Maryland recently unveiled a new "incident command vehicle" that can travel to emergencies and quickly become an operations center for first responders. The vehicle (which is the nation's largest) not only has radio, satellite, telephone and wireless communications, it also has computer work stations and even an outdoor video screen that can be used to brief emergency personnel on the scene.
The beauty of such a vehicle - Virginia is expecting to launch one soon too - is the opportunity it provides for IT people to lend a land on the scene. Police and fire fighters are trained in putting out fires and chasing bad guys. IT people are trained in GPS, GIS and data exchange. It makes sense in an emergency to let all these people focus on the job they do best, the one they do day in and day out.
