By James Careless
What is FirstNet all about, and how does it enable interdisciplinary, inclusivity, interoperability in public safety? That’s a topic that headlined the 2024 Vision FirstNet Users Summit (Vision 2024) on Tuesday October 8, 2024. Held at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas October 7-10, 2024, Visions 2024 is the latest annual FirstNet conference hosted by the Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA).
Indianapolis Fire Department Chief Ernest Malone was one of three speakers on this topic during the Keynote plenary session entitled, ‘Interdisciplinary-Inclusive-Interoperability Leadership Panel’. Chief Malone is also President of the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association President and a Director with the International Association of Fire Chiefs. “In plain English, ‘‘interdisciplinary, inclusive, and interoperability are fancy words for how we cultivate our partnerships and relationships under the banner of public safety, meaning police, fire, emergency, medical services, and emergency management,” he said. “How do we use this data and technology that continues to evolve to help us all work together to complete the mission that we’re tasked with?”
The answer to these questions is to “embrace the technology,” Chief Malone continued. “That’s what I said during the plenary session. As well, although we as first responders talk a lot about data and say that we’re technology and data driven, we need to remain people-focused. At the end of every technology development or data point, there’s people to be served — whether that be the men and women in our organization or the citizens, the neighborhoods, and our public safety partners. We need to make sure that we look at that data, we use this technology and that keep these end users in mind. Quite frankly, I don’t know what the value of this technology is if we don’t use it to make things better for people. After all, that’s the reason we all come in each day.”
When it comes to technology that makes a real difference to public safety and the general public, Chief Malone points to the FirstNet first responder network. “I think FirstNet plays an absolutely critical role,” he told AllThingsFirstNet.com. “FirstNet is the gateway to that real-time information that public safety officials need on the scene , and what they need before those emergencies. But that’s not all: We need to use FirstNet to help us understand each other’s roles and responsibilities and how we work together to put the best plans in place, whether that be an emergency incident or something as simple as a sporting event in our respective jurisdictions. After all, my jurisdiction has a little thing called the Indianapolis 500 every year with over 300,000 people attending: How do we make that venue and that event safe for people?”
According to Chief Malone, this is where FirstNet comes in yet again. “FirstNet makes sure that vital response information goes to every smartphone, tablet, and mobile data computer used by our officers,:” he said. “With FirstNet, we can ensure that the people on the scene on the street get accurate real-time information to make appropriate decisions.”
Speaking about the Indianapolis Fire Department in particular, he noted that FirstNet is a dependable, robust platform “that I, and more importantly my men and women, have come to depend on. We have the highest level of confidence that, thanks to FirstNet, we’re going to have the information we need to plan and execute for an event or to mitigate an event; whatever is called upon. We’re going to have that information readily available to us in real-time so we can apply it to make the incident better.”
To prove his point, Chief Malone cited one night in Indianapolis where his fire department had to respond to five fires in an eight hour period. Thanks to FirstNet, “in each of those situations we were able to have the information we needed on the scene, including building floor plans, extinguishing systems, and fire department connections,” he said. “We were able to use this information in real time to make the decisions we needed to make to mitigate the situations safely.”
Sharing the benefits of FirstNet is why Chief Malone came to Vision 2024 and shared his experiences during the Keynote plenary session. He also attends to hear from other FirstNet users during the Summit’s many presentations and to network with others in the first responder community. “I’m going to take a lot of information home with me and read through it,” he said. “I’m also going to spend my time here talking to my fellow FirstNet users about our shared challenges and experiences, to learn how they are handling those things. Maybe we can offer something if we’ve done something similar. After all, we have the same type of problems and we have the same opportunities to make it better.”