Police and Fire Radios Are Talking to Each Other

Emergency medical workers can now contact the police directly via radio. Fire officials use information beamed down from police helicopters. Law enforcement officers and emergency service agencies hold joint drills at high-rise buildings, jails and the city's tunnels. Seven years after the harsh lessons of the Sept. 11 attacks, New York City has improved the ability of its Police and Fire Departments to operate together. On Wednesday, these and other advances were enumerated before the Federal Communications Commission at a public hearing in Brooklyn on improving public safety through better communications among government and emergency agencies. Speakers at the hearing focused on the lack of a national broadband public safety network, noting that some cities, including New York, Washington and Philadelphia, had improved agencies' ability to talk to one another on their local networks, while others had lagged behind.