Silent Key: Paul Linnée

Paul Linnée, 76, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has passed away after a life contributing to public safety communications in general and to APCO in particular. He was an APCO Life Member, a former Minnesota APCO president and served many other public safety organizations. His LinkedIn profile lists him as a current member of the GeoComm Corp. Board of Directors.

According to his online curriculum vitae, Linnée began his public safety career in 1970 as a police and fire supervisor in Burnsville, Minnesota. He later served as director of administrative services in Richfield and as director of emergency communications in Minneapolis. Linnée moved from public service to the private sector in 1994, beginning his consulting services career and serving as director/co-owner of GeoComm in 1996. He testified as an expert witness in numerous court cases nationwide regarding emergency communications response.

APCO records show that Linnée served as a member of APCO’s National 911 Committee where he was the first chairman of that committee. He was an APCO Executive Council representative and served on a committee in the 1990s that led to APCO’s association with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement for emergency communications center accreditation.

Linnée’s CV notes that he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and communications in 1970.  Linnée put his writing skills to use authoring articles for numerous industry publications. He also wrote the book Ick! I Hate Technical Stuff, explaining technical public safety communications issues to lay audiences.

An obituary for Linnée can be found online.