The National Emergency Alerting and Response Systems (NEARS) Initiative implements the E-Safety Vision as an interoperable emergency messaging framework using national emergency message standards, commercial information technologies, and shared facilitation services.  It is a three-track initiative that promotes the interoperable framework, develops the service, and tests it for national implementation through regional deployments.

The program is endorsed and led by a growing and diverse coalition of emergency response and industry organizations. The coalition includes representatives from fire, law enforcement, 9-1-1, emergency medical services (EMS), emergency medicine, public health, emergency management, private infrastructure and media. Collectively, coalition members represent over 50,000 individual agencies and over 400,000 individuals in emergency response professions.

THE NEED

Terrorist attacks and other manmade or natural hazards require efficient and appropriate response. However today, few emergency response agencies can exchange emergency data with one another. America's emergency responders receive the communications tools to provide first-class, all-hazards incident management and emergency response nationwide.

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is the nation's first standardized approach to incident management and response. It calls for interoperable emergency communications systems linking physical first responders and emergency agencies across the entire emergency response continuum. NIMS mandates the connection of government agencies at all levels with each other, with the private sector and with nongovernmental organizations. 

COMCARE’S APPROACH

NEARS enables the integration of data providers with data collectors. Data from devices in cars and trucks, incident data or personal medical data can be sent immediately to agencies registered and authorized to receive this type of information. It provides one standard approach for all-hazards emergency messaging, whether messages are about mass emergencies or day-to-day events, and whether an agency needs to contact other agencies, private entities or the public. It can be adapted for use by a wide range of organizations, and improves operational efficiency so the focus during an incident is on emergency response, not administrative tasks such as data entry, searching for contact information or the filing of paper records

NEARS will move E-Safety from a vision to reality. It will deploy all five layers of the E-Safety architecture by ensuring agencies in a given region have the broadband transport needed, by using standard data messages to communicate across domains and jurisdictions, by developing and implementing basic facilitation services such as EPAD and Identity Rights Management, and by field testing the policies and protocols developed for an information sharing environment.

FROM VISION TO REALITY

At the end of this initiative, participants will have a blueprint for implementing data interoperability within their communities using an array of common utilities, such as EPAD, and standard data sets, such as EDXL. In addition, they will learn how to leverage their existing investments in technology and legacy systems by building interfaces to the new shared tools, instead of to individual systems. Finally, with easily acquired experience in emergency messaging, along with an understanding of the tools and standards available for all-hazards incident management and emergency response, participants can make better decisions about what is best for their organizations and the communities they serve.

For more information, please visit www.nears.us.

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