Integrated Public Safety Commission - Indiana

Congratulations to our Field Services Team: Warren, Venisha, DeVoe, Eric, Estupinan, Javier, and Matthew Noonan
for receiving the 2024 Governor’s Public Service Achievement Award.
This award recognizes State of Indiana employees and teams who, through their commitment and innovation at work, have produced a measurable positive impact on their agency’s finances, operations or population.

BOO! 👻Did we scare you? Does site trunking scare you? Unfortunately some of our towers have ghosts 👻and goblins 👹haunting them and they play Trunk or Treat! This Halloween treat yourself to a site trunking plan - so you don't miss critical transmissions. Need help? Call your training and outreach coordinator or the ICC 🎃👻💀

"Our first responders represent the best of who we are as a people." is how the National First Responder Day Proclamation begins and it is so true. To the everyday hero's who make our lives safer we thank you!! ❤

POP QUIZ ⏱ How long should a radio transmission be?

a. Less than 15 seconds
b. Less than 30 seconds
c. As long as you want

drop a comment with your answer!

Join us tomorrow and take a seat at our "Round Table Discussion" to share concerns, compliments and all things communication!
1PM (EST) on Teams:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YmUzZDVmZjUtNzZhZC00Y2VhLTkwYjEtYjZkYTc1OTgyNTJl%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%222199bfba-a409-4f13-b0c4-18b45933d88d%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%220ff51361-beeb-46c3-9d81-46d1aadf834e%22%7d

We were so full from all the great food, we forgot to post pictures from ! Deputy SWIC Erin Miller and Executive Director Mike Watkins were gracious enough to cook breakfast for the staff. Thank you both for a wonderful meal and getting the staff together for some intra-agency bonding.

It’s that time of year again to help grandma update her router and let your Facebook friends know not to accept the request from your buddy’s “new” profile. Learn more about and how you can .

Cybersecurity Awareness Month | CISA Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

We express our sincere gratitude to all who contributed to the success of yesterday’s 10-4 Day! All 10 Indiana Department of Homeland Security districts were represented and we had a huge amateur radio turn out! Indiana State Police also led all the 911 centers in an Extend Test - overall a successful interoperable communication day!

What is the "E" in your PACE plan? Tomorrow for our Public Safety Interoperable Communications Day - we are being joined by multiple amateur radio operators who are often that last line of communication when everything else fails. Find out more about amateur radio and how you could help during disasters just like this 15 year old. https://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-emergency-communication

A wet and cool start for our Communications Strike Team supporting The Mill Run Race in Columbus this morning. CACHE radio deployment was in full swing for Public Safety providing a large Interoperable Communications footprint for Hoosier Public Safety.

Executive Director Mike Watkins gave updates about IPSC at the 2024 Indiana 911 Professionals Conference in Noblesville. Someone needed a little help from WRTV's Rafael Sanchez to get it just right.

Elsewhere in the world, Outreach Coordinator Amanda Smith and System Administrator Zac Woodrum attended COML Train the Trainer in Champaign, IL. Amanda and Zac are the first of five staff members that will go through advanced training this year in support of the Indiana COMU. Other students came from Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan.

This week at our quarterly Commission meeting Director Watkins recognized our Field Service Support Team. This team works on our generators and HVAC systems at sites. In the last quarter they’ve been busy replacing generators and keeping HVAC running during the summer🥵months. Great job!!!

Final Days to register!!! We want you to be part of 10-4 Day - don't forget to register for the location closest to you. This is an amazing opportunity to test all of your communication methods in the field. And for our AUXCOMM community we will be interacting with other states in FEMA Region 5. Join us on OCTOBER 4th 🤓

Are you looking for your next career in the magical world of radio? Is your life-long dream to help those who help others? Do you like to geek out over technology like your friends and family just don't understand? Boy, have I got an opportunity for you!!

The Integrated Public Safety Commission - Indiana is hiring, and we want you! Apply today for one of our four open positions. We have a wide variety of job roles available and one of them might be just what you're looking for.

