Critical Incident Technology Program: Built on Partnerships

No matter what the critical incident, first responders from all public safety agencies face similar problems and an efficient and effective response requires partnerships among agencies using advanced equipment and technologies. In 1997, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) through its Office of Science and Technology (OS&T) initiated a critical incident technology program to develop solutions relating to agency coordination, personnel training, and equipment and technology development. The program is a collaborative effort among Federal, State, and local public safety agencies. The program focuses on problems common to all public safety agencies. NIJ identifies gaps in existing technology efforts and leverages its annual investment with investments from other agencies totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. To date, numerous new technologies have been produced and some are in the testing stage. This article briefly describes several of these technologies in the areas of biohazard and chemical defense, communications and interoperability, explosives detection and remediation, security, and weapons detection.