Stellar Communications with Adam Philpott from Indiana Integrated Public Safety Commission (IPSC)

Join Danielle Stewart, MPSCS Business Unit Manager, as she sits down with Adam Philpott from the Indiana Integrated Public Safety Commission (IPSC) to explore his critical role in public safety communications during the Total Eclipse of April 2024. Adam was a featured presenter at the 15th Annual Michigan's Statewide Interoperable Communications Conference in where he delivered a compelling talk: "Communications Success: Lessons from a Total Solar Eclipse." In preparation for the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb declared a state of emergency to ensure the state was ready for an influx of visitors and the potential strain on infrastructure. Thanks to meticulous planning and coordination, Indiana achieved stellar success in managing emergency response, transportation, and communications during this rare celestial event. We also take a moment to celebrate major milestones—30 years of MPSCS and 25 years of IPSC—as we recognize the dedication of our public safety partner to the south. Tune in for an insightful discussion on crisis preparedness, interoperability, and the lessons learned from an event where the stars literally aligned for public safety. https://cms.michigan.gov/mpscs/-/media/Project/Websites/MPSCS/Social_Media/Transcripts/Conversation-with-Adam-Philpott-IPSC_v03142025.pdf

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:05

Welcome to our podcast. Tune in with MPSCS. My name is Danielle Stewart. I am the business unit manager. And in celebration of Michigan's Public Safety Communication Systems 30th Anniversary Edition, we are fortunate to have you with us. So again, you are Adam Philpot with Indiana's Public Safety Commission. And thank you for being here today.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

SPEAKER_04 0:31

So we're here today as part of the Interoperability Conference. And we were lucky to have you as a speaker today. Can you talk about a little bit what you presented on?

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Yes, I'll keep it shorter than my 45 minute, but we had a celestial event last year, April 8th, we had the total solar eclipse that came through, which brought a lot of challenges and things that we could learn from. And so I tried to package that into the greatest lesson that was learned is that with enough time and enough preparation, we can overcome massive obstacles. But it seems like those things that are fairly routine, severe weather, snowstorms, things like that st seem to cause us the biggest problem. And and it shouldn't, because those are problems that we can anticipate, but we fail to plan for them. We we continue to operate during those events like we would on a blue sky day. And so one of the things that I really tried to promote is this plan that I call a Swiss Army Knife, this plan that is adaptable to those situations, which we should be able to anticipate.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

Absolutely. It was a great presentation, and we were very fortunate to have you with us today. Adam, do you want to give me a little bit of background on yourself and what it is that you do with Indiana?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Sure. So I have been with the Integrated Public Safety Commission, sort of the the State of Indiana radio branch for five years. Prior to that, I worked in full-time dispatch near Indianapolis, not in Indianapolis, but uh close enough. And I I did that for 11 years, so I've had about 16 years full-time in public safety communications. Uh I am a father. We we've uh adopted three children from the state of Indiana foster care system. Yeah, it's uh that is quite the actually that happened at the same time that I hired on at IpsIC, which was also uh 2020. So it was a very eventful year. Yes. Uh and uh and also my job at IpsIC is training and outreach. And then we immediately got locked down for COVID, so I couldn't train or outreach to Asian.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

You had to adapt and overcome for that time frame.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yes. But uh so so primarily my job is Central Indiana. I am the outreach person, so I'm constantly reaching out and coordinating with our local partners, uh, law, fire EMS, and uh, and then I provide training across the state. I'm our lead trainer, so constantly teaching courses over the system and planning and different things like that.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

Well, you are in the right company because that is part of what the business unit does here with MPSCS too. So, as I mentioned, we are celebrating our 30th year anniversary, and you had already mentioned to me that you guys are in your 25th year anniversary as well. Um, that's very exciting. Do you have any um achievements or any accomplishments that you would like to share that that Indiana has done in the last 25 years?

