The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, changed the world in an instant. Everyone can recall where they were when they heard or saw news of those senseless, horrific attacks. What happened that day forever changed the police operational landscape and how to protect and secure the United States. Other countries took away lessons learned, too, demonstrating 9/11’s worldwide effects.

The past 18 months have also presented new challenges for U.S. police forces to overcome. It has been an unprecedented time for those who wear a police badge and for their communities. From responding to a worldwide health crisis to managing incidents of civil unrest, U.S. law enforcement officers have been tested in one way or another with the events of 2020 and 2021, making sacrifices every day to protect their communities. And, once again, they have proven to be professional and resilient in the face of all types of challenges and emergencies.

Fortunately, public safety technology has evolved in significant ways since 9/11, helping law enforcement better confront the challenges of today. The FirstNet public safety communications network is one of the most demonstrable advancements, as it provides additional tools for police to carry out their work more securely and efficiently. The network was established so that police officers would be more connected than ever, while directly addressing some of the communications challenges responding officers faced on 9/11.

But none of this happened overnight. Following the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the U.S. public safety community made a major push to enhance their communications capabilities. The IACP led a full court press on policy makers and tech industry leaders to deliver better capabilities and more network reliability and coverage, so that law enforcement officers can stay connected during daily operations and emergencies.

A Public Safety Network Is Born

The tragedies of 9/11 revealed fundamental problems with communication systems used by U.S. first responders. The radios that police, fire, and paramedics relied on did not effectively operate across different agencies. Some of these issues were operational, while the majority were technical. Mobile cellphone networks were new and emerging and were overwhelmed by the high volume of calls. First responders struggled to communicate with each other. These difficult and traumatic times are well documented, and those weaknesses in communications became seared into minds of police officers living and working during that period.

The investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks identified these challenges and described needs for much more spectrum to be dedicated for public safety usage. The release of The Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States in 2004 was a landmark moment for the future of public safety communications. The commission recommended dedicating a swath of radio spectrum for a single purpose—establishing an interoperable nationwide public safety network.¹

Building on the commission’s recommendation, public safety practitioners joined together to advocate before Congress for a broadband network of their own—one that would serve first responders’ unique and robust communications needs. The IACP served as a leading voice for law enforcement’s diverse community and, working closely with other public safety organizations, IACP pushed for a nationwide network that would deliver interoperability and innovation to public safety, enabling first responders to communicate with each other through disasters, large events, and everyday emergencies.

As a result of public safety’s advocacy, legislation creating FirstNet was signed into law in 2012.² The law provided $7 billion and 20 megahertz of broadband spectrum to establish a network large enough to connect all of the United States’ public safety personnel. It also established the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) to oversee and manage the planning, build-out, and maintenance of that network. The FirstNet Authority was also charged with making sure that public safety had a voice in and influence over the design and operation of the network.

Today, FirstNet is a reality. After launching the network across the United States in 2018, FirstNet is now operational in every state and serves thousands of public safety agencies and connects first responders in every state and territory. While other countries undertake efforts to improve communications, FirstNet represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for U.S. public safety to improve nationwide communications.

The Broadband Revolution Comes to Public Safety

Today, FirstNet serves thousands of public safety agencies. It is more than a network; FirstNet is a critical tool for law enforcement operations, especially in confronting COVID-19 while continuing daily operations. Many officers now carry multiple reliable communications tools, which were but a dream on 9/11, and public safety is realizing the benefits a digital revolution.

Officers can now use smartphones or mobile devices, enabled with public safety broadband like FirstNet, to file reports directly from the palm of their hands or patrol vehicles, instead of losing valuable time traveling back to their stations to file reports. They can stay connected wherever their mission might take them with much smaller and more rugged mobile devices, designed specifically for their extreme work conditions.³ Commanding officers and dispatchers can track officers’ locations with more precision in the field using mobile apps, allowing real-time management of incidents and events for increased officer safety before, during, and after response.

