Conference Programme 2026

So much has changed in a few short years:

• Live video can now be requested by Control room operators.
• EmergencySMS enables access for those unable to make voice calls.
• eCall automatically alerts emergency services to serious vehicle incidents.
• Personal SOS devices can summon help for you when you can’t.

On the surface, it might appear that the future of emergency calls have already arrived, or at least the technology, with adoption catching up.

However, progress has typically focused on transforming the ‘caller’ experience, making it easier, faster, and more inclusive for the public to reach emergency services.

By refocusing on empowering call takers, we unlock a different set of opportunities:

• Reducing cognitive load,
• Improving situational awareness,
• Providing real‑time decision support,
• Call triaging and categorising,
• Automating data recording / processing,

Which could fundamentally change how emergency calls are handled.

The greatest challenges might be how much of this remains human lead, human-in-the-loop or fully automated (e.g. AI).

This session focuses on providing a high-level view, with a focus on how transformative technologies, such as AI, should be carefully assessed ahead of implementation activities.

As the mission-critical communications landscape evolves, it is vital that public safety agencies make the right technology choices to best meet their unique operational requirements.

In this session, Analysys Mason presents a comparison of technology choices available to public safety agencies and those charged with procuring mission-critical communications.

Based on the firm's recent, in-depth research, the session will set out why the future of public safety communications hangs not on a single technology, but a robust combination of technologies that provide users with the level of features, functionality, resilience and redundancy they require.

Edward Preece, Chief Executive Officer of the Police Digital Service, will outline how national digital leadership is helping policing and industry work together more effectively in the public interest. 

Grounded in the National Police Chiefs’ Council Digital Strategy, the speech will focus on the core capabilities of the Police Digital Service and how they support consistent, interoperable technology and data services across policing. Edward will explain how these capabilities set clear standards, reduce fragmentation and enable forces and suppliers to design solutions that work seamlessly together.

The talk will highlight how the Police Digital Service provides assurance, guidance and shared services that empower collaboration, improve efficiency and support frontline policing. By strengthening how digital, data and technology services operate across forces, these capabilities help officers and staff prevent harm, respond more effectively and keep communities safe.

The session will demonstrate how national collaboration, underpinned by strong digital capability, leads to better outcomes for the public and greater confidence in modern policing.

As AI continues to gain traction across utilities, transport and healthcare, emergency services are now assessing where it can genuinely enhance live operations - and where caution is required. This interactive roundtable will bring together control room leaders and operational experts to explore practical use cases, from call triage and transcription to anomaly detection and video analytics. 

The discussion will focus on real-world value, operator trust, governance and accountability, asking a central question: where does AI meaningfully reduce workload, and where must human judgement remain non-negotiable? 

This presentation explores the latest updates from early AI adoptors in related vertical markets and explores how AI is making its way into Mission-critical environments and control rooms. We will briefly explore:

• How AI is being embraced by various early adoptors in the past 12 months.
• We take a look at how related vertical markets are implementing, responding and changing how they do things in each vertical.
• What is the user perception and feedback of AI integrated sub-systems to date and why it is important for the immediate future.
• A specific section on how we at Eventide Communications are evolving our AI platform for Mission-critical communications and why we are doing it.

Join Police Digital Service and industry peers for an interactive roundtable exploring how artificial intelligence is shaping the future of policing. From operational efficiency and data-driven insights to automation and decision support, AI presents significant opportunities to enhance public safety outcomes.

This session will examine where AI can deliver tangible value today, the governance and ethical considerations required to ensure responsible deployment, and how policing can maintain transparency and public trust as adoption accelerates.

Be part of the conversation as we explore the practical realities, challenges and strategic priorities for integrating AI into mission-critical policing environments.

This facilitated roundtable will explore how accessibility can be embedded effectively within NG999 and live emergency communications environments.

Participants will discuss the practical realities of introducing non-verbal, WCAG-aligned solutions into control room workflows - balancing compliance, usability and operational performance.

The session is designed to surface shared challenges, lessons learned and differing perspectives, moving beyond theory to examine how accessibility can be implemented in a way that strengthens trust, inclusion and resilience.

Join us in an audio challenge and discussion surrounding speech enhancement for Critical Communications – including interactive tests, ethical discussions and a look into the future of AI-driven audio for control rooms. 

