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A Homeland Security Department review of the nation's metropolitan area emergency communication systems raised concerns with Albuquerque's performance, but the heads of city and state emergency response agencies are critical of the report itself.

The report released Tuesday looks at how well agencies could communicate with one another in an emergency - such as the Albuquerque Fire Department and Sandoval County Sheriff's Office.

The nationwide survey of 75 municipalities found that while emergency agencies in more than 60 percent of the communities had the ability to talk to one another during a crisis, only 21 percent showed "the seamless use" of equipment needed to also communicate with state and federal officials.

The danger of poor communications in a disaster was obvious in the 2001 terror attacks, when many New York fire personnel did not hear the call to evacuate the burning towers of the World Trade Center. Overall, 343 firefighters died.

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said Wednesday that among the hurdles are old turf rivalries between first responders that can hamper emergency work.

"In some communities, not all, there are some long-standing cultural differences between different kinds of responders - fire, police and EMS - that have caused resistance to working together," he said. EMS stands for emergency medical services.

Tim Manning, director of the New Mexico Office of Homeland Security, said the report missed some crucial points.

"It doesn't feel like a comprehensive and fair analysis of the true situation in the metro area because they didn't look at everything they said they were going to, but they reported on it anyway," Manning said.

The report's highest ratings went to the Washington, D.C., area; San Diego; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Columbus, Ohio; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Laramie County, Wyo.

The report's lowest scores went to Chicago; Cleveland; Baton Rouge, La.; Mandan, N.D.; and American Samoa.

The report includes large and small cities and their suburbs, along with U.S. territories.

Chertoff said cities in the scorecard should not be compared with one another because each faces a unique set of challenges. He praised Chicago, but said its low grade was because the city and surrounding Cook County need to improve their working relationships.

Other cities were found to need technological upgrades. The Houston area, for instance, has a 16-year-old radio system that "must be replaced," according to the scorecard.

The metropolitan area of New York and New Jersey, Chertoff said, has made a "very, very substantial amount of progress compared to where they were on 9/11," and is one place in particular that has seen a concerted effort to overcome longstanding rivalries between police and fire personnel.

In New Mexico, Manning said inter-agency communication can be challenging when communities have developed their own independent systems over time.

Communities were judged in three categories: operating procedures in place, use of communications systems and how effectively local governments have coordinated in preparation for a disaster.

Each category was scored from a low of a quarter-circle to a high of a full circle.

The Duke City earned a quarter-circle for government coordination, a half-circle for operating procedures and a three-quarter circle for use of communication systems.

"We don't agree with it," said Bruce Sickles, manager of the city's Office of Emergency Management. "We feel like the governance should have been rated much higher."

Sickles said the city is in good shape for an emergency, but will continue to train and prepare.

In contesting the report, he noted the Homeland Security Department did not give Albuquerque any money for improving communication between agencies, yet compared it to cities that did receive such funding. He said the city has spent millions of dollars anyway.

In addition, he said, the deadline for creating and testing a communication plan was moved up one year. The first run was held in October, during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. He reported receiving high marks at that time, and said the latest results did not match them.

Getting agencies to communicate requires a liaison, a person specially trained to connect equipment of different types and to execute communication plans, Sickles said. He pointed out the Homeland Security Department has not set up funding, training and job standards for that position.

"That's key to the whole thing," Sickles said.

Manning said New Mexico's funding from the Homeland Security Department has fallen by 80 percent over the past three years. In 2006, the state got $6.5 million. He expects the same or less in 2007. Whatever the funding levels, the requirements for emergency preparedness remain the same, he said.

Richard Rotanz, an adviser at Adelphi University and a former emergency response official in Nassau County, N.Y., said the report was unclear about what standards the government planned to reach.

"They should have broken it all down more so you can understand where they are weak and strong," Rotanz said. "Instead, what you get is a very vague description of where things are and where they want to go."

Guy Clinch, an executive for Avaya Inc., which sells communications products to the federal and local governments, said the report seemed "almost intentionally vague" about what Chertoff hopes to accomplish.

Chertoff pledged Wednesday that the 75 metropolitan areas would have modern disaster communications systems in place by 2009. He did not indicate what the price tag would be for the improvements or hard rules for specific technology upgrades.

Since 9/11, the government has distributed more than $2.9 billion to communities around the country with mixed results.

Democrats, who will control Congress this year, have also promised to make communications upgrades a priority, but have provided few details.

Nick Bakas, Albuquerque's chief public safety officer, said the city is better than most, but will continue to work on its emergency communication plan.

"We're always looking to improve," he said. "Our ability to respond was tested with Katrina evacuees and we performed very, very well."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.