IPSC Connection Center -
https://workforindiana.in.gov/job/Greenwood-Telecommunications-Support-Technician-IN-46143/1211971200/

IPSC Radio Shop -
https://workforindiana.in.gov/job/Greenwood-Communications-Analyst-IN-46143/1208271600/

Tower Site Technician -
https://workforindiana.in.gov/job/Indianapolis-Field-Service-Technician-IN-46219/1208275000/

Generator/HVAC Technician -
https://workforindiana.in.gov/job/La-Porte-Communications-Analyst-IN-46350/1211717700/

Today we pause to remember the heroism of the first responders who selflessly rushed to the scene, the bravery of everyday citizens who selflessly helped strangers and most of all the thousands of lives lost and their families.

Last week was our quarterly all staff training where we learned what "a day in the life' of one of our technicians. Our technicians have the hardest job in the agency: they are almost always working solo, there are thousands of parts at sites that they have to check and test on a regular basis, they have to troubleshoot when something goes wrong (sometimes at night with a flashlight 🔦) and they work in all kinds of weather ☀️🌧❄️🌩🌪

(thanks Toby Ortman for the pictures!)

It's September 4th and we are 30 DAYS away from Public Safety Interoperability Day or as we like to call it 10-4 Day.🤓 There will be multiple tasks for both Public Safety and Auxiliary Communications to accomplish in a 4-hour time frame. Each team or individual will be given a set of communication challenges and then they will self-report how successful they were with accomplishing each task. Register now for this HSEEP exercise and find out CAN WE TALK?
https://forms.office.com/g/cCpJHEwkCj

Meet our new Director - Michael Watkins.

On August 15th Governor Eric Holcomb announced Michael Watkins, the deputy director of the Integrated Public Safety Commission (IPSC), as the new executive director. Watkins will replace Executive Director Kelly Dignin who retired August 16th.

“Michael’s background and experience with public safety at the state, local and federal levels will support the current trajectory of IPSC,” Gov. Holcomb said. “As deputy director, he has played a critical role in providing efficient and effective communication tools that best support the needs of emergency responders.”

Watkins was named deputy director of IPSC in 2023. Prior to his role, he served as the field service and support supervisor for the agency and before that he was the training and outreach supervisor for IPSC.
Earlier in his career, Watkins was the 911 director for Johnson County 911 Center and the fire and EMS dispatch coordinator for the Greenwood Fire Department.

We had an AMAZING time last week at our INteroperability Conference!! Thanks to everyone who attended, all of our guest speakers and our vendor sponsors. We appreciate everyone's insight and participation. We look forward to 2025 when we can continue the conversations.

This chick is retired! Today was Kelly Dignin last day as IPSC Director as she has decided to retire and find new adventures. Kelly has been involved in public safety for 32 years, the last 26 for the state of Indiana. Today at her retirement party she was awarded the IPSC Golden Radio, she'll receive the flag flying over the Statehouse today and Superintendent Carter surprised her with one of the states highest honors - the Sagamore of the Wabash. As one last final surprise, we asked Kelly to sign off the radio for the final time (and because she's Kelly she didn't notice we had switched to SW Mutual Aid 3) - after she signed off she was given a 10-42 Final Call, and agencies from all over the state chimed in to wish her farewell! Goodbye Kelly - We will miss you and we promise to carry on the mission: Saving Money Saving Lives

Our Emergency Response Director Tyler Clements honored long time Communication Unit member and Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee representative Gail Price Karas at her retirement party this week. Thank you for your service and best of luck Gail!

Join us at one of TEN locations across the state for our 2nd annual Public Safety Interoperability Communications Day. WOW that's a mouthful - so we just call it 10-4 Day because it's on October 4th. Bring you comms vehicle, command vehicle, and AUXComm or just YOU. What is 10-4 Day? A series of communication tests to evaluate how interoperable you are. Register here: https://forms.office.com/g/cCpJHEwkCj or click the QR code.