supposed to, the NDPO performed field tests in Alexandria, Virginia. With this demonstration project, we hope to find out just how versatile this system would be.