February 7, 2008 -- Motorola, Inc. and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) today released the findings of a national survey to assess how public safety organizations use current communications technology and what future capabilities they would deploy to help improve emergency response, officer effectiveness and public and officer safety.

Key survey findings reveal a strong demand for technology solutions that provide advanced situational awareness to first responders, improve incident coordination, and streamline emergency response. A top concern of first responders nationwide is their ability to react to natural disasters (65%), superseding both terrorist attacks (7%) and crime (10%). Regional fire and police officials dually note that advanced communications technology ranks as the most critical aid in preparedness and response both now and in the future.

The survey also studied concerns, areas of progress, and broad technology demand trends among users in urban and rural areas. Larger communities of 100,000 or more report technology as most helpful in providing situational awareness to incident response (4.6 on a five-point scale) over smaller pools less than 10,000, who cite the aid of technology in interoperability between county agencies (4.4 on a five-point scale) as most helpful.

To access a full report of the study, see http://www.motorola.com/FutureTech.