How valuable would it have been if every emergency worker or first responder could have been instantly queried as to his or her location and status (good, hurt, unable to respond, in need of additional help, special materials needed, etc.) by central command in a few short minutes (in some cases seconds). What would have been the value of being able to track and manage communications for virtually every law enforcement and emergency service management agency from a local to a national level down to every field worker or field team using both human responses and GPS technology?
In late 2001, my staff and I set out to design a study of emergency services and mobile communication in crises situations, designed to significantly improve wireless communication strategies using existing commercial wireless technology. We wanted to know if emergency services could guarantee with certainty that field personnel had received critical messages and updates in an unfolding disaster. We wanted the study to benchmark current reaction times to emergencies to see if we could improve communication in the prevention of disaster situations and better coordinate personnel in an immediate post disaster environment. We wanted to analyze the benefits of extending the monitoring and tracking of emergency services to every department at every level. We also wanted to track the capabilities of new wireless devices and services from commercial wireless service providers of new and evolving technology that could significantly impact emergency response and management for the better.
It was not our intent to evaluate the hundreds of wireless applications currently being used by our national emergency service organizations, but rather to start the process of analyzing the benefits associated with making a transition from antiquated communication technology to the latest commercially available solutions. This study was intentionally and specifically focused on wireless messaging dispatch technology: the most widely adopted use of wireless technology by our emergency service organizations today.
We thank the following organizations and individuals for their generous investment of time, assets and money, which made this study possible. This study required significant cooperation between existing wireless service providers, their willingness to donate hardware and airtime for field studies and the willingness of emergency services to participate. This also required help from print and online publications to help get the word out, a sacrifice of time from my staff, their families, and from participating emergency services.