In high-pressure control room environments, a single misheard word can delay response, misdirect resources or increase risk. This interactive 30-minute roundtable explores how AI-driven speech enhancement can improve clarity, reduce cognitive load and support faster, more accurate decision-making in mission-critical communications

Through a live audio challenge, rapid-fire debate and collaborative problem mapping, participants will test noisy emergency call scenarios, compare human-only versus AI-assisted processing, and examine where intelligibility breaks down in real-world operations.

Together, we will explore:

• Where audio clarity fails under pressure
• What AI can realistically solve today
• What should remain human-led
• The ethical and operational boundaries of automation
• A 2030 vision for augmented hearing in control rooms

Join the discussion, challenge assumptions, and help shape the future of AI-powered audio in critical communications.

The East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST), working with Excelerate Technology, delivered a structured series of three connectivity-focused programmes designed to improve digital resilience across pre-hospital and acute care interfaces. These programmes addressed operational ambulance connectivity, hospital integration, and the stroke care pathway, recognising that end-to-end digital reliability is critical to modern urgent and emergency care delivery.

As public safety and emergency services grow more reliant on interconnected digital systems, cybersecurity and digital identity now sit at the core of operational resilience. Modern threats increasingly target the identity layer, where a single breach can expose highly sensitive environments. Biometric and digital identity solutions offer secure, real-time authentication across frontline and command operations, but only when supported by a strong cyber framework.

This discussion is increasingly critical for UK public safety organisations, where identity assurance now underpins secure access, field verification and protection against insider or social-engineering threats. Trust has to be built into the system itself - starting with secure digital identity.

With decades of experience in mission-critical communications and digital innovation for UK police and fire services, Graham, Lee and Andrew will share practical insights to help you turn connectivity pilots into frontline practice.

You’ll learn how to operationalise AI and real-time intelligence, integrate connected and autonomous technologies such as drones, bodycams, smart sensors and facial recognition, and build a future-ready network supporting digital policing, mission-critical communications, and multi-agency interoperability based on secure, reliable cellular connectivity.

Expect actionable takeaways, peer case studies, and guidance to prioritise investments for maximum impact. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with peers and chart your organisation’s path into 2026 — safely, smartly, and with confidence.

In emergency response, an individual's judgement is often their most vital asset, yet it is also the most vulnerable to stress and cognitive overload. This panel explores how having the right information can streamline smart decision-making and avoid the pitfalls of emotion-led responses.

The session examines how digital tools act as a cognitive anchor during times of extreme pressure. The panel reviews this through the lens of a high-stakes, multi-agency operation in Manchester, discussing how a Common Operating Picture maintains clarity, reduces mental fatigue, and ensures seamless interoperability during critical operations.

Learning Objectives:
Learn how unified data platforms prevent cognitive overload during complex incidents.  

Understand how emotion and stress influence command decisions and how to mitigate their impact.
Explore how shared situational awareness facilitates rapid, multi-agency responses.

Lost assets in public safety are a costly problem, impacting budgets and frontline readiness. This session explores how RFID technology offers a powerful solution. We'll show how RFID can track critical equipment, from evidence to medical devices, creating a reliable digital chain of custody. Learn how an RFID strategy enhances accountability, automates inventory, reduces costs, and ultimately increases officer and public safety. This is a practical guide for protecting assets and optimising operations.

As digital evidence grows in volume and complexity, digital forensic teams are increasingly exposed to indecent and traumatic material, placing them on the psychological frontline of public safety. This hidden burden carries risks of secondary trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout, yet the wellbeing of these specialists is often overlooked compared to that of traditional first responders.

This SYTECH case study showcases a proactive approach to supporting staff in high-security, high-pressure digital forensics environments. It highlights initiatives such as enhanced sick pay, structured wellbeing programmes, access to psychological support and embedding wellbeing as a cultural priority rather than a procedural requirement. Early outcomes include stronger engagement, greater openness around mental health and improved morale and retention.

For the BAPCO audience, the session offers practical, transferable lessons: understanding the unique pressures of digital forensics, designing effective wellbeing programmes for sensitive roles, and shifting from reactive to proactive support models. The implications for the critical communications sector are clear - safeguarding the mental health of those behind the screens is essential to sustaining resilience, performance and public trust.

This session provides frontline insight into a staff-centred project designed to identify, assess and manage the root causes of work-related stress in control rooms. Led by psychology and human-factors specialists, the Occupational Stress Risk Assessment (OSRA) offers a proactive approach to reducing workplace stress and absence by addressing psychosocial risks before they escalate.

