By Mike O’Connor, APCO President
This September, our country will recognize a solemn and unfortunate anniversary – 25 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Many in our profession weren’t born yet or are too young to remember that day and those that followed. For others, such as myself, there are aspects of it we will never forget. That day, I was two and a half years into my first director position and was attending a training class at a nearby police academy. As we settled in for class to begin, we heard commotion in the hallway, and the instructor went to see what was happening. She returned and told us about the first tower being struck. We all left the classroom and went to a nearby lecture hall to watch live coverage. Just a few minutes later, the second tower was struck, and I remember everyone in the room looking at each other in disbelief.
Moments later, pagers and cell phones began ringing almost as one, and nearly all of us were recalled to our agencies. Around the country, similar situations were playing out in the public safety environment, as well as many government buildings. Police officers and firefighters deployed additional personnel and equipment, public safety buildings were locked down, and an unsettling nervousness set in. My agency reverted to our Y2K deployment plans for staffing for several days. Calls of suspicious persons, packages and low-flying planes began inundating emergency communications centers (ECCs). There were many questions from the public and few answers immediately available.
On that day and those that followed, telecommunicators from New York City, the D.C. region and Pennsylvania handled more calls than I can imagine, and, sadly, many with unfortunate outcomes. However, they persevered to help their fellow citizens, even if only to be able to stay on the phone and offer a chance of hope and a caring voice. They also coordinated responses from near and far, including local, state and federal resources. Agencies that ECCs would rarely, if ever, have interacted with in the past were now front and center.
So how did 9/11 impact public safety communications long term? First, the need for secure, interoperable communications between all levels of government and agencies became glaringly apparent. The need for dedicated spectrum for these communications resulted in the creation of FirstNet. Prior to 9/11, encrypted radio frequencies were uncommon in the public realm. They now are commonplace. States created standardized radio templates and plans for these interoperable communications.
Also apparent was the need for unified command at incident scenes. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a newly formed agency at the time, created the National Incident Management System (NIMS) to provide a standardized, scalable approach to incident management, including communications components and planning.
The need for proper construction, security, and continuous operation of ECCs, emergency operations centers (EOCs) and other critical infrastructure became obvious and invested in. Training for public safety, including telecommunicators, was developed in areas such as terrorist attacks, hazardous materials and large-scale incidents. Today, this type of training is considered standard by most agencies.
Just as important, the volume of calls received spurred discussion about the capabilities and capacity of legacy phone systems. These conversations would evolve into the concept of Next Generation 9-1-1, creating a modern network which is able to process and route calls more accurately, while introducing capabilities of text and multimedia as well.
The circumstances surrounding these advances were tragic and will hopefully never occur again. But they have also proven to be a positive for our profession. There is still more work to be done, however, and it is taking far too long to accomplish. Twenty-five years later, some agencies still struggle to implement some of these solutions, with funding a significant obstacle.
Modernized technology, training and operations will enable us to better manage our calls and responses in a world evolving on an almost daily basis. We must ensure that these standards and funding exist. And these can only be gained through professional involvement and advocacy by every one of us, at every level of our organizations and profession.
To those who served on that fateful day, thank you for being there when you were needed most. You exemplified being “the calm in the storm,” and your efforts will never be forgotten. To those wearing the headset now, always realize the impact you can have on even one call to even one person.
Michael R. O’Connor is president of APCO International and executive director, Western Will County Communications Center, Plainfield, Illinois.
[Originally published as the President’s Column in the September/October 2026 issue of PSC magazine]