The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
Copyright 2007 The Columbus Dispatch
All Rights Reserved
COLUMBUS, Ohio — If disaster ever strikes central Ohio, local emergency workers should be able to communicate between agencies using one radio system. They would know whom to contact and have the equipment to do it. Lack of communication between rescue workers was a severe problem in New York City after the World Trade Center towers were destroyed by terrorists.
Central Ohioans can thank those Columbus and Franklin County officials who had the foresight to recognize this problem and solve it years before 9/11 occurred.
Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security graded 75 U.S. urban areas on their communications between emergency responders. The Columbus area scored near the top, receiving “complete” ratings in all three categories: governance, operating procedures and usage.
This area fared so well because it has had a countywide radio system and aid agreements between police and fire departments in all jurisdictions since the mid-1990s. Back then, Franklin County Commissioner Arlene Shoemaker and Columbus Safety Director Tom Rice, now safety director for Port Columbus, pushed the issue by organizing meetings and negotiating to get all municipalities and townships on the same page.
That was quite a feat, considering the mistrust between the smaller governments and Columbus in those days. Now, everyone is on board — including the Columbus Health Department, all the hospitals and some state and federal agencies — and they train regularly.
But it is troubling that many other U.S. cities haven’t improved their systems and policies enough since the 9/11 attacks. Only five other urban areas received the three complete ratings: San Diego; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Washington; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Laramie County, Wyo.
Cleveland received the second-worst score in the country. Police and firefighters for 59 Cuyahoga County municipalities talk on 47 different radio systems. They generally communicate by relaying messages through dispatchers.
Also at the bottom were Chicago (the worst); Mandan, N.D.; Baton Rouge, La.; and American Samoa.
But as Homeland Security says, a bad score doesn’t necessarily mean an area doesn’t know how to handle an emergency; it simply means that agencies might be handicapped by deficiencies in their communications.
Toledo and Cincinnati, the only other Ohio regions in the report, scored in the middle.
Toledo’s Lucas County will have a countywide radio system by June, but it has no formal agreements with surrounding counties. Cincinnati has the added difficulty of coordinating with agencies across the river and in Kentucky and Indiana, which have their own budgets, equipment and procedures.
The report revealed something that Americans might have guessed on their own: The federal government is handing out millions of dollars to outfit cities in case of a disaster, but some local governments have their priorities out of whack.
They purchase gadgets and vehicles better suited for a combat zone; meanwhile, their agencies can’t reach each other in emergencies, or if they do, the chain of command is unclear.
This report should prompt residents in the worst-performing cities to ask where all that federal money has gone for the past five years and why interoperability of communications wasn’t at the top of the agenda.