Essays --

The attacks of 9/11 in 2001 shed a light on many different weaknesses relevant to the security of the United States regarding communication, and disaster response. On every level of government— federal, state, and local— substandard communication methods contributed to the deaths of nearly 3000 people, as well as the growing number of people dying from illnesses that resulted from participating in the cleanup at Ground Zero. There were many communication challenges faced by agencies tasked with responding to the incident, and particularly in the case of law enforcement, these problems likely resulted in more fatalities than would have occurred had better systems been in place. This paper will discuss the communication problems that surfaced during the 9/11 disaster, the results of those problems, and the measures that have been taken to respond to those inadequacies. On September 11, 2001, two airplanes originating in Boston were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center in New York City. Initially, it was unclear that the impact had been intentional, but when the second plane hit, it was evident that this was a terrorist attack. Ultimately, the two buildings collapsed because of the heat of the fire that ensued from the plane crash. Within the next hours, another plane hit the Pentagon and a fourth plane that was hijacked crashed before it reached its destination because the passengers had been able to take control of the plane. They prevented the hijackers from reaching their target, believed to be either the Capital Building or the White House, but the plane crash landed and all aboard were killed. The 9/11 Commission Report indicated that there were several fateful failures of communication at the level of the federal g... ...anslates into virtual remote offices in the vehicles of the NYPD and the FDNY. The events of 9/11 were a tragedy, and resulted in thousands of losses and injuries of first responders, civilians, airline pilots and crew, and many other groups of people. The event also resulted in the loss of a sense of security previously held by people in the United States, and the scope of the incident required the entire infrastructure and security system of the country to be reevaluated and enhanced. Although certainly all that occurred on that day must be considered devastating, it served as a wake-up call to federal, state, and local officials regarding the need for coordination and communication between relevant agencies. It appears that there have been significant advances in these areas since 2001, but the whole issue of communication is a work in progress that must continue.