Tag Archives: public safety

Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and John Thune, R-S.D., are reintroducing the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement Act focused on the rapid dissemination of emergency alerts on disasters and missile threats to the general public.

The U.S. Army replicated a 5.7-magnitude earthquake to assess and demonstrate the Program Executive Office's crisis-response technologies at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. The service branch said Wednesday that it fielded search-and-rescue systems to free roleplaying victims from simulated debris and collapsed buildings.

The Department of Homeland Security's National Urban Science and Technology Laboratory has collaborated with the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to evaluate in-suit equipment designed to help first responders communicate when they respond to hazardous material incidents.

The First Responder Network Authority and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have jointly launched a $2.2M communications technology competition. Participants of the Tech to Protect Challenge will submit coding systems that support the communications needs of first responders, the Department of Commerce said Tuesday.

The First Responder Network Authority has published a roadmap that details public safety technology trends and operational needs for mobile broadband communications in the next five years. Built from industry and government feedback, the FirstNet Authority Roadmap contains six domains that represent key public safety operational functions, FirstNet said Monday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency held a national trial to test the Emergency Alert System, a service designed to notify U.S. citizens on national emergencies, Techcrunch reported Wednesday. The system reached radios and televisions across the country with the message “This is a test of the National Emergency Alert System.”

The Department of Homeland Security's science and technology directorate met with New York City's 5 Research and Development Council to review research, development, test and evaluation initiatives in public safety and security.  5RD Council members also visited DHS S&T's National Urban Security Technology Laboratory and were lectured on the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act, the agency said Thursday. 

The Department of Homeland Security's science and technology directorate partnered with Google and the Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute to conduct an event to help optimize public safety communication technologies for people with limited English language capacities. The Text-to-911 Translation TechFest delivered insights in current translation platforms and promoted the need for research and development efforts to reinforce efficient 911 call response, DHS said Wednesday. 

The Department of Homeland Security's science and technology directorate, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Fire Administration have teamed up with the international first responder community to address wildfire concerns in wildland-urban interface areas. FEMA will help optimize and address operational issues for public communications, intergovernmental coordination and wildland fire monitoring to augment building codes and infrastructure security, DHS said Tuesday.

The Government Accountability Office has urged Congress to enable first responders to T-Band radio frequencies for mission-critical voice communications. A new report issued on Friday highlighted the challenges first responders are facing with the relocation of public safety communications spectrum from T-Band frequencies.