"We have confidence in our ability to effectively and rapidly communicate with other municipalities in the Chicago region, as well as [with] our local, state and federal partners -- and we have proven this on multiple occasions."

Some regions in the assessment had to provide interoperability only between a handful of communities, including Boston -- where nine jurisdictions were measured. The result was a high rating on all areas. By comparison, Kansas City, Mo., got the same high rating but was assessed on interoperability between eight counties and more than 100 cities.

The regions were judged in three areas: operating procedures in place, use of communications systems and how effectively local governments coordinated in disaster preparations. For each of those three criteria, there were four possible ratings: early implementation, intermediate implementation, established implementation and advanced implementation.

Chertoff talked about why Washington, D.C., rated in the highest group, noting that all first responders in the National Capital Region from Virginia, Washington or Maryland can communicate with each other either directly or through use of bridging or gateway technology. In addition, the region has a backup system of 1,200 interoperable radios that are pre-positioned across the jurisdictions to be brought to a disaster scene within two hours. Also, various entities have established mutual aid agreements to allow first responders to operate on each other's radio channels. The region also uses a common data platform to allow various emergency operations centers to plug into the same system for greater situational awareness, Chertoff said.

in his remarks, Chertoff reiterated his commitment to reach an advanced level of interoperability in all three rating categories by 2009. He did not discuss the costs involved, noting instead that the government has provided more than $2.9 billion to communities around the nation, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when interoperability was identified as a great need.