NYPD commissioner: NYPD-FirstNet a ‘match made in heaven’

One advantage that New York City has compared to many other jurisdictions is NYCWIN, the wireless network owned by the city that delivers broadband communications to municipal workers while leveraging spectrum at 2.5 GHz. Charles Dowd, NYPD deputy chief and a FirstNet board member, has noted that NYCWIN sites and backhaul—two key components to any LTE deployment—could be shared with FirstNet, making the rollout easier than in other areas.

Bratton echoed this sentiment.

“ I’m confident that FirstNet would have a big head start here in New York City to show the rest of American law enforcement—indeed, international law-enforcement agencies—the way to go,” Bratton said. “We don’t know when our next big, unexpected event is going to hit that will push our existing commercially built networks to the limit—i.e. Hurricane Sandy. But the reality is that we’re going to have those events, whether they be weather, crime or terrorism. That’s the nature of the world we’re living in, and we need to prepare.

“[FirstNet is] an essential element of that preparation. We need a broadband network that can be built to mission-critical standards. We need a network that can survive a natural disaster and won’t be subject to problems of commercial overload. In short, we need you. We need FirstNet.”