Drawing on collaborative OSRA projects with Fire and Rescue Services and Humberside Police, the session will share key findings, emerging themes and practical recommendations for any organisation with a control room at its core. It will highlight the most prevalent stressors in control environments, the OSRA methodology, and the operational value delivered through early intervention.

Led by experts from the University of Hull’s Centre for Human Factors, with contributions from frontline Fire and Police representatives, this session will offer tangible insights into improving wellbeing, performance and resilience across control room teams.

Emergency services staff - from control rooms to the frontline - carry trauma that often goes unseen. Traditional support models rely heavily on talk-based therapies, but for many, repeatedly revisiting traumatic events can intensify distress rather than relieve it. This session presents alternative, evidence-based approaches that help personnel regulate their nervous systems, release tension and reconnect with resilience in practical, non-verbal ways.

Drawing on work with uniformed responders and control room teams, it showcases embodied practices such as equine-facilitated learning and nature-based recovery, which have produced immediate reductions in stress and improved emotional regulation. These case studies challenge the idea that resilience is simply endurance, instead reframing it as adaptability and recovery.

This session shares the development of TapSOS - the UK’s government-accredited, non-verbal 999 solution designed for accessibility and inclusivity. It will show how WCAG-compliant design, user co-creation and accessibility principles enable vulnerable citizens to contact emergency services safely and reliably. Attendees will see how accessible design has been delivered in practice, the results achieved, and why accessibility must be a foundational element of NG999.

TapSOS demonstrates that non-verbal, inclusive design can be embedded seamlessly into emergency workflows, ensuring people who cannot use voice channels are not excluded. For the BAPCO audience, this case study offers practical lessons for future NG999 deployments and highlights why accessibility is essential for trust, equality and operational resilience.

Participants will gain:

• Clear insight into applying WCAG and inclusive design in public safety technology
• Practical guidance on integrating non-verbal reporting into PSAPs and control rooms
• An understanding of why accessibility is not just compliance, but critical to modern emergency communications.

This session has been run for the past 3 years at BAPCO and concentrates on the biggest change to the UKs Telecommunications network for a generation. The All-IP (PSTN Switch-Off) programme started in 2018 and culminates in the switch off of the BT equipment that was installed in the 1980s and is now seriously out of date and hard to maintain. The slot explores the last 230 days of the programme and the switch off at the end of January 2027, when the last PSTN lines will be terminated. It also highlights the work Openreach have done with Industry, including blue light services for the past 5 years and the migration choices that Openreach’s 690 Communications Providers have available for a safe migration, including the over 20M FTTP full fibre lines that are at the cutting edge of Broadband Servicesk taking the UK into the future.

This session will present evidence and lessons learned from international deployments of HAAS Alert’s Safety Cloud®, a connected-vehicle platform now active in the United States and expanding across Europe. The presentation will cover how cross-agency partnerships - spanning fire, police, ambulance, recovery operators, OEMs, and navigation provider - are enabling digital alerts to improve driver awareness, reduce collisions, and accelerate response times. We will also highlight UK pilots with local authorities, emergency services, and industry partners, demonstrating how digital alerting can integrate with broader strategies. Attendees will gain actionable insights into how this interoperable, cost-effective technology can support public safety objectives, enhance cross-border collaboration, and prepare road networks for the coming era of V2X and autonomous mobility.

This session draws on deep operational and technical understanding of the challenges facing 999 control rooms and the solutions currently available. It explores why advances in technology do not always translate into the improvements expected in real-world operations, and what can be done to close that gap. The presentation examines how technology should be applied to support, not replace, human judgement and responsibility, with a strong focus on keeping control room staff at the centre of system design and decision-making. The session builds on previous iterations to reflect the evolving complexity, expectations and pressures facing emergency communications today.

Martyn’s Law is reshaping security expectations for UK venues, requiring proportionate measures that strengthen preparedness against terrorist and mass-casualty threats. While much focus falls on training, evacuation plans and access control, one critical factor is often overlooked - whether first responders can communicate reliably inside a building during a crisis. Modern construction frequently creates hidden dead zones that only become apparent in an emergency, causing delays, miscommunication and avoidable harm. Passing an inspection offers limited assurance when systems degrade over time or buildings evolve.

