Remarks by Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge at the Technologies for Public Safety in Critical Incident Response Conference and Exposition 2004

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge

Technologies for Public Safety in Critical Incident Response Conference and Exposition 2004
New Orleans, LA
September 27, 2004
(Remarks as Prepared)

Fact Sheet: Achieving First Responder Communications Interoperability – a Local, State, and Federal Partnership

Thank you, Chief Parent, for that kind introduction.  Before we begin, I’d like to thank the many dedicated men and women from around the country who are helping those affected by the devastation carried in the winds and rains of hurricanes Ivan, Frances, and Charley.

In places like Florida, Alabama, and Pennsylvania, and here in Louisiana public works officials, emergency responders, FEMA, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the National Guard, church groups and other organizations are working around the clock to remove debris, feed and shelter people, provide water, ice and comfort – basically working to save lives and mend them.

When visiting some of the places hardest hit by the hurricanes, we saw the spirit of serving something greater than ourselves – a spirit that has always been a part of the American character.  A spirit, that no matter the challenge, has helped us meet that challenge every time.  

This brings me to the challenge we are here to discuss today – a challenge critical to achieving the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to lead a unified national effort to secure America to prevent, prepare for, and respond to not only terrorist attacks, but all emergencies.

It is the broad challenge of preparedness, and the more specific challenge tied to that preparedness: our first responders’ ability to talk to each other during an emergency.

The recent hurricanes are reminders that disasters do happen, and we have to be prepared for them.  And so must we be prepared for the scourge of terrorism that is continuing to shatter people’s lives from Istanbul to Madrid, from Bali to Beslan.

On September 11, 2001, Americans became aware that we faced a threat unlike anything we had seen before.  We also became aware that one critical challenge in facing down this threat was the need to strengthen the ability of our first responders to communicate across agencies and across jurisdictions.  

The public safety community had been well aware that interoperability had been a problem for some time.  It was a problem in New York when the Twin Towers were first attacked in 1993.  It was a problem when the Alfred P. Murrah Building was destroyed in Oklahoma City.

Prior to 9-11, President Bush had already established an initiative to address the problem.  That initiative was SAFECOM.  

SAFECOM was created within the President’s Office of Management and Budget to unify the federal government’s efforts to address interoperable communications at the federal, state, local, and tribal levels.  So the Bush Administration became the first administration to launch an initiative to solve interoperability issues.  

Then we discovered immediately after 9-11 that some first responders from different jurisdictions and agencies in New York City could not communicate with each other because they were on different communications or radio frequencies.  

The tragic events of that day clarified the critical importance of effective first responder communications systems.   The attacks powerfully demonstrated that the goals of SAFECOM had an even more significant urgency to be met than anyone could have imagined.   We have made great progress since then; however we know more needs to be done.

Here we are in New Orleans, birthplace of jazz.  Imagine if a quintet of musicians was asked to play a big concert.  But each one was given a different page of sheet music from which to learn a big musical number.  And say that they were thrown together for the concert and were not able to meet to practice.

You could have the best jazz musicians in the world, but if they are playing from different song sheets, if they each are playing five different songs, then all you’re going to get is noise.  Or, what you’ll get with great musicians is after awhile they will make it work; they’ll improvise and figure out a way to get the job done.

That’s how we feel about our first responders and interoperability.  We believe the first responders in this nation are world-class, talented, persistent, and devoted to their craft.  And their craft happens to be to save lives.

But if they are pulled together by an event – whether a catastrophic event, or a smaller incident – and if they cannot communicate together; if they did not practice together and prepare; if they don’t have integrated, compatible equipment, then they will face exceptionally difficult challenges.

But because our first responders are talented and devoted, they, too, will improvise, adapt and figure out a way to get the job done.  But in the business of saving lives, that’s not good enough.  

So it’s the Department of Homeland Security’s job to help coordinate and lead the national effort to ensure that first responders have the ability to communicate clearly in the case of a major emergency.  

We must get you the resources, the funds, the technology, the technical assistance, and the training you need as quickly as we can in order for you to fight terrorism.  And we must provide standards, guidance and expertise to promote local leadership, planning and collaboration.   The federal government alone cannot protect the homeland, just as a town alone cannot rebuild itself after a hurricane or a flood.  

The key to disaster recovery, and much more importantly, the key to prevention, is mutual cooperation and coordination; sharing resources – equipment, information, supplies, training and people.

And fighting terrorism is a national effort, not a federal effort.  It requires the commitment, the ideas, the energy, and the collaboration of governors, mayors, emergency managers, law enforcement, fire fighters, business leaders, school officials, hospital personnel, citizens everywhere.

That is why our approach to tackling the challenge of interoperable communications in our nation has been, and will continue to be, to work from the bottom up – to ensure that local first responders drive the process to create interoperable communications plans.

Let me provide some examples of how we have worked with our state and local partners in the last three years to improve our first responders’ ability to communicate with each other.

First, one of the most important things we did was to establish a national strategy for interoperable communications.  You can have all the technology and money in the world, but if there is no guidance, if there is no standard, and if there is no collaboration, then the technology won’t matter.  We had the tools; we had the talent; now we have a plan.  Last April, SAFECOM also released the first-ever comprehensive Statement of Requirements for public safety communications and interoperability.  

