Situated about 45 minutes south of Chicago, Grundy County, Illinois, is a community of 50,000 residents spread out over 430 square miles. The rural county is also home to two major interstate highways, three nuclear power plants, and several large events that attract thousands of visitors each year. 

First responders operating in Grundy County require a dependable and secure communications network to work in all types of scenarios. FirstNet is built to reach into areas that need it most – especially rural and remote regions, helping public safety respond to emergencies anywhere and anytime.  

Discovering FirstNet’s impact

Deputy Chief Kevin Bogard serves as director of technology for the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office, overseeing information technology for the agency. His information technology background coupled with his law enforcement experience in the field helps Bogard understand the importance of accessing a reliable public safety communications network that delivers modern tools and resources. “Before we make decisions on the IT side of the house,” he said. “I can think through them with a law enforcement perspective about how any changes we make will impact our police officers while they are on the road.”

Bogard helped his agency switch to FirstNet to ensure they would be able to communicate no matter where they were in the county. He became familiar with FirstNet when the neighboring city of Morris connected its police officers and public works field personnel to the network. But it was when FirstNet supported communication at a massive industrial fire in the county when the network’s capabilities fully captured his attention.

In 2021, a fire started in an abandoned warehouse that was being used to store thousands of imported lithium-ion batteries. The fire released toxic fumes into the air prompting the governor to issue a disaster proclamation for the eastern part of the city.

Responders using the network requested a FirstNet Satellite Cell on Light Truck or SatCOLT, a deployable network asset, to bolster network connectivity during the response and recovery efforts. Even though Bogard’s agency was not yet a FirstNet subscriber, he was able to provide support at the warehouse fire through drone flights. “FirstNet was on scene for the fire and provided network connectivity for us,” Bogard shared, “We needed it at the time — the public safety response was pretty big with local, state, and federal agencies all working together to mitigate the hazard.  Once FirstNet was on the scene, we were able to stream drone flights to our Emergency Operations Center giving incident commanders a real time look at the interior of the building” FirstNet made it possible to bring responders on-demand coverage to perform their mission-critical operations.

FirstNet consolidates technology and is a cost-savings solution

The primary reason Grundy County Sheriff’s Office made the switch to FirstNet was for the consolidation. “We have so many connected devices now that are in our squad cars,” said Bogard. “We wanted to get away from having a cellular device in the laptop and go with mobile office setup in our squad cars.  With FirstNet, we have connected dash cameras, body worn cameras, K9 environmental monitoring, laptops, and drone equipment with one data device instead of several, saving us money and streamlining operations” The best solution for the department was deploying ruggedized modems and switching to FirstNet. This solution provides wired ports as well as Wi-Fi in the car for all the devices needing connectivity. “With FirstNet, responders operating on the network used a single reliable connection on all necessary devices.”

Seeing how the FirstNet SatCOLT delivered uninterrupted service in a crisis and understanding the cost-savings via equipment consolidation convinced Bogard to look more closely at the network.   Currently the majority of public safety agencies in Grundy County have made the switch to FirstNet.

FirstNet is key for operations at Grundy County Corn Festival year after year

Today FirstNet is helping public safety agencies across the county stay connected with reliable communications during emergency response, daily service calls, and planned events.

One way Grundy County uses FirstNet is during its annual Corn Festival, held every September. With more than 15,000 locals and approximately 10,000 visitors flocking to the five-day festival, local networks often become overloaded making it hard to communicate with mobile devices.

Grundy County users have also taken advantage of FirstNet’s deployable program to support the Corn Festival. Since 2021, the county has requested a FirstNet deployable to connect a mobile surveillance trailer, allowing agencies to collect and share information with their public safety partners at the festival. The FirstNet deployable provides the necessary bandwidth to stream video footage to the incident command center, the 911 operations center, and to fellow officers.

At large-scale events, such as the Corn Festival, crowd control can be one of the largest complications, particularly if a child goes missing. Multiple times a day, a lost child or a parent missing a child will request help from law enforcement officers or other public safety officials. FirstNet’s data capabilities enable public safety agencies to share a picture of a missing child with all on-site responders simultaneously. “It's really quick and easy to grab a photo of that person and share it with your staff that's on the scene so that they know to either be looking for the child or for the parents,” explained Bogard.

Throughout the festival, during emergencies, and in everyday incident response, FirstNet is giving Grundy County and its responders the ability to communicate, share critical data, and maintain situational awareness — all the capabilities and services they need to protect the public and stay safe. “Everything’s been good!” Bogard states, “FirstNet had the ability to give us priority,[and] the fact that it's catering to public safety is big.”