This session will show how continuous monitoring and proactive communication readiness close this gap, helping venues embed true resilience rather than relying on one-off compliance checks. By integrating communications into venue safety strategies, operators can demonstrate due diligence, reduce liability and align with the core principles of Martyn’s Law.

Attendees will hear how advanced technology can strengthen risk identification and response. With government aiming for a 50% reduction in domestic abuse and VAWG, specialist control room teams are being funded to assess risk during incoming calls. However, call volumes are so high that only small samples can currently be reviewed. By applying advanced AI and language models, every call can be analysed in real time, enabling faster, more accurate risk detection and a significantly improved operational response.

UK policing is piloting AI across many areas, but most projects fail to progress beyond proof-of-concept. The challenge is scaling AI safely while maintaining trust, compliance and operational control. Our approach addresses this in two ways: a regulated-industry platform that provides robust governance for developing and evaluating AI agents, and Nexus - our in-house Power App that embeds those agents directly into everyday workflows to drive real adoption.

The programme focuses on three AI agents: a Policy Agent for rapid interpretation of guidance, an Investigation Review Agent to assess case file completeness, and a Missing Persons Agent to support decision-making. Each is evaluated against strict criteria for accuracy, relevance, data quality and policy alignment, using AI-on-AI assessment tools and structured user feedback for continuous improvement.

Nexus provides a simple, familiar interface that makes AI accessible to officers and staff without disrupting operational processes. Early results from a comparable HR agent show strong benefits - 42% workload reduction, 74% faster response times and improved satisfaction - while also highlighting risks such as data quality issues and hallucinations that the evaluation framework is designed to identify and mitigate.

The NFCC released its Ethical Guide to AI in August 2024, setting out high-level principles for responsible AI use in UK Fire and Rescue. Since then, monthly themed working groups on ethics and digital inclusion, cyber security, HR, M365 and learning and development have identified the technical, organisational and human requirements needed for successful AI deployment. This has included improving digital literacy, strengthening cyber readiness, creating learning materials, and enhancing data quality to support emerging use cases.

Work is now underway with technology partners to develop centrally hosted AI tools that services can adopt at scale. This presentation will showcase some of these tools and share the sector’s key lessons - from early successes to common pitfalls.

The groundwork is widely applicable beyond fire and rescue: challenges around security, ethics, digital skills and resourcing are universal. For the critical communications industry, these insights highlight the evolving skills, roles and investment needed over the next decade to adopt AI safely and effectively, while avoiding missed opportunities and vulnerabilities to emerging threats.

The wellbeing of 112/999 telecommunicators is increasingly recognized as a critical factor in staff retention, performance, and service quality. While attention has been given to supporting personnel, less focus has been placed on how wellbeing is addressed during initial training. This presentation argues that preparation for the psychological and physiological demands of emergency communications must begin on day one.

Drawing on experience with training at 112 in Iceland, the presentation explores common reasons why telecommunicators leave emergency communication centers and how these factors can be proactively addressed through initial training. Alongside technical skills and SOP’s, new telecommunicators must be trained in areas such as sleep management, nutrition, resilience, stress awareness and work–life balance.

By normalizing these topics early in training, organizations can better prepare telecommunicators for the realities of the role and foster a healthier and more sustainable workforce. The presentation offers practical perspectives on how wellbeing can be embedded into training programs without compromising operational readiness.

Developed for policing, by policing, Oscar Kilo, the National Police Wellbeing Service (NPWS) offer evidence-based, sector-specific support that's tailored to the unique challenges faced by all police personal. NPWS provide national solutions that help forces deliver consistent, cost-effective wellbeing support, offering direct access to help, guidance, and support for everyone connected to policing.

The presentation will outline what we do and how we do it through our workstreams

“In practice, we’re never more than one second away from experiencing the worst we can.”

We present operational experience with Sharpi - an on-prem, real-time audio enhancement that clarifies speech while attenuating wind, traffic, and crowd noise, purpose-built for control rooms.  Powered by state-of-the-art AI audio methods, it supports the human brain in doing its job - delivering higher-quality call-taking and better well-being.

The reality for 112 call-takers: persistent - and often unreasonable - strain. They juggle multiple tasks while handling chaotic caller audio, distressing content, and continuous decision pressure, driving fatigue, errors, and complaints. From an HR perspective, protecting mental health is essential. Significant effort already goes into supportive psychological environments and better tools; Sharpi strengthens that toolkit.