This statement gives the public safety community a unified voice and a shared vision of what an interoperable wireless communication system should look like.  This allows, for the first time, equipment manufacturers to map their product design work to a single, national standard.

We also have the resources to go along with the plan.  Since 9-11, the Administration has distributed $280 million in local interoperability grants specifically to address the ability of fire, medical, and law enforcement personnel to communicate with each other.

In addition, over the past three years, the Administration has provided more than $13 billion to the states for emergency preparedness – an increase of over 900 percent compared to the three previous years.  These funds can be used to address communications needs.

Many urban areas have already achieved interoperable communications using homeland security resources.  And many urban areas and states are working regionally and with the federal government to develop and implement both short term and long term solutions.

In Fiscal Year 2004, the Department is also making interoperable communications technical assistance available for all 51 communities in the Urban Areas Security Initiative.

Another important aspect of our national strategy is that we work with state and local officials to foster innovations and best practices that can be shared to benefit other states and localities.

For example, we worked throughout the summer with the Commonwealth of Virginia to develop its statewide plan to allow communications across all emergency agencies.  Local and state public safety officials drove this plan, and it will serve as a model for the entire country.  

In fact, based on the success of the Virginia project, SAFECOM has developed a Statewide Communications Interoperability Planning Methodology that will serve as an example for other states – a “How-To” guide to help state leadership address these issues.  Copies of this Methodology are now being sent this week to every State Homeland Security Advisor in the country in our effort to share best practices.

It’s important to note that while we are working hard on a long-term solution to interoperable communications; it has become increasingly apparent that we need an interim solution to assure that a minimum level of public safety interoperability is in place now.  

This past July, President Bush called for a program that would address this issue and enable America’s first responders in ten key urban areas to be able to communicate with each other in the event of a large emergency incident. We established RapidCom and set a goal for it to be in place in those urban areas by September 30th of this year.

We are happy to report that we met our September 30th goal, and RapidCom will give first responders in these urban areas, which include New York and Washington, DC, key incident response communications capability.  

This means that in the event of a disaster, such as one on the scale of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, senior officers from each agency – across disciplines, and across jurisdictions – can talk to each other.

These cities will now serve as a model, sharing their lessons learned and helping us create a “Best Practices” guide for localities, as we expand the capability to other communities.

This guide for localities is also being sent this week to State Homeland Security Advisors and leaders in each of the communities in our Urban Areas Security Initiative.

Finally, to help states and localities throughout the country implement these programs; we have established the Office of Interoperability and Compatibility within the Department of Homeland Security.  

I’m happy to announce that we are formally launching the office this week, on October 1st, the start of the new fiscal year.  This office will work to strengthen and integrate all of the interoperability efforts already underway that improve local, tribal, state, and federal public safety preparedness and response.  Many thanks to the new director of that office, David Boyd, for his leadership in coordinating interoperability at the federal level.

The Office of Interoperability and Compatibility will incorporate and build on SAFECOM’s bottom-up approach and expand the focus on interoperability beyond communications into equipment, training, and other areas that may be identified in the future.

Now, as you know, despite all these efforts, interoperability does not happen overnight.  There is no switch that you can just turn on that allows everyone to communicate with each other.  It is a process that has taken, and will continue to take, many years.

The interoperability process is a continuum moving from simply swapping radios, to electronic patches that can receive signals transmitted over any system and re-broadcast them to all the others, to a system where everyone is working on a common frequency.

The process involves interdependent parts moving together – from technology and training to governance, standard operating procedures, and frequency of use of the communications tools.  All these aspects must be in place and be synchronized to achieve success.

Our goal is for every community to focus on all five parts of this process so that the movement toward interoperability is efficient and effective.  

This is a top priority, and we know that we have much work ahead of us.  But together, along with our other state and local partners, we are closer to the day when communication between emergency responders will be fully interoperable, fully operational.

Some of you may know that the National D-Day Museum is right here in New Orleans.  If you visit it, you will see General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s address to his troops before that historic battle on June 6, 1944.  

“The eyes of the world are upon you,” he said.  “The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.  I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle.  We will accept nothing less than full victory.”

To paraphrase Eisenhower, we have full confidence in the resolve, devotion, courage, and common purpose of America and America’s first responders.  And we too cannot accept anything less than full victory.

The hopes of the world still rest with us to protect liberty and defend the innocent from gutless killers who seek to destroy lives and undermine a way of life that is a beacon for millions around the globe.

The war on terror will not be won with a decisive battle.  Terrorism will not be eradicated tomorrow.  We have a long, hard struggle ahead.  But together we will beat back the scourge of terrorism.  

We will not be afraid, but we will be prepared.  And we will shine the light of liberty upon the world and continue to answer the hopes and prayers of all who love freedom.

Thank you.

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September 27, 2004 - U.S. Department of Homeland Security Launches Office of Interoperability and Compatibility; Offers States and Locales Tools for Improving Public Safety Communications Interoperability