Last week, NASNA hosted its first interoperability policy workshop.
Last week, the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) gathered in Dallas for the first interoperability policy workshop. The workshop explored technology, governance, and funding factors to achieve interoperability between emergency communications centers and improve public safety response outcomes.
Included in the meeting—which was led by Mission Critical Partners, Sara Weston Consulting, and the Lafayette Group—were NASNA representatives, statewide interoperability coordinators, legislative/governor’s office officials, and emergency alert and warning coordinators, among other public safety leaders. The following states were represented:
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Louisiana
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Oklahoma
- Nebraska
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New Mexico
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North Dakota
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South Dakota
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Texas
“We all understand that we no longer can build networks and systems in a vacuum,” said Kelli Merriweather, NASNA president and executive director of the Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications (CSEC). “A holistic approach will ensure that all of the networks and systems that public safety agencies and personnel use every day are capable of being well integrated and interoperable and can support each other. These workshops provide a forum to answer that vital question — how do we move forward together?”
The slides presented during the event can be found here.
The next interoperability workshop will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, May 17 – 19. Additional workshops will be hosted in Salt Lake City from July 26 - 28, 2022, and in Washington D.C. from September 13 - 15, 2022. Stay tuned for more from NASNA on this important initiative.