Public Safety Campaign Makes Push for Direct Control of 700 MHz Spectrum

The announcement shows that the FCC’s plan to sell the D-block at auction and ask Congress to fund the start-up costs of this network still does not sit well with key public safety groups led by The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials. The alliance also includes the International Association of Chiefs of Police, International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), National Sheriffs’ Association, Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA), Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association, Major County Sheriffs’ Association and National Emergency Management Association. The National Emergency Number Association, which is holding its annual meeting this week, did not endorse the effort.

"This is going to be an ongoing effort. This is just the first time we're doing this,” Deputy Chief Charles Dowd of the New York Police Department said in an interview Monday. Dowd conceded public safety faces a tough fight on the Hill. “It’s been an uphill battle,” he said. “I think it’s viewed by some as a tool where you can get by with commercial services, but you can’t because what we're talking about doing is reinventing law enforcement with this capability. You need to apply the technology at a mission critical grade of service. You can’t use best effort like you do in commercial networks. You have to have guaranteed delivery of information.” Dowd said of Congress, “I don’t think they're clear on that issue … but we're winning converts daily.” He said he has been on the Hill for meetings with members of Congress on the issue “at least a dozen times” over the past year.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., introduced a bill in April that would give public safety the D-Block. The bipartisan bill (HR-5081) has added 17 cosponsors since then, and now has 12 Democratic and 9 Republican sponsors. But House Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said earlier this year he directed aides to start drafting legislation that would authorize the FCC to share proceeds from a D-Block auction with public safety. King hasn’t seen Waxman’s legislation or otherwise engaged with the office, said a House aide. Conversations are ongoing to win more cosponsors to the King bill, the aide said. In April, King said the 700 MHz spectrum is “ideal” for public safety, and opposed “a piecemeal approach to our spectrum allocation."

The Senate has been quiet on D-block legislation so far. The members of the chamber know it must be addressed, but no one has teed it up for discussion yet, said a Senate Republican staffer. Senators haven’t specifically weighed in on the public safety pushback to the FCC proposal because they haven’t gotten to that stage yet, the staffer said.

Waxman’s staff has told public safety they're working on a bill and may want to hold a hearing this summer, but public safety hasn’t seen any language, said Alan Caldwell, senior advisor on government relations for the IAFC. The association has endorsed King’s bill, but would support a bill providing funding so long as it didn’t take the D-Block away. Public safety hasn’t seen anything “official” from the Senate, but has received a “favorable response from some key senators” to their concerns, Caldwell said. One industry source said Waxman may have legislative language on a bill as early as this week.

"The unprecedented unity in the first-responder community demonstrates how critical this communications capability is for those who put their lives on the line everyday to protect America,” said San Jose Chief of Police and MCCA President Rob Davis. “Almost nine years since this need was tragically underscored on 9/11, it’s long overdue for Congress immediately to hold hearings and help keep America safe by providing this nationwide communications network, controlled and operated by public safety, not by commercial carriers.” Jeff Johnson, chief of Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue in Oregon and president of the IAFC, said, “It is mind boggling that America remains vulnerable in these days of constant communications when a text to American Idol takes precedence over our first responders’ ability to communicate with each other over common radio frequencies."

"We agree with the public safety community that it is imperative for America’s first responders to have a robust, nationwide interoperable broadband network,” FCC Public Safety Bureau Spokesman Robert Kenny said in a statement. “The FCC’s plan -- supported by the co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission -- will ensure the build-out of a network that is cutting edge, reliable, and cost-effective. We have already taken the first steps with the creation of the Emergency Response Interoperability Center and the approval of 21 waivers for states and localities to begin early build-out of their networks."

Dowd said a wireless broadband network is important to the New York Police Department on several levels. For the cop on the beat, responding to a domestic violence call for example, he said, the network would mean access to more information instantly. “I can tell you what I'd want to see,” Dowd said. “I'd want to know what was the last time police were at that address and were they there for a domestic incident or not? Are there are any domestic incident reports from pervious incidents filed at that location? Have there been any arrests at that location? Is there an active court order of protection at that address?"

The network would see other uses during major incidents, like the recent Time Square bomb case, which led police to clear thousands of tourists from the heart of New York, Dowd said. “It would bring in high definition real-time video capability for the bomb squad or the capability of the bomb squad to utilize multiple robots at one time,” he said. “Right now it’s very problematic for them. We don’t have enough dedicated frequencies just for that purpose.”