New Jersey Gets $39.6M for Wireless Public Safety Network That Will Cover Hudson County and Other Areas

By • Aug 18th, 2010 • Category: Blog, News

New Jersey will receive $39,638,152 in federal stimulus funding to help create a new wireless public safety broadband network designed to improve how first responders communicate during emergency situations. The network will be for use by public safety organizations in the state’s Urban Area Security Initiative region, which includes Hudson County as well as Bergen, Essex, Morris, Passaic and Union counties.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who often points out that the chemical facilities that dot the local landscape are high-risk targets for possible terrorism, was quick to applaud the award.

“On September 11, we learned how important it is for police, firefighters and other first responders to be able to communicate with each other and across jurisdictional boundaries during an emergency situation,” he says in a statement. “New Jersey is home to the most dangerous two miles in the country for a terrorist attack and it is critical that our first responders have the most advanced technology available to do their jobs safely and effectively.”

The funding, which will be provided by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, is expected to improve emergency coordination between 51 public safety agencies and the governor’s office says the project will encompass 1,487 square miles and 4.5 million New Jerseyans.

“Once operational, the network will provide real-time access to critical data, ultimately improving the ability of our public safety community to save lives, reduce injuries, and protect New Jersey families,” Gov. Christie says in a statement.

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is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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  • Jayson

    Meanwhile the rest of us will continue to use blogs, facebook, twitter and other crowdsourcing technologies that continue to outstrip centralized news reporting.

    That said, when it comes to emergencies that include terrorism, I strongly believe that it should be based on a *wired* network.

  • Jim Miller

    @Jayson, while the security of a wired network can be a positive, the logistics of trying to build one on-site at a disaster scene are near impossible. While I generally oppose the use of data terminals by emergency responders (as well as radio encryption) due to the lack of public oversight, the vast amount of information involved in such a response really does require data to be shared as well as voice communication. Until 9/11, interoperability was never a major concern to most public safety agencies. That disaster pointed out the flaws in a system where each town, and sometimes each department, did their own purchasing of communications equipment. Incident commanders often had trouble seeing the whole picture of a major scene due to the inability to communicate with cooperating agencies. This kind of situation needs to be coordinated on-site, and the proposed network will allow for things like instantly sharing photos/video of different parts of a disaster to provide incident commanders with a better picture of the overall scene. Currently the best way to accomplish this would be through volunteer amatuer radio operators who are lightyears ahead of public safety agencies in utilizing data over radio, as well as far more knowledgable about the technology behind their equipment. For on-scene communications, this wireless netwwork will be the best way to provide this very much needed interoperability.