The “Inda” case, Iceland: clarity enabled faster assessment and a helicopter launch ~45 minutes earlier. A colleague - initially reluctant to adopting new technology - called it “blessed technology,” because it measurably helps both citizens and call-takers. And Inda is not alone: across European PSAP evaluations, call-takers report easier conversations, greater work tranquillity, and less fatigue - consistent with reduced cognitive load and more confident decisions.

This plenary session will focus on the human factor within emergency services. How the inherent challenges of work in emergency services collide with basic human needs will be discussed. Individual and organizational prevention efforts that may be implemented to enhance wellness and resilience will be described.  

Connectivity failures remain a critical challenge for emergency services. Basements, tunnels, high-rises, rural terrain and large-scale incidents routinely create coverage gaps where radios fail, data stops flowing and commanders lose situational awareness. ESN will deliver major improvements, but no national network can guarantee coverage everywhere.

This session demonstrates how lightweight digital on-scene networks can close those gaps from the first minute of an incident. Drawing on proven deployments in defence and now adapted for Fire and Rescue, we’ll show how portable systems create instant secure networks, provide seamless failover across ESN, LTE, Wi-Fi, satcom, Bluetooth and LoRaWAN, and automatically connect radios, sensors and applications without user intervention.

The result: Faster, safer, and more coordinated response. Crews stay connected, commanders retain a live operational picture, and agencies gain a practical, future-proof approach to resilience when national networks reach their limits.

In the fast-paced world of critical communications, every second counts. Operators face thousands of small, and sometimes large, repetitive tasks during each call. Tasks that not only drain valuable time but also add to the pressure of decision-making in high-stress environments. This presentation introduces the concept of purposeful automation, seamlessly integrated into modern command and control systems through configurable business rules and AI-driven solutions. Unlike outdated, rigid CAD systems, which often lack the flexibility to adapt to today’s demands, modern automation tools allow organisations to configure and customise business rules tailored to their unique needs. Paired with AI Agents designed to handle complex automation tasks, these solutions work intuitively within the operator’s workflow, removing the burden of repetitive tasks and freeing up time for what truly matters. By identifying and automating these micro-tasks with configurable business rules and AI-driven solutions, organisations can achieve transformational efficiency gains, saving seconds, if not minutes, per call that add up to significant time savings over the course of a year. This approach not only improves operational performance but also reduces stress on operators, empowering them to work smarter and more effectively. For the critical communications industry, this marks a shift towards systems that are not just tools, but true partners in delivering better outcomes when it matters most.

Building on the strong engagement with the AI Learning & Discussion Zone at BAPCO 2025, this session focuses on practical, deployable AI for mission-critical communications. Public safety leaders are seeking proven use cases that enhance frontline operations - not abstract strategy.

The session demonstrates how AI can augment frontline professionals, improving situational awareness, responder safety and network resilience without replacing human decision-making or requiring wholesale system change.

Key focus areas

• Situational awareness: Real-time AI analysis of MCVideo and MCPTT to detect incidents faster, reduce noise and support multilingual operations.
• Responder safety: AI-enabled wearables and IoT that detect stress, falls or hazardous exposure and automatically trigger emergency alerts.
• Cyber resilience: AI-based monitoring to detect spoofing, jamming and anomalies, and maintain communications during outages.

As organisations across public safety, emergency services, and government modernise their critical communications infrastructure, understanding the full scope of migration from devices to processes is essential. This session offers strategic guidance that goes beyond technical deployment, addressing operational readiness, risk mitigation, and long-term resilience. It will unpack common challenges around new devices and evolving digital workflows, providing structured steps to maintain service continuity and align technology with mission-critical objectives. Attendees will learn how to assess and improve post-deployment processes, plan future migration stages, and evaluate success beyond technical performance. The session ultimately promotes a more strategic, process-driven approach to migration that strengthens organisational effectiveness and resilience.

The space sector and Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) are advancing at remarkable speed, redefining what is possible for connectivity. This session will explore the latest developments in space-based communications- particularly LEO mega-constellations - and how they can transform user experience and unlock new applications. We will examine LEO-enabled mobile backhaul, sharing real-world insights from testing and deploying solutions that support live mobile services, including MC-PTT.

