Research, Testing and Assessment

By J.D. Bolich

State and local entities are purchasing emergency responder equipment at an increasing rate. To keep pace with demand, manufacturers have developed new and innovative technologies which promise greater efficiency and effectiveness in public safety. Though millions of dollars are spent each year toward this end, there have been few processes in place to effectively evaluate whether public safety equipment actually performs as desired.

To assist emergency responders in maximizing their budgets and selecting equipment which effectively performs their desired functions, the Texas A&M Engineering Program, along with component agencies Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) Division, Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), developed the technical assistance program. Utilizing these diverse agencies and existing facilities such as Disaster City®, the technical assistance program bridges the gap between academics, research, training and outreach. Through the use of real-life procurement processes and subject matter experts (SMEs) who are skilled practitioners in their fields, the technical assistance program seeks to provide independent field assessments and comparative evaluations of commercially available emergency responder tools which are impartial, practitioner relevant, and operationally oriented.

Each stage of the assessment process is designed to follow the procedures that departments and agencies use during the procurement process from purchase to field use. The use of operational SME responders who serve their home jurisdictions in the field every day gives the assessments an end-user perspective and heightened credibility in the responder community since the assessment is done by peers and colleagues. Armed with the information provided by these assessments, state and local emergency responder agencies have the opportunity to make better informed purchasing decisions for their equipment and provide better solutions for their jurisdictions.

Just as the technical assistance program has provided invaluable assistance for the end users of responder equipment, it also provides a unique service for manufacturers. The broad range of facilities, research and agencies offered through The Texas A&M University System provides a multitude of research, testing and assessment capabilities. Product developers and manufacturers can benefit from the vast array of state and government research departments within the nine universities, seven state agencies and health science center that make up the A&M System, as well as faculty in the Integrative Center for Homeland Security, the Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute and the Bush School of Government and Public Service.

Many companies have come to learn how the SMEs, real world scenarios, and test data in this program can help develop or improve their products by providing manufacturers valuable information about their products. Responders provide input with roundtable discussions on pre-production product design, prototype testing, realistic field evaluations, and product validation. In addition to working with manufacturers to develop and test products we also support companies in moving products to the marketplace. Experienced business and marketing professionals are available to assist with market assessment, market penetration and commercializing the technology.

In all, the information provided by the US&R technical assistance program can be used by decision-makers and responders to better select, procure, use, maintain and develop equipment, ultimately enabling emergency responders to perform their job faster, safer and more efficiently.