Too Many PSAPs With Different Architectures Complicate Emergency Response, O'Rielly Says
The U.S. might be better off if there were only three public safety answering points nationwide, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Monday at the initial meeting of the FCC Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture (TFOPA) at the agency' headquarters. TFOPA kicked off with agency officials sketching out the goals for the new group.
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The new task force has three working groups: Working Group 1: Optimal Approach to Cybersecurity for PSAPs; Working Group 2: Optimal Approach to NG911 Architecture Implementation by PSAPs; and Working Group 3: Optimal Approach to Next-Generation 911 Resource Allocation for PSAPs. TFOPA will look for additional industry and public safety officials to serve on the working groups, FCC officials said. Working groups are to write reports for release in the next six to nine months.
O’Rielly, who had backed creation of the task force, said its first job should be to examine the “optimal configuration” of PSAPs and networks “in terms of operations and cost efficiencies and emergency response.” O’Rielly noted that there are more than 5,900 operating PSAPs with many different configurations. A “more cohesive, integrated configuration” could reduce potential problems and vulnerabilities, he said.
If the U.S. were to rebuild the emergency response system, given current knowledge of network architecture and emergency communications, there likely would be considerably fewer PSAPs, O’Rielly said. “By some estimates, the current structure would be able to operate at optimal efficiency with as few as three nationwide,” he said. “Others argue there should no more than one per state.” O’Rielly said the task force should try to get a handle on how many PSAPs are optimal as the nation moves to enhanced 911.
O’Rielly also urged the task force to look at whether fees collected by carriers to pay for 911 upgrades are being used for other purposes. The FCC last month released its sixth report to Congress on whether states are diverting 911 funds to pay other costs, he said. “The good news is the state of Kansas is no longer diverting fees. The bad news is that the number of states conducting such diversions has increased from four to six.” The FCC should discourage diversion of 911 fees, he said.
Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson stressed the importance of the cybersecurity focus, one of his top themes as bureau chief (see 1402190034). Simpson said 95 percent of spending in the area isn't on hardware. “Cybersecurity is not the equipment you buy, it’s really what you do,” he said.
The group should look at how to identify and then protect and defend against cyberthreats, Simpson said. But it’s also important to look closely at response and recovery, he said. “The days of thinking that an adversary won’t get in your network are really over,” Simpson said. “You need to plan that, despite your best of intentions … those with malicious intent will get in your network.”
Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth encouraged task force members to ask questions and delve into issues they think are important that go beyond questions raised by the FCC. Furth also noted the FCC doesn't regulate PSAPs, but does regulate service providers. The FCC’s work “can’t take place in a vacuum,” he said. “We see the task force as something that will inform us in very profound ways even if it’s dealing with aspects of the 911 system that are not directly within our regulatory purview.”
“Sometimes the best outcome of one of these task forces is a really good question,” Simpson said. The working groups need to focus on a discrete number of issues with recommendations that will help the FCC address a difficult set of issues. Simpson said task force recommendations also could be useful to agencies other than the FCC as they examine 911 issues.
Emergency call takers often aren't given their due in terms of their importance to emergency response, said TFOPA Chairman Steve Souder, director of the Department of Public Safety Communications in Fairfax County, Virginia. “I like to say with pride that 911 is the gateway through which every emergency in America must pass,” Souder said. “Before a blue and red light flashes, before a whistle on the volunteer fire station blows, before a pager rings, before an air horn blows, the front line of public safety in the United States are call takers and dispatchers.”