In one of the more interesting afternoon sessions on Monday, John Merrill of the Department of Homeland Security and Jay English, director of communications center and 9-1-1 services for APCO joined together in a “Town Hall” type setting to talk about what emergency personnel and first responders can do to help ensure the Next Generation First Responders will meet the needs of those out in the field.

The Science and Technology Directorate’s cutting-edge Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) Apex program develops tools first responders need to save lives and protect property while staying safe.

“One of the things that was most intriguing to me when I was invited to become a part of this project was the fact they are extremely forward-looking,” English said. “They are actually putting together programs today to help responders in the field not only next week and next year, but three and five and 10 years down the road. And the input from public safety is critical. We have a lot of folks in this conference center this week from agencies who are responders, who are telecommunicators, who are supervisors. And we also have a lot of folks from our vendor-partner community who build these solutions. And without both sides of that equation sitting down and talking about what is needed, what is possible and how we build it, this mission doesn’t get done.”

During the event Merrill, who is the director for the Office of Interoperability and Compatibility for the Department of Homeland Security, said it’s vital that those who are in the business of creating technology for first responders walk a mile in their shoes first.

“In order to do what needs to be done, you need to go out and be with the first responders. Any of the engineers that I talk to, I ask them, ‘Have you talked to the first responders? Do you know what they really want out of this?’ This is a critical piece because if you do not get the first responders engaged, get them involved, they are going to turn around and ask you, ‘Why do I need this?’”

He suggested engineers do ride-alongs with police departments or go with firefighters on a call.

Chuck Lewis, an analytics and big data outcome leader for MITRE in McLean, Virginia said that advice is critical.

“A lot of times engineers build something, and you may have this really cool app that goes on an iPhone or something like that, but try using that app with a fire glove on – it just doesn’t work well,” Lewis said. “You always have to look at it from a different perspective than just the technology. I think that’s really important as you’re designing things. Look at it from the user perspective.”