OLES Projects/Focus Areas

Public Safety and Security Technologies

Goal: To manage programs and direct research and development efforts in the areas of polymers, chemical systems and materials, including, but not limited to, protective clothing and equipment, detection drugs of abuse, less-than-lethal technologies, and weapons of mass destruction. To develop quality assurance programs and performance standards, guidelines, and reports in support of the goals and priorities of both NIST and the outside agency sponsors.

Technical Contacts:

Alim Fatah
David Otterson

Critical Incident Technologies

Goal: To develop a suite of national chemical and biological protective equipment standards and to facilitate the adoption of these standards so that local, state, and Federal emergency first responders and other public safety workers can use them. To accomplish this mission, strong working relationships must be established and maintained with the public safety user community, to the point where the community's representatives play a key and integral role in all facets of the standards development process. This is accomplished primarily through the Interagency Board (IAB) for Equipment Standardization and Interoperability. The suite of equipment standards will consist of: 1) Detection equipment (for both chemical and biological agents); 2) decontamination equipment; 3) personal protection equipment (PPE), including suits, boots, gloves, and respiratory equipment; and 4) interoperable communications equipment. The IAB identified the respiratory equipment standards as the first priority for development.

Technical Contacts:

Philip Mattson
Pamela Gray
James Stewart

Detection, Inspection, and Enforcement Technologies

Goal: To manage programs, direct research and development efforts, and develop performance standards, guidelines and reports for equipment for detection, inspection, and enforcement in support of the goals and priorities of both NIST and the outside agency sponsors. To provide technical support to the traffic enforcement system as administered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).

Technical Contacts:

Nicholas Paulter
Donald Larson
John Jendzurski

Forensic Sciences

Goal: To manage forensic science programs and direct research efforts to develop performance standards, guidelines, and reports to advance the technologies associated with the forensic science field. To provide innovative and validated test methods that will successfully undergo the scrutiny of our adversarial justice system.

Technical Contacts:

Susan Ballou

Public Safety Communication Systems

Goal: The primary objective of this project is to lead the development of wireless telecommunications and information technology standards, profiles, and guidelines for interoperability, and information sharing, among criminal justice (CJ) and public safety (PS) agencies at state, local, and federal levels. To achieve this it will be necessary to focus on enabling technologies and open architecture standards so that interoperability approaches can be designed and implemented. Proposed techniques and standardized configurations will be verified and validated through simulations and laboratory testing. While standards are being developed, other interim interoperability solutions will be investigated. As a secondary goal, this project will conduct technical evaluations of current and emerging technologies aimed at providing immediate assistance to CJ and PS agencies.

Technical Contacts:

Dereck Orr

Weapons and Protective Systems

Goal: To conduct research to develop performance standards, guidelines and reports to advance the technologies of weapons, protective equipment, and ammunition in support of the goals and priorities of law enforcement, corrections, and criminal justice agencies..

Technical Contacts:

Kirk Rice
Amanda Forster
Michael Riley
Nathaniel Waters