Interoperable Communications Funding

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has made funding available to advance interoperable communications across the nation. In Missouri, the Department of Public Safety’s Office of Homeland Security has responsibility for administering these federal grants. Local agencies obtain communications grants by applying through the Missouri Office of Homeland Security’s grant programs, which are administered on a regional basis, with Missouri’s nine homeland security regions setting their own priorities for spending the grant funds available.

Eighty percent of this money must support these capabilities at the local level. The capability to communicate across jurisdictional and discipline lines has been one of the top priorities in Missouri’s homeland security program for the past six years. Missouri’s best practices concerning equipment procurement states that it is intended to be used for both day-to-day internal communications and to facilitate interoperable communications between the agency and surrounding jurisdictions when needed in an emergency.