Public safety officials seek additional spectrum for first responders

Top public safety officials plan to ask Congress to enact legislation directing the Federal Communications Commission to allocate a slice of cellular communications spectrum to first responders and halt auctions to commercial carriers. The push comes seven years after the 9/11 Commission recommended in its report that local public safety agencies be assigned new spectrum quickly. In what it described as an "unparalleled event," the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International said it will hold a briefing at the National Press Club on Tuesday with leading police and fire officials to urge Congress to immediately reallocate the 700 megahertz D block cellular spectrum for public safety use. "This is the last opportunity we have to get this spectrum," said Charles Dowd, deputy chief of the New York City Police Department. Securing it would allow safety officials to transmit video from a fire scene and track firefighters electronically. The broadband network also could support automated license plate recognition and biometric technologies, including mobile fingerprint and iris identification, according to APCO.