4.1   Preamble

The ability of public safety officials to respond to emergencies to save lives and protect property requires modern and reliable communications.  Governors have worked to address the long-standing challenge of providing first responders with interoperable communications.  Great strides have been made, but today’s systems remain complex and costly and fail to provide public safety officials with reliable technologies such as email, video and text messaging.

4.2    Public Safety Broadband Network

The nation has a unique opportunity to dramatically improve first responder communications by developing the nation’s first interoperable public safety broadband network.  Governors support the efforts of Congress and the Administration to make this network a reality and provide the following recommendations to ensure the network meets the needs of public safety:

4.2.1   Principles.

• Give states maximum oversight and flexibility in the network’s build out and governance to ensure nationwide coverage and interoperability.
• Ensure that states’ priorities and views are properly represented as the first responder network authority (FirstNet) begins construction and implementation of the network.

Time limited (effective Winter Meeting  2013 – Winter Meeting 2015).
Adopted Winter Meeting 2013.