Our Nationwide Community
Our community consists of practitioners and policy makers representing a diversity of public safety disciplines,
jurisdictions, and levels of government who serve on the Emergency Response Council (ERC). The ERC exists to
share best practices, provide input to all levels of government, and further progress on interoperable communications
for the Nation.
Executive Summary
The Emergency Response Council (ERC) met in Denver, Colorado on June 4, 2007 to forge
agreements on a Nationwide Plan for Interoperable Communications. This was the first time a group
of public safety practitioners led an effort to draft a Nationwide Plan for Interoperable Communications.
We believe the agreements set forth in this Plan must spur all levels of government and all public
safety services to act differently, or interoperability challenges will continue to plague our Nation.
We initiated this process at the December 2006 ERC meeting hosted by the Office for Interoperability
and Compatibility (OIC) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At this meeting, the ERC
charged two teams of practitioners to develop guiding principles for a Nationwide Plan prior to the June
ERC meeting. The OIC and the newly created Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) supported
the work of these teams. Through the dedication of these volunteer practitioners, the teams were able
to formulate principles, and to set forth critical actions essential for any nationwide planning effort on
interoperability.
During the June meeting, the teams presented their principles and actions for the ERC to debate,
upgrade, and ultimately validate as those components required to implement a Nationwide Plan. By
the end of our meeting, we reaffirmed our shared vision for a “system of systems,” we agreed on 2
guiding principles, and we outlined 22 key actions that must be focused on immediately.
To achieve the “system of systems” vision, we agreed all levels of government and public safety
must use our guiding principles to drive partnerships, design systems, forge agreements, and allocate
resources for interoperable communications.
While the principles are fundamental tenets that can be used to guide all interoperability efforts, we
also agreed there are key actions practitioners across the Nation must implement now in the following
initiative areas:
-
Leadership & Coordination: Clear leadership structures to link all levels of government
and to coordinate resources must be put in place. Otherwise, emergency responders will
continue to suffer from misdirection and inefficient use of resources system
- Design & Interconnects: Each system must be designed with integrity so it can interoperate with other systems when needed and as authorized, but have the ability to adapt to future technologies as they are developed.
- Standards & Certification: For systems to interoperate seamlessly, technical standards
must be in place, as well as a certification/testing program to verify these standards are
correctly implemented in equipment and products.
- Standardization & accreditation: Standardization of protocol, procedures, and
accreditation must be in place for responders to establish consistency of operations and
common skill sets for personnel across the Nation.
Although we seek the continued support of our Federal partners, such as OIC and OEC, this is our
statement of what we believe is required to advance interoperability. We are choosing to commit our
time and focus our energies to implement this Plan because we believe this is what it will take for
nationwide interoperability to become a reality.
