IP: spectrum greed and public safety

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Mon, 07 Apr 1997 14:38:44 -0700
To: farber () cis upenn edu
From: Suzanne Johnson <johnson () rahul net>
Subject: spectrum greed and public safety


Dan Gillmor's column on "Airway Robbery" points out the significant greed
on the part of the television broadcast industry in accepting free spectrum
to encourage the advent of digital TV.  


Perhaps no one has pointed out to Congress and to the American people, just
how this act might affect public safety.  Since it seems to take a
"motherhood and apple pie" issue to start a groundswell action that will
influence Congress, perhaps that is what is needed.


Finding such an issue is not difficult.  Those of us living in California
remember the Polly Klaas kidnapping of a couple of years back.  A child
(Polly Klaas) was kidnapped from her home, and subsequently murdered.
Police broadcast a bulletin with a description of the possible suspect and
the van he was driving.  Meanwhile, the van with Polly had traveled into a
neighboring (law enforcement) jurisdiction, which  got all their
communication on a bandwidth different from that of the jurisdiction where
the event occurred.  So, police only a few miles from the site of the
incident did not hear the broadcast on the kidnapping and the description
of the suspect's van.  What is tragic is that the police in the neighboring
jurisdiction stopped the van with the suspect on some sort of traffic
violation (most likely the kidnap victim was still alive, but
hidden)...but, because they had not heard the alert on the radio channels
they monitored, they had no reason to search the van or pursue the matter.


I believe it is this incident that has led VP Gore to include A06 in his
GITS issue/objectives list:  


A06: Establish The Intergovernmental Wireless Public Safety Network 
(http://www.gits.fed.gov/htm/wireless.htm)


Certainly, the Polly Klaas foundation has done a great deal to pressure
government for legislation to prevent what happened to Polly from happening
to other children.


So, in the end, I believe that Congress and the FCC just haven't made the
connection between what they are doing with the spectrum and what needs to
be done, in part for public safety purposes.  Can the committee you are on
help?  Can a more public portrayal of the need for reform to "save other
children" help?


Certainly the rational arguments of folks like Paul Baran seems to fall on
deaf ears.  Perhaps the "motherhood and apple pie" groundswell needs to be
employed to force even small changes.