NY Public Safety Systems Remained at 100% During Sandy

Despite the destructive power demonstrated by Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast, public safety systems in New York City remained operable for the entire incident.

While a reported 25 percent of commercial cellular networks went down and many citizens lost cellphone reception, that was not the case for public safety systems. "Both the police and fire systems stayed up 100 percent of the time," NYPD Deputy Chief Charles Dowd told Urgent Communications. "We lost a couple of receiver sites temporarily, but those were receiver sites mixed with another receiver site, so there was no degradation in the system. We did not lose a single frequency on the police or fire side the entire time.” Whether through the use of backup generators to keep equipment running, or through a dedicated staff that managed a high volume of work, New York managed to keep things running, Dowd said.