WASHINGTON – A court ordered release of 1,600 phone calls made to emergency services on September 11^th, 2001 highlighted once more the need to rapidly implement effective, interoperable communications between first responders, Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) said this week.

“These recordings are a sobering reminder of the need to swiftly solve the communications problem for first responders,” Stupak, a former Michigan State Police Trooper and police officer said.  “These recordings highlight the confusion that occurred on that terrible day and how, tragically, that confusion contributed to the disaster.”

The 9-11 Commission has estimated that on September 11^th, 121 firefighters lost their lives because their radios were incompatible and the firefighters could not communicate and could not be warned that the tower was about to collapse.  The New York Times reported this week, “After the south tower collapsed, police pilots in helicopters broadcast urgent warnings that the north tower was also on the verge of collapse.  That dire message was not heard by firefighters in the north tower, most of whom did not realize that the other building had come down.”

As a Member of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, Stupak has promoted legislation that would establish the Public Safety Communications Trust Fund.  The funding would come from the sale of spectrum, or public airwaves.  Grants would be allocated to public safety agencies for interoperability, with multi-year grants available to ensure that agencies can develop long term plans without having to worry about funding from one year to the next. 

 “On these tapes you can hear firefighters calling 911 to receive the latest information,” Stupak said.  “My legislation would ensure we provide these heroes better means of communications than having to call 911 themselves for the latest information.”

Stupak went on to argue that the Bush Administration and Congress have failed to make progress on the issue.  Citing a July U.S. Conference of Mayors survey on disaster preparedness, Stupak noted that eight in ten cities around the country have not achieved interoperability. 

“Two years ago, a June 2004 U.S. Conference of Mayors survey on disaster preparedness also found that 80 percent of cities did not have interoperable communications for their first responders,” Stupak said. “This means we have made no progress in two years and local public safety agencies still do not have radios that can talk to each other.

The 9-11 Commission Report said, “the inability to communicate was a critical element of the World Trade Center, Pentagon, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, crash sites where multiple agencies and multiple jurisdictions responded.  The occurrence of this problem at three very different sites is strong evidence that compatible and adequate communications among public safety organizations at the local, state and federal levels remains an important problem…Federal funding of such (interagency communication) units should be given high priority…”   

In addition, communications interoperability problems were said to have plagued the response to Hurricane Katrina.

 “As we approach the five-year anniversary of 9-11 and the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we still have not provided our first responders with the tools they need to do their jobs,” Stupak said.  “America cannot wait for another terrorist attack, hurricane or other disaster to act.  We must address this problem now.”

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