FCC public safety plan gets police backing

The Fraternal Order of Police threw its weight behind the federal plan to fund a public safety network for first responders by auctioning off a valuable block of spectrum, a strategy that has become a target for criticism from police and fire organizations. 

“It is important that this auction go through in order to realize the full vision of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) … plan for public safety,” wrote Chuck Canterbury, national president of the group, in a June 30 letter to the FCC. The group represents over 325,000 law enforcement officers, by its own count.

The FCC plan to sell off the D-Block of spectrum to commercial providers is mirrored in draft legislation from House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). The proceeds will fund a broadband network that the FCC says will allow police and firemen to get on mobile devices and reach one another across the country, regardless of state and township lines.

But the plan’s reliance on commercial networks has come under fire from a coalition of police and fireman organizations called the Public Safety Alliance as well as the New York City Police Department, who wants the D-Block spectrum allocated singularly to first responders.

The FCC contends its plan, which could cost as much as $16 billion, is equally effective and more cost-friendly than giving the D-Block directly to first responders. The agency notes that its network will be built as wireless providers roll out their 4G networks, making it unnecessary for the government to duplicate those resources, a prospect that could be financially impossible. 

“Lets have one truck go out, not two,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at a hearing in June. 

Capitol Hill has also weighed in the controversy, with Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, introducing legislation to stop the D-Block auction. Calling the D-Block “ideal” for a public safety network, King said such a network is needed during “large-scale emergencies, such as a terrorist attack.”

Also opposing a D-Block auction, New York Police Department Deputy Chief Charles Dowd said that sudden emergencies can cause commercial networks to become overloaded when hundreds of police and firemen within a small radius get on their radios at once. “And I get yelled at by the command staff that they can’t pick up their cell phone calls,” he said.

But when President Barack Obama signed an executive order last month committing the federal government to freeing up more spectrum for wireless broadband, the White House emphasized commercial auctions and made no overtures to the groups who want the D-Block devoted to fire responders. 

Lawrence Summers, the White House National Economic Council director, said at the time that auctions — rather than government-directed allocations — lead to the most efficient use of the spectrum.