Railroad Police Officers To Access Public Safety Interoperability and Mutual Aid Channels

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) provides railroad police officers access to the public safety interoperability channels. In this document, we amend our rules to permit railroad police officers to use public safety interoperability channels to communicate with public safety entities already authorized to use those channels. Specifically, we permit railroad police officers empowered to carry out law enforcement functions to use public safety interoperability channels in the VHF (150-174 MHz, and 220-222 MHz, UHF (450-470 MHz), 700 MHz narrowband (769-775/799-805 MHz)5 and 800 MHz National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee (NPSPAC) bands (806-809/851-854 MHz). Allowing railroad police officers to use these channels will promote interoperability, facilitate improved emergency response in railroad- related emergencies, and streamline access to these channels for emergency public safety communications.