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Co-Chair urges frontline practitioners to join P25 User Needs Working Group to fix standards gaps
Summary
The co-chair of the Project 25 User Needs Working Group urged police, firefighters and paramedics to join the group advising SAFECOM and NCSWIC, saying user input helps resolve ambiguous standards and guides manufacturers toward practical fixes.
The Co-Chair of the User Needs Working Group urged frontline practitioners to join the group that advises SAFECOM and the National Council of Statewide Interoperability Coordinators (NCSWIC), saying practical user feedback helps resolve ambiguous parts of the Project 25 (P25) standards.
"I happen to be the current Co-Chair of the User Needs Working Group," the co-chair said, asking practitioners, "What questions do you have? What problems do you have? How can we help you solve these things?" The co-chair described the group as a channel to bring field needs to manufacturers and standards bodies.
The co-chair said the working group has identified items in the standards that were interpreted differently by manufacturers and that the group helps bring resolution and clarify definitions so the equipment actually works for police officers, firefighters and paramedics. "They need it to work, and they don't need to understand all the technical stuff ... when they push that red button, they need to ensure that somebody is coming to help them," the co-chair said.
The speaker described the P25 User Needs Working Group as an advisory arm for both NCSWIC and SAFECOM and as a pipeline for user requests to manufacturers: "We have a much broader voice. We have an international voice now of people that are using P25 and have a need and have an interest." The co-chair said international participation helps manufacturers focus priorities and supports the continuation of P25 standards.
The group does not require attendees to be SAFECOM or NCSWIC members, the co-chair said, and the committee actively seeks practitioners who are "living and breathing" land mobile radio implementation to report shortcomings and implementation issues. The co-chair warned that without active user participation, manufacturers might assume systems need no changes.
The working group emphasized its role as the voice of field personnel and urged practitioners to bring real-world concerns back to the committee so manufacturers and standards bodies can work toward practical improvements. The session ended with a reiteration that UNWG members are driving Project 25 standards from current use toward expected future capabilities.
