Red tape hinders emergency calling networks
The day after I wrote the twitter post, I found an articlie in The Australian newspaper titled Bungling silenced Victoria bushfires warning.
Quote: The federal Government is now fast-tracking plans to let state and territory emergency services access the national database of phone numbers, in order to bombard residents in areas of danger with automated phone calls and text messages.
Hi Andrew,
Something that you ought to know about communications and fire rescue; fire departments have been playing catchup with radio capabilities ever since the first portable radios were made. It is a sad situation, but what is even worse is when you purchase perfectly good equipment, like new radios, or a new command unit, and they go unused for three or four years. Local elected officials, and appointed upper level fire service administrators have lost jobs over decisions like that. Sure, retrospect makes that seem like a small price to pay in light of the fires down there, but when the disaster doesn’t strike, a lot of tax payers are happy to tell you how much they don’t like your latest program, and the fire department always gets the short end of the stick during those conversations.
Cisco
Oklahoma, United States of America (Loyal TTR podcast listener)