Recent homeland security cuts threaten a planned wireless network that would allow public safety agencies throughout the region to quickly and easily share data during emergencies, an official in charge of the program said Friday.
The regional wireless broadband network would encompass 19 jurisdictions, part of a larger “National Capital Region Interoperability Program” funded with Department of Homeland Security dollars.
The department has cut grant money available to the region to $46 million, a move that has put the wireless plan in jeopardy, Robert LeGrande, D.C.’s deputy chief technology officer, told The Examiner.
“It’s severely threatened by that reduction,” LeGrande said. “I’m very concerned about our ability to meet our objectives here.”
If successfully implemented, he said the more than $50 million network would put first responders on the same frequency with the same technology, allowing them to seamlessly transmit things like streaming video.
“As time goes on, and I think [Hurricane] Katrina showed this, the ability to know what’s happening … to be able to transfer information from the field to command centers, is critical,” said Ed Reiskin, deputy D.C. mayor for public safety and justice.
The network would be built in phases over a number of years. Funding for the first phase, which would connect D.C., Alexandria and Arlington agencies, is more secure than subsequent phases, which would incorporate outlying Maryland and Virginia counties, LeGrande said.
Having the network in place would aid agencies in a terrorist attack, said Calvin Smith, an official with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
“It’s needed here,” he said. “I think it can be seen as a best practice that people around the country might want to emulate.”
Connecting jurisdictions
The regional wireless broadband network would connect the 19 jurisdictions in the footprint of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
They include:
» The District of Columbia
» Alexandria
» Arlington County
» Fairfax County
» Prince William County
» Manassas
» Loudoun County
» Prince George’s County
» Montgomery County
» Frederick County
