Public Safety Officials Call Social Media Crucial in Coping with Marathon Bombing, Superstorm Sandy

The public had an unprecedented role to play in both the Boston bombings and Sandy to communicate with public officials, said Mike Lynch, City of Boston director-Web, cable and video services. “Collecting photos and video from the public became important for the police and public officials to piece together information on the suspects,” he said. “The Boston Marathon bombing and capture of those involved had 120 federal, state and local law enforcement officials involved in multiple crime scenes over four days.” Citizen journalism also became important after Sandy because people had to find information on road closings, food and shelter locations, said Desimone. “The people wanted to know about power recharge stations and Wi-Fi hot spots,” said Desimone. Social media “became big factors in helping people find water distribution and gas,” he added.

Cellphone service became overloaded during these events, as more people tried to connect with their loved ones and get more information, said Lynch. “Within ten minutes after the bombings occurred, people could not access the city’s website or The Boston Globe to get information,” said Lynch. “After the bombing, Comcast provided direct connectivity to public safety officials and through Watertown on Friday,” when and where the suspects in the bombing were captured, he said. Comcast was able to help Boston first responders because of the company’s larger strategy to become a service provider outside the home, said Comcast Senior Vice President Tom Nagel. “The majority of the runners were from out of town and they did not know where to go and they needed information on what was happening,” said Nagel. “Our networks became a tool where people could get necessary information, and as the investigation began to move we were asked by law enforcement to keep our networks for their asynchronous communications like email and texting so they could offload to another network."

Comcast opened up its networks two days before Sandy because it was a “good opportunity to help,” said Nagel. “There were few who were not impacted by the storm, and we heard stories of how people would charge their phones near access points and how it became an important source of information for these customers.” Customers can use licensed and unlicensed spectrum to connect with Comcast’s Wi-Fi network, said Nagel. “They are compliments of each other, and unlicensed spectrum is especially important in times like this when spectrum can be accessed through the Wi-Fi."

A dedicated public safety network would have been helpful in the superstorm and bombing aftermaths to keep the lines of communication open between law enforcement officials and the public, said Desimone and Lynch. “Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis insists that secure bandwidth dedicated specifically to public safety use is the only way to communicate in an event of this magnitude,” said Lynch. Sandy made law enforcement interested in FirstNet, said Desimone. “We are taking a closer look at how FirstNet would help our communications networks in New Jersey.” Comcast’s wireless network should be a primary source of public safety communications, but the company is “happy to help and invest in communities,” said Nagel. “In certain situations, these networks can be helpful to offload to make sure central records are still standing,” he said. “We are going to continue to invest in our communities and work with commercial customers to provide them with access points that make the network broader.”