But this was not the case 20 years ago, when public safety depended on—and sometimes competed for—the same communications airwaves and systems as the general public. Commercial carriers were just beginning to deploy networks with options beyond voice. Those commercial carrier networks are much more mature today, and the FirstNet Authority is leading the charge toward even higher service delivery by working with first responders, major public safety organizations, and the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC).⁴

The PSAC consists of members representing all disciplines of public safety, as well as federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local government. The committee helps guide specifications for enhanced coverage, availability, and reliability of FirstNet. The IACP has been a member of the PSAC since it was established by the FirstNet Authority in 2013.

As new public safety markets emerge for first responder communications, including advanced technologies like Next Generation 911 (NG911), FirstNet plans to remain dedicated to law enforcement’s specific uses and needs. FirstNet is a driving force for devices and applications that are developed exclusively for police officers’ effectiveness and efficiencies. Broadband offers amazing opportunities for improved communications, and the FirstNet Authority is listening to current users through established programs, like the PSAC. This work with public safety will help fast track access to technologies and is aimed at overcoming some of the communications challenges experienced on 9/11.

The FirstNet Authority’s persistent involvement with testing and listening to practitioners has contributed to smartphone handsets being more rugged and reliable, designed with law enforcement’s mission in mind. Broadband communications among law enforcement and between other first responders are now more reliable and interoperable with a public safety prioritized communications system.

IACP Leadership on Public Safety Communications

The IACP has been a leader in law enforcement communications for decades and a driving force behind the creation of FirstNet. IACP’s loud and persistent voice helped lead to massive investments in the future of public safety communications with the deployment of FirstNet—the first nationwide public safety broadband network.

Today, the organization is playing a key role in the future of this network as it works with the FirstNet Authority to incorporate officers’ feedback and needs for the network. The FirstNet Authority is committed to listening carefully to feedback from law enforcement as their jobs change and evolve with society.

Chief (Ret.) Harlin R. McEwen, a 37-year law enforcement veteran and former chair of the IACP Communications and Technology Committee, points to the IACP’s leadership on communications and its commitment to interoperability for all of public safety as laying the foundation for the creation of the FirstNet network. “Prior to September 11, 2001, all of our efforts in the public safety community to improve interoperability were focused on trying to get people to use standardized land mobile radio,” he said.⁵

But standardizing land mobile radio presented numerous challenges. As Chief McEwen explains,

We were having limited success. It was expensive. And thousands of police, fire, and EMS systems funded by a combination of local, state, and federal funding were all out of sync. Plus, we needed new technologies to improve data exchange.

Chief McEwen credited public safety leaders for looking to cellular technology as a viable path forward to create an inherently interoperable solution. Commercial mobile data services were becoming more attractive to law enforcement as new tools like smartphones were produced, but the networks and related technologies were not built to the mission-critical specifications that public safety requires. The availability of the network—especially to connect during an emergency—was just as important to law enforcement as faster download speeds. Public safety needed a mobile data network that would be dedicated to their unique mission.

The tragedies of 9/11 magnified the need for a new nationwide public safety communications system in the United States. Chief McEwen says,

On September 11, 2001, when those significant events happened in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in the Pennsylvania plane crash, if responders had been able to better communicate with each other, many lives would have been saved.

It wasn’t the only thing that moved us to where we are today with FirstNet, but certainly it was a big one.

The IACP and other leaders in the U.S. public safety community banded together to look at new opportunities to improve interoperability on a nationwide basis. “We began to strategize on how we could move this forward in some more meaningful way,” Chief McEwen said of early advocacy efforts around the network.

Now, with the network delivering for public safety users across the United States, the reality of FirstNet is far greater than anything he and other public safety leaders had envisioned for it. “Today, FirstNet is absolutely going gangbusters compared to what we expected in those days,” he says.

Since its launch, FirstNet has supported U.S. public safety in almost every type of emergency or incident, from hurricanes, floods, and tornados to coping with and confronting the social unrest and the persistent COVID-19 pandemic.⁶ Public safety has been quick to adopt the network, with FirstNet surpassing more than 2 million connections on this shared network in 2021.

