It's encouraging to the see how GIS has been elevated to the level of "essential" component for disaster/emergency preparedness by many public officials: "Well, we'll just get the data and draw the maps in a few minutes. Can't be that hard. They do it on TV all the time." While some may think this is a nonsensical approach to technology, it could be good sign in limited sort way. Be careful not to criticize someone who sees GIS and related technology (like "While-U-Wait" forensic evidence ) used on TV and assumes that it works that way real life. It doesn't necessarily mean the person is living in a fantasy. It may be that the criticism is missing some historical perspective. In the 1970s, America's favorite television programs included Adam-12, Emergency, and Marcus Welby, MD. I realize that many readers may be familiar with these programs only from cable networks, if at all, but these programs portrayed the ultimate professional in law enforcement, fire/EMS, and medicine. In reality, those fictional characters raised the bar for those they portrayed and helped shape the public safety we have today. Social science studies in the 1980s documented the gaps between what the public saw on TV and what they experienced in reality. Viewers expressed frustration when personal physicians failed to measure up to the 24-hour caring and attention they saw from the fictional doctor. Police cruisers all across the country appeared with the now familiar slogan "To Protect and To Serve" and law enforcement enjoyed improved public relations - not just because of the letters painted on the cars but because of the way officers began to see and behave in their evolving roles. One of the more interesting phenomena resulted from Emergency. Fire departments whose traditional job was to respond to fires, began to consider EMS as valuable service that they could offer. Community hospitals and local fire personnel trained and worked together to improve the treatment and transport of accident victims, evolving into our model for emergency medical service delivery. The departments that resisted EMS found themselves with lower public opinion than those who accepted EMS as an extension of their public safety mission. Today, the three CSI programs, Numbers, and similar offerings portray GIS and other technologies in their own "the-future-is-now" ways. Numbers almost regularly incorporates a GIS component as law enforcement, fire, and emergency management track criminals, interrupt terrorist plots, and rescue lost hikers. In reality, spatial information is critical to the resolution of the daily work of public safety. Even though the popular use focuses on the results without considering the real work or the technology behind the story, the entertainment value of GIS and of other technologies is raising the public expectations. Let's not be frustrated that we can't have "As Seen on TV" public safety environment right now. We just need to rely on imaginative, creative real professionals to make the future happen. 
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