Regulatory and policy issues protecting public safety with better communications systems

The communications failure present in the September 11 World Trade Center tragedy served as the basis for this paper. These communications failures are not the result of simple operator error or a single design flaw. The problems are rooted in the basic technical architecture of the communications infrastructure used for public safety in the United States, and the policy that produced that infrastructure. This paper presents innovation in both technology and policy to address the many problems.