IAFC NEWS ALERT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: IAFC Communications Department
703/273-0911
IAFC Collaborating on National Fire Station Survey
All IAFC Questions Answered
Fairfax, Va., June 2, 2004…The International Association of Fire Chiefs is partnering with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to conduct a national fire station survey. The information obtained from this survey will be used for homeland security planning and response.
Explore Information Services and Techni Graphics Systems (TGS) are working under contract with the NGA. In April, the IAFC issued an alert to members recommending they not complete a survey that was issued by Explore Information Services until security of the information and other questions could be verified.
“After contacting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), we met with NGA and DHS officials. The IAFC is satisfied that the results of the reissued survey will be utilized appropriately and received assurances that the security will be maintained,” said Garry Briese, IAFC executive director. “Because the operational security for the fire service is of the utmost importance to NGA and the IAFC, we are taking an active role in the development of this survey,” said Briese. The IAFC also is reviewing the criteria for use of the survey results to ensure that the information gathered is maintained securely.
The survey results will be combined with other critical geospatial information initially for the use of federal government agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The information will not be sold to the general public. The IAFC, NGA and DHS are working together to explore ways that the information can be made available to state and local responders.
The IAFC is working with Explore Information Services to redevelop the survey so that information gathered will be useful at the local level. “The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is working hard to achieve further integration to provide the database to state and local agencies,” Briese said.
The survey will be redistributed to fire departments in the coming months; the IAFC will inform members when the survey is released. The IAFC encourages all fire chiefs to participate in the survey when it is distributed so that the database will be accurate.
Before the IAFC became involved, Explore Information Services had already distributed a version of the survey to fire departments in the following states: Wisconsin, Ohio, Colorado, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri. It is important to note that the original survey has been discarded, and fire chiefs who returned the original survey must fill out and return the new, IAFC-supported version when it is distributed in the coming months.
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NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
4600 SANGAMORE ROAD
BETHESDA, MD 20816-5003
1. As the lead federal agency responsible for Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) within the Defense and Intelligence community, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is working to apply its imagery and geospatial expertise, and analytic resources, critical for its traditional foreign missions, to the domestic Homeland Security mission. GEOINT is the analysis and visual representation of national security-related activities on the earth. Many of the major Homeland Security and Homeland Defense organizations are now using NGA's geospatial intelligence for a variety of tasks including situational awareness, critical infrastructure analysis, and preparation of vulnerability assessments over areas and locations within the United States.
NGA, in meetings its requirement to provide GEOINT needed by the Department of Homeland Security, is building a single Homeland Security geospatial infrastructure database to fulfill our Homeland Security and Homeland Defense mission role and to meet the similar but distinct needs of our many customers. Included in these efforts are the acquisition, improvement, and compilation of commercially available infrastructure data. In addition, to support its mission, NGA initiated a Global Geospatial Intelligence (GGI) enterprise contract with Techni Graphics Systems (TGS) to provide quality control, accuracy improvement, and maintenance for infrastructure datasets.
2. NGA’s main data providers during the FY03-FY04 period include the following commercial data vendors/contractors:
· Techni Graphics Systems (TGS)
· Explore Information Services (EIS)
· Dun & Bradstreet (D&B)
· IONIC/MCH
· Navigation Technologies (NAVTEQ)
In order to gather the most current and accurate data, these vendors use various methods to acquire data including: direct mailing, faxes, and telephone calls. The Department of Homeland Security, US NORTHCOM and other federal agencies will all benefit from the availability and dissemination of this information collection as they incorporate and use this data in support of their Homeland Security and Homeland Defense missions.
3. Whenever possible, NGA will coordinate the activities of these contracts with other appropriate Federal Agencies and will work with the DHS State and Local Coordination Office to provide the necessary information with regard to our Federal Contract activities for Homeland Security. NGA understands that the demand for this data extends beyond just the federal government. Therefore, NGA is assessing the cost and other issues associated with the inclusion of non-federal entities, to include State, Local and Tribal Homeland Security and Emergency Response Agencies, in the licenses of existing and future commercial data procurements. NGA will continue to work with DHS to address either the possibility of licensing this data to State/Local authorities (Release of the data), or providing access to State/Local authorities via a thin client web interface (Disclosure of the data).
4. NGA, DHS, and US NORTHCOM realize this information is sensitive and accept the requirement for additional dissemination restrictions for this data. NGA is taking every measure possible to protect and ensure that the data and license restrictions are enforced. NGA is requiring its commercial contractors to adopt prudent Operational Security measures and to take every precaution to protect and secure government information and the proprietary data they are collecting on behalf of the government. Because of these OPSEC precautions and to ensure that the privacy of U.S. persons in not infringed, much of the detailed information being collected by our contractors will not be available for public consumption. As such, the data will not be made available commercially and will be protected from public release by the Federal Government.
The NGA point of contact for this effort is Mr. Martin Tierney, Deputy Chief, North America and Homeland Security Division, 301-227-6219.
Bertram Beaulieu
Director
Office of Americas
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency