First responder preparedness

News and Updates

PSCR Announces $7M Award Program

November 22, 2021

NIST’s Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division recently released the Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program - 2022 (PSIAP-2022) funding

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

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

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

Ongoing

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

Ongoing

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

Metrology and Standards for Canine Olfactory Detection of Explosives

Ongoing

As part of a multi-year interagency agreement between the Office of Standards of the Department of Homeland Security and NIST, NIST is developing measurement

Surrogate Materials to Support Training in Biological Sampling and Detection in the Field

Ongoing

Developing and maintaining a nationwide capability in field biological assessment requires routine training with biological materials. Attenuated biothreat

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 Theofanos, Yee-Yin Choong, Shanee Dawkins, Susanne M. Furman, Kristen K. Greene, Sandra Spickard 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