The network will continue to expand and evolve based on public safety’s needs. Specifically, the FirstNet Authority set a priority for serving public safety in rural areas. Now, more than 60 percent of the United States’ rural population has FirstNet’s dedicated public safety airwaves available to their communities’ police officers, firefighters, EMTs, emergency managers, and emergency telecommunicators.

As agencies continue to adopt FirstNet, the FirstNet Authority works with them to gather best practices and lessons learned. Partnering with public safety is as important now as it was in the early days of planning for the nationwide network.

Situational Awareness for Law Enforcement

In law enforcement, situational awareness is everything. The more information officers have about their environment, the better decisions they make to keep everyone safe and complete the mission.

The Green Bay Police Department in Wisconsin uses FirstNet to enhance situational awareness. The agency has integrated their FirstNet devices with mapping technologies and a mass communications incident command system. This combination allows for quick, efficient communications with everyone, including detectives, patrol officers, SWAT teams, and even other agencies. It also aids in locating officers and resources. Command staff, shift commanders, and the dispatch center can see where all officers are at any given time, which can improve officer safety.⁷

When a shooting suspect fled into a wooded area, the department’s SWAT team swarmed the area to search for the suspect. Commanders in the office used FirstNet-enabled technologies to track and communicate with the SWAT team and orchestrate a methodical search, all in real time. They assessed the area and established a perimeter, discovered the area encompassed local schools, and deployed officers to monitor the locked-down campuses and provide additional protection.

Paul Ebel, Green Bay Police’s Investigative Commander, credits FirstNet with getting information into the hands of officers when they need it. “Think about situational awareness when you’re getting a call to a large disturbance or even an active shooter at a school,” he said.⁸

Having this information in the hands of the officers as they actually get out of the squad car—I think it’s very powerful and we weren’t able to do that with the phones that officers had prior to [FirstNet]. FirstNet enabled us to provide better intel to our officers, better response, and coordination. Those are all the things that can save lives in the end.

Public Safety Helps Drive FirstNet into the Future

The experiences of public safety agencies using FirstNet are a driving force for the ongoing operation and evolution of the network. Public safety users are more than stakeholders for the FirstNet Authority, whose role it is to oversee the creation, delivery, and growth of the FirstNet network. They are the foundation of everything the FirstNet Authority does with the network.

From the outset, the FirstNet Authority worked with the IACP and the public safety community to plan for the network and help address the communications challenges they experienced on 9/11. The goal was to provide officers an easier way to communicate with other agencies and disciplines and to augment their land mobile radios with mobile data capabilities. It was clear that priority access and a highly available network would be important to law enforcement, as well as push-to-talk and location-based services.

Today, FirstNet is delivering the nationwide high-speed network that public safety asked for with priority and preemption, so FirstNet users never have to compete for bandwidth. The network is providing the reliable connection that first responders need to take advantage of new tools for situational awareness, thus helping to keep officers safe and improve operations.

In addition to deploying public safety’s dedicated spectrum—Band 14 —where first responders need coverage the most, the network has a fleet of more than 80 mobile cell sites. These deployable assets can boost coverage and capacity during disasters, large planned events, and in remote areas at no cost to FirstNet subscribing agencies. These assets were just a vision right after the events of 9/11; now they are actively helping with operations and response and recovery efforts.

As FirstNet was being established, the public safety community was vocal in their request for a tailored ecosystem of apps and devices that focus on their unique mission. FirstNet now has more than 165 applications and 265 devices available to users, which have gone through rigorous reviews to ensure they meet public safety criteria.

FirstNet is also delivering integrated tools designed to meet U.S. public safety’s specific needs, like FirstNet Push-to-Talk and High-Power User Equipment (HPUE). HPUE offers a powerful tool for law enforcement agencies, boosting signal strength for better connectivity in rural areas and in buildings.⁹ This type of equipment is exclusive to FirstNet as a dedicated public safety network.

The advancement of broadband technologies is dramatic when compared to the communications tools used to respond to 9/11. Still, the FirstNet Authority continues to press for more improvements of the network, equipment, and applications available to police.

