First responder preparedness

News and Updates

Draft California Fire Code Includes NIST Tool to Evaluate Wildfire Hazard

September 13, 2021

Severe wildfire disasters are often the product of numerous factors — vegetation, drought, a lack of firefighting resources, and many others — coalescing

NIST Prize Challenge Launches Research for Unmanned Aircraft in Search and Rescue

July 7, 2021

BOULDER, Colo. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has launched a new prize competition to advance the use

New Timeline of Deadliest California Wildfire Could Guide Lifesaving Research and Action

February 8, 2021

On a brisk November morning in 2018, a fire sparked in a remote stretch of canyon in Butte County, California, a region nestled against the western slopes of

Industry Impacts

Photo of NIST scientists with the PSCR Deployable LTE Cell-on-Wheels

First Responder Communications

First responders must be able to communicate during an emergency. Too often in critical situations, communications among public safety agencies are hampered by

Projects and Programs

Sensing and Imaging of concealed objects

Emergency response, law enforcement and military personnel must face threats and dangerous situations as part of their jobs. These threats can vary from knives

Living Yeast Cell Reference Material

Confidence in total or viable microbial cell counting methods is lacking, due in part to a dearth of relevant reference materials. NIST is developing a living

Calibration Services: Beta-Particle Sources and Instruments for Radiation Protection

NIST calibrates certain user-owned encapsulated beta-particle sources and certain standards laboratory transfer instruments for applications in radiation

First responders collecting samples of the yeast surrogate material during a field exercise. (Credit: NIST)

Standards to Support Biothreat Detection

First responders continually receive calls of suspicious materials that are potentially biothreat agents. Obtaining high confidence data from biological

Publications

Voices of First Responders – Applying Human Factors and Ergonomics Knowledge to Improve the Usability of Public Safety Communications Technology: Findings from User-Centered Interviews, Phase 1, Volume 5

February 11, 2021

Author(s)

Yee-Yin Choong, Gavriel Salvendy

With the newly created Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN), the public safety community is in the process of supplementing the use of land mobile

Public Safety Communications Research Division Impact Report: Fiscal Years 2017 2019

March 31, 2020

Author(s)

Jeremy E. Glenn, Isabel Shaw, Marc Leh

The Public Safety Communications Research Division (PSCR) at NIST plays a primary role in research and development to impact public safety operational

Voices of First Responders – Examining Public Safety Communication from the Perspective of 9-1-1 Call Takers and Dispatchers: Findings from User-Centered Interviews, Phase 1, Volume 4

March 24, 2020

Author(s)

Michelle P. Steves, Mary F. Theofanos, Yee-Yin Choong, Shanee T. Dawkins, Susanne M. Furman, Kristen Greene, Sandra S. Prettyman

With the newly created Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN), the public safety community has a unique opportunity to review and improve

Indoor Localization Accuracy of Major Smartphone Location Apps

April 15, 2019

Author(s)

Nader Moayeri, Chang Li, Lu Shi

NIST carried out comprehensive testing in five large buildings to evaluate the accuracy of Fused Location Provider (FLP) Application Programming Interface (API)

Tools and Instruments

Large Aperture Scanner

The Large Aperture Scanner (LAS) scans a radar transceiver over a 5 meter by 20 meter aperture. Image reconstruction techniques enable a three-dimensional