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Over this, over the span, I think you know, navigating a statewide system in general, implementing that, we have 182 sites. We we have statewide coverage. It's not perfect. I think that's a a bit of a myth, right? It's not 100% coverage everywhere, but we're present in every county. We have contacts with counties, and we uh we have sort of a unique structure in that we don't have user fees and uh user participation is completely voluntary, which is you know, pros and cons to that, but it allows us to provide service throughout the state and coordinate interoperability in a way that is whether or not they use the system full-time, we still have interoperability options. I think that is in general the the accomplishment that I'm the most proud of is continuously providing ways for our first responders to be more safe and to help the public to be more safe.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

Absolutely. I think that's a goal that probably all of us and and statewide partners are are trying to get to is how can we improve the system and and how can we continue to grow and move things forward. All right, we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back.

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SPEAKER_04 5:53

Welcome back. With us today is Adam Philpot from the state of Indiana. So, Adam, uh our director is uh one who talks very highly about your guys' social media and your guys' outreach and your interaction with the with the public. Um, can you tell us a little bit about your guys' outreach program and um social media or anything along those lines?

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Yeah, so I think in general, uh I'm I'm really proud of our team. We're a small team, 30 to 40 people uh that span the entire state. We have field services which do a lot of technical maintenance and things to that, to our sites through some of their training and education, try to keep everything running tip top. We also have um an office staff, we call it our IPSIC Connection Center. It works like our, sort of like our dispatch center, our our contact, our main contact hub, monitor the system. So if any of our uh partners out in the field that you police fire EMS have any issues, they can call that number 247 and and get a real life person that works with IpsIC. We also have network, but then we have a subscriber services team, which I'm a part of, and uh we all work under our SWIC, Andy Bonn, who is uh, I have to say it, a fantastic boss. Uh so if you can just have an Andy Bonn on your team, you're gonna be set up for success. But our team, one of the things that our team does in training and outreach is we continue to build relationships with our local partners. And sometimes that's difficult because the last person you want to talk to when things are going well are the radio people that remind you that sometimes they don't. Yeah, and so we have that. Uh and so we we work to mostly just foster relationships so that if slash when there is a problem that comes up, they know who to call. And that's a that's a 24-7 job. Every day we're working to continue to build those relationships. Uh, a partner of mine, Javier, reminded me of a situation just this last week where we had a dispatch center that had some sort of an issue. So they reached out to their training and outreach coordinator, who then passed that up to field services, and we had a technician that was able to go out to the site and realize that it was a console that had not received maintenance in some time, and and were able to remedy that problem. So the way that we work together as a team start to finish is something I'm very proud of.

SPEAKER_04 8:20

Right. And that's great. And to see how the communication really works behind the scenes when we're in the business of communication is very important to make sure that it's effective and that we can produce those results and solutions for our local partners. Um so before we conclude, um, is there anything that you would like to share or add in regards to how we can strengthen our partnership um state to state with uh us being neighbors with each other?

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Yeah, so I we know obviously that it seems like that imaginary line between Indiana and Michigan is uh is a difficult one at times for communications. And I think just continuing to build the relationship between our two states and the coordination between our statewide interoperability coordinators and and different comms people is is gonna help to bridge those. And sometimes the interoperability is complicated, but it's not impossible. And that takes coordination and training. And I think if we just continue to foster those relationships, I'm super, super grateful that you invited us up here to be able to attend and to uh to be able to present, and it's just a good opportunity to strengthen those relationships. Absolutely. And I think that's the number one solution.

SPEAKER_04 9:43

Perfect, perfect. I agree with you, Adam, very much so. Thank you, Adam, for being here. We really appreciate you taking the time to sit with us and say a few words and share some conversation. So thank you for being here today.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Thanks for having me. You've been listening to tune in with MPSTS, 30th anniversary edition. Be sure to look us up at www.michkin.gov slash mpsds, YouTube, SoundCloud, LinkedIn, and on Twitter at MPSTS. You can also subscribe to our podcast on iTunes so you never miss an episode. We will see you next time.