Police, Firefighters, EMS and other public safety personnel are highly trained professionals. Usually, they are armed with the best safety gear possible as they perform their jobs protecting and saving Hoosiers.
All the knowledge in the world and top-of-the-line safety gear means nothing, however, if a safety professional is stranded without efficient and reliable communications. If the firefighters inside the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 had had interoperable radios, they would have heard the order to evacuate that was issued over police radios. The inability to communicate was cited as a major reason so many firefighters lost their lives that tragic day.
This is a drastic example of a problem that the Integrated Public Safety Commission is addressing through Project Hoosier SAFE-T. In many towns, local police can’t communicate over the radio with county or state police. If firefighters need backup from another county, there’s no radio link. Emergency technicians and other first responders can’t talk with the firefighters or police on the scene during a natural disaster such as a tornado.
SAFE-T is...
a statewide, interoperable, wireless public safety communications system for Indiana local, state, and federal first responders/public safety officials. SAFE-T, a P25, Motorola 7.16 ASTRO Smartzone 700/800mhz trunked voice and data system, provides mission critical communications with 95% portable on the street and mobile coverage to its users across the state. SAFE-T leverages more than 175 communications sites, connected by T1 and AVPN lines with microwave backhaul. In 2020, the system will be upgraded to ASTRO release 7.18, taking SAFE - T to the Next Level in communication capabilities and feature expansion.
SAFE-T allows seamless, interoperable and reliable communications among local, state, and federal public safety agencies during routine, emergency and task force situations. SAFE-T strengthens community safety and security, minimize costs and barriers to communications, and break down regionalization of systems to combat crime, natural disaster and terrorism. SAFE-T was designed to include wide voluntary participation of public safety agencies/first responders while respecting local autonomy.