First Responder Broadband and the Year from Hell

Dedicated emergency cellular networks have helped law enforcement officers and agencies communicate during the many crises of 2020.
Dedicated emergency cellular networks have helped law enforcement officers and agencies communicate during the many crises of 2020.
We’ve never seen anything like 2020, and let’s hope and pray we never see it again.
The Bay County (MI) Sheriff’s Office is standing at ready to deploy a 39,000-pound military-grade vehicle if needed to rescue people affected by flooding after the failure of Edenville Dam and breach of Sanford Dam, both in neighboring Midland County, the sheriff said.
Officer Emily Blackmon told Fox 5 that as the storm closed in on her home, she was listening to the radio when and heard her street mentioned. That's when she and her children jumped in the bathtub.
The Lawrence County Coroner said that Deputy Robert Ainsworth and his wife Paula were killed in their home.
In past March issues, POLICE has covered less-lethal solutions, firearms training, and response to the 1989 San Francisco Bay Area earthquake. Here's a look at the pages of POLICE 10, 20, and 30 years ago.
An officer with the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks suffered a fatal heart attack after a 14-hour shift of patrolling parks and remote areas in the evacuation zone where wildfire had just destroyed more than 20 homes and prompted mandatory evacuations of 100,000 residents.
A police training exercise led to the Tsunami sirens activating on the islands of Oahu and Maui, sparking a brief panic among residents.
An officer with the Hartselle Police Department was given the medal of valor for her actions in July that resulted in a woman's life being saved from deadly floodwaters.
Policing in an area where a natural disaster is actively unfolding presents some unique challenges. Let's examine some of them so that when tragedy strikes in your jurisdiction—whether that's a hurricane, a tornado, a flash flood, a blizzard, an earthquake, a volcano, a wildfire, or something else—you've got a handle on what you've got to handle.