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About Us

Overview

Too often in critical situations, communications among public safety agencies are hampered by interoperability problems. These incompatibilities are largely due to a lack of standards for a common approach to public safety communications.

National Institute of Standards and Technology logo and link.
National Institute of Standards and Technology Office of Law Enforcement Standards logo and link.

Our PSCR (Public Safety Communications Research) laboratories provide research, development, testing, and evaluation to foster nationwide communications interoperability. Drawing on critical requirements provided by public safety practitioners, the PSCR program provides insight to wireline and wireless standards committees developing standards for voice, data, image, and video communications.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration logo and link.

Housed within the Department of Commerce Labs in Boulder, Colorado, the PSCR program is a joint effort between NIST/OLES (National Institute of Standards and Technology/Office of Law Enforcement Standards) and NTIA/ITS (National Telecommunications and Information Administration/Institute for Telecommunication Sciences). The very successful research performance of the joint effort has earned two Department of Commerce Gold Medal awards, the highest honor granted by the Department. 

Institute for Telecommunication Sciences logo and link.

The PSCR program performs research on behalf of our sponsors at DHS/OIC (Department of Homeland Security/Office for Interoperability and Compatibility) and the DOJ (Department of Justice) COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) office to advance public safety communications interoperability.