Survey: Interoperability tops list of Canada first responder issues
By: Lisa Williams
InterGovWorld.com
Copyright 2007 InterGovWorld.com

Canada — Interoperability is the number one issue facing Canadian first responders with respect to improving their ability to enhance public safety. This was one of the key findings of a survey released yesterday by the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) and commissioned by the Canadian Police Research Centre (CPRC).

The survey, Keeping Canadians Safe, polled 144 chiefs of fire, police, paramedic and emergency response organizations about their current use of technology, and asked them to identify a range of services they would like to see available in order to improve collaboration among jurisdictions.

"We're in the process of expanding our organization, and looking to include the police, medical services, paramedic and fire after 30 years of working solely with the police community," explained Steve Palmer, executive director of the CPRC. "As we were developing our priorities we needed to understand what the priorities are of the other first responders, which was our primary goal with this project."

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