First Responders

First responders include fire, police, and emergency medical personnel. It is vitally important that they have access to reliable, interoperable communications to assist those in need during emergencies. The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) is committed to working closely with the nation's first responders to help ensure those needs are met. We therefore are pursuing policies and initiatives that will help ensure that the nation's communications infrastructure is reliable in times of crisis.

We also provide information and guidance to first responder organizations to assist them with the development of emergency communications plans. In addition, we seek to increase awareness within the first responder sector about the benefits of enrollment of critical communications circuits in the three federal priority services programs described below.

Priority Services

PSHSB will assist PSAPs with enrollment of critical communications circuits in the Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) program, which provides for priority provisioning and restoration of National Security and Emergency Preparedness services. The Bureau will also assist PSAPs with requests for Wireless Priority Service (WPS) and Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS). These programs focus on the operability of emergency communications in times of crises.

Other Resources

First Responder Guidelines for Emergency Planning. The purpose of the Emergency Planning Guidelines is to provide a framework for emergency preparedness for organizations to use to build their emergency communications plans. The FCC encourages the use of these emergency communications best practices by first responder organizations to improve their emergency communications systems and address unique regulatory or operational requirements which may exist within their organizations. Our guidelines were developed following a thorough review of existing emergency preparedness guidance put forth by several industry groups that developed best practices guidelines.