Emergency communicationNY emergency services communication not up to snuff

Nearly ten years after the 9/11 attacks, many police officers and first responders in New York still carry radios that cannot communicate with fellow emergency services personnel working for other agencies and jurisdictions.

State Senator Greg Ball, who is also the chairman of the New York State Homeland Security Committee, told CNN that the issue was highlighted last week during a homeland security hearing.

At the hearing Robert Morris, a police union official, talked about the problems. “The officer carries a radio on his belt but he might as well be wearing a brick,” Morris said.

Ball said he was planning to send a letter Thursday (yesterday) to President Barack Obama to urge hims to take action on the issue.

“Despite nearly a decade passing since the September 11, 2001 attacks … our first responders, the brave men and women who will be standing on the front lines of our next attack and running into buildings as most are running out, still, in far too many instances, do not have proper interoperability they need, and in some cases still cannot communicate at all,” the letter written by state Sen. Greg Ball says.

Ball said that the police and emergency service radios are so bad, that often first responders and police use their personal cell phones instead.