The discussion will also cover emerging capabilities in LEO and airborne communications and how they integrate into future hybrid terrestrial–non-terrestrial networks. Finally, we will provide a realistic assessment of direct-to-device technology and what lies ahead, highlighting how these innovations could strengthen terrestrial networks and build a more resilient, mission-critical communications ecosystem.

Integration sits at the heart of public safety operations. Historically, agencies relied on countless custom interfaces- especially for IoT tasks such as locating equipment, gathering sensor data, and remotely controlling critical infrastructure. Digital LMR systems like TETRA have long supported these functions through secure telematics. As the sector transitions to standards-based mission-critical broadband, there is a major opportunity to streamline these bespoke integrations and use MCX as a unified, secure framework for IoT data and control.

This session will outline key IoT use cases for public safety, explain core MCX capabilities, and explore practical approaches for integrating mission-critical IoT into broadband MCX environments, along with the operational benefits of doing so.

Quantum Computing is an emerging technology which IBM is at the forefront of. We are keen to demonstrate our expertise in the sector and how we can apply our work with quantum across defence, financial services, and retail to front line critical communications.

Artificial Intelligence and cloud-native technologies are no longer futuristic upgrades; they are essential for emergency call centers/control rooms looking to stay effective in today’s public safety communication landscape. However, transitioning to these technologies introduces new challenges, from ensuring seamless integration to managing cost, risk, and cultural shifts. This panel dives deep into the customer perspective to examine how emergency centers are successfully transforming their technology stack to be AI-supplemented and cloud-native. Bringing together industry leaders and customers who have navigated this transition, the session will uncover lessons learned, smart strategies, pitfalls to avoid, and insights for scaling modern solutions. 

Cumbria Police is leading a pioneering approach to road safety through a data-led strategy that harnesses the power of geospatial intelligence.

In close collaboration with Ordnance Survey and other UK police forces, this initiative focuses on identifying high-risk locations, understanding patterns of harm, and deploying targeted interventions that save lives. By combining operational insight with authoritative mapping data, the strategy enables smarter decision-making and resource allocation. It exemplifies how cross-agency collaboration and location intelligence can transform public safety, making roads safer not just in Cumbria, but across the country.

Public safety doesn’t stop at the front door -and neither should our maps. This presentation highlights how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can deliver accurate, interoperable indoor maps for any critical building, from schools and campuses to government facilities, commercial sites, places of worship and large venues. GIS-based indoor mapping gives first responders a shared, real-time geospatial picture during emergencies, improving coordination, situational awareness and response times across dispatch and field teams.

The benefits extend well beyond crisis response. Indoor maps support pre-incident planning, evacuation design, security assessments, and the identification of radio and cellular dead zones. Post-incident, they enable deeper analysis and operational learning. By scaling indoor mapping across high-risk and high-occupancy buildings, communities can significantly strengthen safety and maximise return on investment.

Modern software-defined radio systems are enabling new multi-bearer modes of operation, where voice and data can be routed across 4G, 5G, satellite, WiFi, or dedicated radio networks- either simultaneously or dynamically based on performance, resilience, and cost. Drawing on recent integration work for Search and Rescue applications, Nova Systems’ experts will examine what these advances make possible for future emergency communications, and the considerations involved in testing and deploying such systems safely and effectively. This emerging capability has significant potential to enhance interoperability, coverage and operational flexibility.

The session will introduce a rapidly developing technological area that will require support across the sector to realise its full impact on public safety, security, and life-saving operations.

Drones are becoming an essential tool across the Public Safety community globally, delivering rapid situational awareness, improving responder safety, and enabling more informed incident management. To move from limited deployments to routine, scalable operations, public safety agencies must be able to operate drones safely beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), supported by trusted and resilient communications.

This session examines the role of mission-critical 5G as the key enabler for assured DFR operations. Secure, prioritised 5G connectivity supports real-time video, command and control, and integration with existing public safety communications, while addressing regulatory requirements and public trust. Drawing on real-world deployments with front-line public safety agencies and engagement with global regulators and standards bodies, the presentation will share practical lessons for adopting DFR at scale.

In January 2025, Washington D.C. faced an extraordinary convergence of high-pressure events: a presidential inauguration, a state funeral, and a helicopter and airplane crash. Heather McGaffin, Director at the Office of Unified Communications (OUC), will share how her team managed these overlapping crises, the operational and communications challenges that emerged, and the lessons learned for public safety agencies navigating simultaneous, high-stakes incidents.