2027 Agenda

Public safety has spent decades improving radio interoperability. Yet much of the information required to coordinate today's operations never travels over the radio. Instead, critical information is fragmented across email, text messages, consumer messaging applications, phone calls, spreadsheets and agency-specific platforms. During planned events, mutual-aid responses and rapidly evolving incidents, that fragmentation creates another form of interoperability problem: people may share radio channels while still operating from different information.

This panel examines the emerging challenge of structured operational communications outside traditional voice systems. Public-safety leaders and technology experts will explore how agencies can improve accountability and information sharing without forcing responders into another complicated application. The discussion will examine operational messaging, acknowledgements, personnel accountability, surveys/check-ins, event coordination, logistics and cross-agency communications.

Rather than proposing that software replace LMR, the panel asks a more practical question: what communications belong on the radio, and what information is better delivered through structured digital workflows?