In addition, FirstNet is bringing new innovations to public safety that did not exist before. One of the most promising new capabilities for law enforcement is the ability to track the vertical location — or the z-axis—of a first responder via mapping applications. Having a z-axis capability improves location accuracy for personnel with 3D precision by pinpointing an officer’s exact location, including the exact height or floor within a building. Whether responding to a 911 call or locating an injured officer, z-axis capability holds many possibilities to save lives and reduce risk to both officers and the public they serve.

The integration of location-based services into FirstNet, including the z-axis, has many potential lifesaving benefits for law enforcement:

■ Officer safety. An officer’s exact location, including height in a high-rise building, is available to team members and dispatch—without verbal cues.

■ Agency Coordination. When responding to an incident, officers can see the location of other officers during the call for service and coordinate their response.

■ Effective search operations. Incident command can track officers in a building search and can locate all officers when establishing a perimeter.

■ Insight into past events. In a post-incident review, an officer’s movement and path can be examined to recreate the scene and develop lessons learned from the event.

As the FirstNet Authority has done with the planning and design of the network, it continues to engage with the IACP and the public safety community to understand their critical communications needs and drive further innovations. These engagements have direct impacts on the future of the network.

Recently, based on public safety’s feedback, the FirstNet Authority upgraded the network, including enabling access to 5G.¹⁰ This is the start of a multiphase, multiyear journey to deliver full 5G capabilities on FirstNet for all U.S. public safety users.

Access to 5G is a major development for the network, yet it is just scratching the surface of future FirstNet innovations for first responders. Next-generation technology such as 5G will provide peak data speeds, higher throughput capability, and improved latency. It will be exciting to see what innovations lie ahead as 5G becomes ready for public safety use.

FirstNet Is Designed to Endure

Nobody could have predicted the intense challenges that public safety has faced over the past year when designing the concept for FirstNet. The pandemic struck at a time when natural disasters and manmade incidents tested the resiliency of the United States like never before, including the millions of first responders who serve as lifelines to their communities.

Fortunately, the FirstNet network was designed with input from U.S. public safety from the ground up so that it would provide for their communications needs in everyday situations and for all types of emergencies. It also incorporates the key findings and lessons learned from communication challenges of the past, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The network is providing U.S. law enforcement agencies with many new powerful tools in their officers’ toolbox and the results are clear—once agencies have access to broadband features and functions, they are unwilling to go back to old methods of primarily voice and limited data that existed before 9/11.

The network was built for all types of emergencies. It was developed for all types and sizes of agencies. And it was designed to last. Now, more than ever, U.S. law enforcement values and depends on broadband and reliable, wide-area coverage offered by FirstNet.

As the world marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it’s important to never forget why FirstNet exists today. Together, the FirstNet Authority, the IACP, and the entire U.S. public safety community must continue to work together to ensure FirstNet delivers what public safety needs now and for the next 20 years and beyond, to protect the safety of officers and the communities they serve. d

Notes:

¹National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report (July 2004).

²FirstNet Authority, “FirstNet: The History of Our Nation’s Public Safety Network.”

³FirstNet, “Devices and Accessories.”

⁴FirstNet Authority, “About the Public Safety Advisory Committee.”

⁵Harlin McEwen (retired chief of police), telephone interview, April 12, 2020.

⁶FirstNet Authority, “FirstNet Pandemic Response.”

⁷Timothy Pierce, “Connecting Green Bay Law Enforcement On and Off the Field,” FirstNet Authority Blog, January 14, 2021.

⁸Pierce, “Connecting Green Bay Law Enforcement On and Off the Field.”

⁹Donny Jackson, “AT&T Unveils FirstNet Innovations, Including HPUE, Vertical Location, Deployable Offerings,” Urgent Comms, January 27, 2021.

¹⁰Stephanie Kanowitz, “FirstNet Rolling Out 5G, Tower-to-Core Encryption,” GCN, April 15, 2021.

Please cite as

Craig Allen and Edward Parkinson, “Communications from 9/11 to COVID-19: Lessons Learned That Have Shaped and Modernized Law Enforcement Communications,” Police Chief Online, September 1, 2021.