First Reponders: NYC Council Committee on Technology in Government
On November 16, 2006, the Committee on Public Safety, the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services, and the Committee on Technology in Government, will hold a joint oversight hearing on improvements in communication technology among New York City first responders.This hearing will focus on the progress of radio communications for New York City first responders since the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, as well as the creation of the Citywide Mobile Wireless Network (“CMWN”) for public safety personnel and other New York City agencies. Radio communications provide for the immediate exchange of voice information between first responders, while mobile wireless networks offer high-speed data access to support large file transfers, such as anti-crime databases and video footage.
Following the events of September 11, the NYPD and the FDNY each enlisted the services of the management-consulting firm of McKinsey & Company to identify the effective and ineffective aspects of the responses to the World Trade Center attacks the previous year so that New York City can be better prepared for large-scale emergencies in the future; communication technology was discussed in both final reports. In addition, this past September, the Northrop Grumman Corporation was selected to build the CMWN, which will give New York City first responders high-speed access to data, such as fingerprints, city maps, and full-motion streaming video, and allow other city agencies to retrieve real-time emergency management data and share information between incident managers at operations centers and first responder personnel on-scene.
posted by Noreen Whysel @ 10:45 AM
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