NCJ Number
147714
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 61 Issue: 2 Dated: (February 1994) Pages: 12,14-17,19-20
Date Published
1994
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article addresses the importance of having enough radio frequencies available to law enforcement and the role of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in rulemaking and standards regarding police radio equipment.
Abstract
Congress has mandated that the FCC consider the country's public safety spectrum requirements through the year 2010 and come up with a plan for meeting them. In addition, the International Association of Chiefs of Police has passed several resolutions in recent years with respect to the shortage of radio frequencies available to law enforcement. It has become increasingly difficult over the past 10 years to identify radio spectra that can be allocated for new uses, but more frequencies must be established. While it is hard to predict how many of the 100,000 additional law enforcement officer positions being discussed in connection with the Clinton Administration's 1994 crime bill will be filled, new radios and frequencies will be required to support them. Future police operations will need radio systems tailored to unique and specialized needs: enhanced dispatch and telephone interconnect capabilities; transaction processing enabling short duration, packetized alphanumeric data response; facsimile featuring alphanumeric text and black and white images; snapshot capabilities with higher resolution than facsimile; enhanced decision support capabilities; slow video features enabling the transmission of high resolution color images at modest frame rates; and picture phone capabilities. One approach to radio spectrum relief for law enforcement may be to transfer some Federal Government spectra to the civilian sector. Still another concept supported by the FCC concerns the recent allocation of spectra for use primarily by the commercial community to provide personal communications services on a for-hire basis. The FCC's "spectrum refarming" proposals involve frequencies from the 72-76 MHz band through 512 MHz. Public safety radio licensees, however, have been assured that the FCC does not intend to force a reduction in the allowable power and antenna height of a radio system designed to cover the jurisdiction for which the licensee is responsible.