[This letter was handed out during a seminar at the 1999 annual conference of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO)]

Attention APCO Members,

Prior to and during this week's conference many references will be made to recent tragic events across the country and around the world. Colorado's own Columbine High School shootings on April 20th of this year were a grim reminder to all of us that we live in a frightening and highly unpredictable era of violence. Nowhere is safe. The cities are small and large, rural and urban, rich and poor. The story unfolds in an all-too-familiar way. A major inter-jurisdictional incident explodes and multiple police, fire and EMS agencies scramble into action. To the untrained observer, much is left to criticize and question. "Why didn't they...?" Why couldn't they...?" And yet to those of us actually in public safety professions, we marvel at the wonders accomplished in spite of antiquated and/or incompatible equipment, insufficient manpower and sometimes firepower, low or no funding for the resources we so desperately need, and even political barriers to inter-agency cooperation.

The ability of field units to talk to each other in day-to-day, mutual aid, and task force operations is essential to the success of any multi-jurisdictional situation. Interoperability, the sharing of communication resources and information, is the issue. Unfortunately, many agencies do not recognize their interoperability limitations until they are in the midst of a crisis. The Colorado Chapter of APCO, in cooperation with the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC)--Rocky Mountain Region, has taken the initiative to reduce and eventually eliminate interoperability concerns for any and all public safety agencies in the state of Colorado.

This week I urge you to meet and talk with attendees wearing red, white and blue ribbons with "CITF" in gold lettering. I also encourage you to visit our website (still under construction) at www.douglas.co.us/sheriff/citf to learn more about the specific activities of the Colorado task force. Finally, I invite you to learn and share as much as you possible can about interoperability to begin similar projects in your own states and countries.

Together we can make a difference!

Patricia Reed
Co-Chairperson
Colordao Interoperability Task Force
reedpa@ci.colospgs.co.us