DAYTON — Flanked by state and local emergency workers, Gov. Martin O’Malley last week launched a sweeping initiative aimed at linking the statewide communications systems used by fire, police and other first responders to better handle crisis situations.
The new network will not be fully online for at least four or five years, but state officials expect parts of the system to be operational sooner. It’s designed to fill gaps in communications that have long plagued emergency responses, such as the January shootout between police and an escaped inmate who overpowered guards at Laurel Regional Hospital.
Maryland State Police Superintendent Terrence B. Sheridan said communications incompatibility between agencies allowed the inmate to escape for about seven hours, until he was sighted in Suitland and killed in a gunfight with police.
‘‘This is a clear example ... that had they had the ability for interoperability communications, they could have been talking to each other and more rapidly responded to locations where this escapee could have been, and in this particular case fortunately no one else was hurt,” Sheridan said, noting that the state police’s radio system is 50 years old.
The effort to make all emergency radios in the state compatible and connect them to 911 centers and hospitals statewide is important to keep Marylanders safe and aware when events ranging from serious car accidents to terrorist attacks occur, O’Malley (D) said.
‘‘It’s a horrible tragedy whenever any single life is lost for any reason in our state,” he said. ‘‘It’s a preventable tragedy when it happens because we can’t communicate with each other.
O’Malley signed an executive order July 10 establishing a project management office to supervise the construction and operation of the new communications system, which will be partially paid for by a $22.9 million federal grant that will help fund 22 projects across the state. In total, the price tag could exceed $1 billion, said John M. Contestabile, who is heading up the project
The system will eventually be linked up to emergency agencies in neighboring states.
Local emergency services coordinators said the project will be beneficial.
‘‘We don’t care what color uniform you where, we don’t care what’s written on the side of the ambulance or what’s written on the side of the fire truck,” said John L. Chew Jr., director of the Queen Anne’s County Department of Emergency Services. ‘‘Our philosophy is whoever’s closest gets the call. We’re striving to be ... an emergency services system without borders.”
The late Montgomery County Councilwoman Marilyn J. Praisner worked with several state and federal agencies for years on the ability of first responders to talk to one another.
