The U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded more than $960 million in Public Safety Interoperable Communications (PSIC) Grants to the states. Now the focus shifts from how much money each state and region will receive, to who will get that money and what they will use it to acquire.

Under the PSIC grant program, the money is administered by the State Administrative Agency (SAA) for each state. These offices are typically the state's department of emergency management or homeland security. 

By Dec. 3, 2007, each state and territory must identify projects to be funded under the award, and they must submit an Investment Justification (IJ) for those projects along with the Statewide Communications Interoperability Plan. Each IJ will include up to 10 investments or projects. All public safety organizations interested in PSIC funding will be able to seek funding through their SAAs.

The Department of Commerce developed several documents that can help interested public safety organizations determine how to submit their funding requests to their SAA office. Go to http://www.ntia.doc.gov/psic/index.html to see a list of all the related documents and guidelines.

The stakes are enormous. This is a one-time only grant, so organizations that do not succeed in their project request will not be able to apply again. Since each state can submit a total of 10 IJs, requesters will have to join together in regional IJs.

By December, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the Department of Commerce will solicit, select and train volunteers to review PSIC IJs and Statewide Communications Interoperability Plans. They will conduct peer reviews of the applications and submit their recommendations for final approval of the plans and justifications.

This grant program is an attempt to improve the state of interoperable communications across the country. Ever since 9/11, it has been apparent that cross-jurisdictional and cross-agency communications are woefully inadequate. Congress began to press for the establishment of interoperability standards, guidelines, protocols and plans.

Numerous pilot programs were developed to establish the framework for a national interoperability initiative to address these shortcomings, but until the PSIC grants, money was not available for the full deployment of these systems.

However, even $960 million will only stretch so far -- and the needs are colossal. Hurricane Katrina and the recent wildfires in California have shown that interoperable communications systems will have to be available to thousands of public safety organizations spread out all over the country. In addition, they all will need multiple channels of communication, land-mobile radios, cell phones, computer networks, satellite phones and other devices to have the full arsenal of communication devices they might need in a major incident.

Public safety organizations should contact their SAA office immediately to determine what IJs are currently being developed. If their organization or jurisdiction is not included in these programs, they should seek to align their needs with other organizations in their region to improve their chances of success in the award process.

With other justice and public safety grants programs receiving less funding than in previous years, the Public Safety Interoperable Communications Grant Program may be the only opportunity responder organizations will have to address the limitations of their current communications capabilities.