Many first responders can’t communicate in emergencies

CARSON CITY -- Ensuring that first responders can communicate with each other in an emergency has been a priority since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but a member of the Homeland Security Commission expressed frustration Wednesday with the lack of progress on "interoperable communications" in Nevada.

Referring to a chart created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, commission Vice Chairman Jerry Keller suggested Nevada has not come far.

"I guess again I'm questioning progress," said Keller, a former Clark County sheriff.

Robert Chisel, an administrator with the Department of Transportation, said progress has been made. "You have to realize there are 17 counties and every county has multiple radio systems," he said.

Keller said he is aware of the difficulties. "I just want to make sure in this presentation I'm going to hear a march forward, not excuses. Try doesn't work. Just tell me how we're going to get there.

"I'm disappointed because in six years we haven't accomplished what was the biggest bugaboo in 9/11 in New York."

Keller and other the commissioners were assured that progress is being made and that money spent on the task will be used efficiently.

Dennis Cobb, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, said Nevada was one of the first states to have a strategic plan for interoperability, which was not an easy accomplishment. All the effort has put Nevada "in the vanguard of emergency services interoperability across the country."

The effort to create interoperable communications is getting nearly $3 million in federal homeland security grant funding this year. The commission was also told an additional $12 million in a separate program will become available to Nevada to achieve that goal.