Episode 84 | FirstNet brings reliable coverage to Meskwaki Nation and tribal lands in Iowa

Narrator: You're listening to Public Safety First, a podcast to help you learn about the First Responder Network Authority and how you can be part of the future of public safety technology.

And now, your host.

Tom Lampe: Welcome to the Public Safety First podcast. I'm Tom Lampe, and I serve as the Senior Public Safety Advisor with the First Responder Network Authority. I'm joined today by Chief Jeffrey Bunn of the Meskwaki Police Department in Iowa. The Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi, known as Meskwaki Nation, is the only federally recognized Indian tribe in Iowa. The police department has been using FirstNet for over a year to bring much needed connectivity to the reservation. I've known Chief Bunn for many years. I'm pleased to have him join me today. Welcome to the podcast.

Chief Jeff Bunn: Thank you.

Tom Lampe: Chief, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Chief Jeff Bunn: Sure. So, I've been in law enforcement for a little over 35 years now. I started my career in 1989 in California. I was a deputy with the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office out there and moved to Iowa in 1993 and became a police officer in Toledo, Iowa. Spent a few years there and then moved on to become Chief of the State Center Police Department in Marshall County and spent 21 years with them before I retired from there. And then in 2019, I ended up taking a position with the Meskwaki Nation Police Department and I've been here just right at five years. I was promoted to Chief a little over a year ago.

Tom Lampe: So, can you give us a little overview of your department? Type of responses you have on a day-to-day basis, some of the challenges with remote areas, terrain, anything like that?

Chief Jeff Bunn: Yeah so, we have 15 sworn positions. We have two civilian staff. You know, everything out here at Meskwaki is like being in your own state or city. We have our own court system. We have our own family services. We have our own medical services. And typically the challenges that our guys face are not a whole lot different than what a municipality would have but out here you're primarily protecting the cultures and the traditions of the Meskwaki Nation people.

Tom Lampe: Okay. In 2022, the Meskwaki Police Department transitioned to FirstNet. Why did you choose to join the network?

Chief Jeff Bunn: So, the Meskwaki settlement is kind of a hilly area, lots of valleys. And we were finding that we were losing connectivity a fair amount of time in different locations. The south part of the settlement was really hard to get any kind of reception on our phones and we would lose connectivity on our computers if we were trying to run information, calls, things like that through CAD. And then we were also losing reception inside the casino and the hotel. So, that's why we looked at FirstNet, and it has made a huge impact for us because all those areas that we had that were dead areas are no longer an issue.

Tom Lampe: So, would you say the turning point was the coverage?

Chief Jeff Bunn: Yeah. The coverage, and I would say the strength of the FirstNet system. And also, the service. It’s top notch. That kind of that service to us is so valuable because there are many times where we may be in a time crunch situation if we have a major incident and something goes down or a storm, you know, we can get a rapid response vehicle, things like that out here, which we wouldn't have had that through the other service.

Tom Lampe: Chief, how are you using FirstNet?

Chief Jeff Bunn: So right now, all of our guys have their cell phones through this. We have our computer capabilities in our cars. We're hoping to get push-to-talk at some point. We're trying to set it up so that we can get this tribal-wide in the different departments, such as one would be the casino in the event that we have a major incident there.

We used it during Powwow. That's a big event down in south side of the settlement. It's four days, and it's the big festival for the Tribe. And having that connectivity down there and being able to keep in contact with people is imperative for us to have. And so, we used it heavily down there.

Tom Lampe: What have you heard from the first responders in the field since you've all been on the network?

Chief Jeff Bunn: So, my guys, they love it. They haven't had any issues. When you're out in the field and you're trying to run things, these guys really rely on this stuff and if it's not working right, it gets pretty frustrating. And they've been very, very happy with it. I haven't heard any complaints from them at all. It's been pretty amazing to hear from them that they love it.

Tom Lampe: Mhm. Let's talk a bit about mutual aid and working with other surrounding agencies. How does FirstNet support your ability to work closely with the other public safety agencies?

Chief Jeff Bunn: Well, so one of them is being able to communicate with them better. We're trying to get FirstNet into our communications center. And we've talked to the other agencies about trying to get hooked up with FirstNet so that we're all on the same system when it comes to our connectivity and our phones, and I think that it would be beneficial to us if we did that.

Tom Lampe: Is there any specific incident or event that has occurred where FirstNet really made a difference for your agency?

Chief Jeff Bunn: During RAGBRAI [Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa] they helped out with giving us additional coverage. RAGBRAI is a traditional bike race that runs what they call coast to coast in Iowa, from river to river, takes different routes every year. And it's a several day event. They go through towns, pass-over towns, they call them, or they'll have sleepover towns, and those cities will have all sorts of events, music, food. I want to say we had somewhere around 50,000 plus riders this last RAGBRAI.

And I mean, that puts a huge hit on your cell service. And we never lost anything the whole time during that. Through FirstNet, we were able to provide those additional temporary towers to boost our service. And it was amazing. We never lost anything. We always had priority and that was good.

Other than RAGBRAI, I mean, we've had some pretty significant storms recently. And I would say that one of the ways that that has impacted us in a positive way is that we never lost any service at all. Before we had FirstNet, we had the derecho over in Marshalltown, I can remember losing my own service. The guys couldn't get in contact with me other than by radio.

Tom Lampe: Yeah, I was working when that thing came through. So, I know what it was like.

What does a service like FirstNet bring to tribal first responders, and how does it help to overcome some common challenges?

Chief Jeff Bunn: Well, for Tribal, it's getting the service implemented, and educating the Tribal Council, or the Tribal Ops — that's what we call our government, Tribal Ops. the necessity and the needs for it. And how we have much more improved coverage. The ability to have apps that you can get in so much faster, where things are not slow.

But I can say for Meskwaki Nation, they're very progressive and technology wise, they try to do the best they can. They don't spare much when it comes to making sure that we have the best equipment. We have some of the best equipment in the area, and the tribe takes pride in trying to be the best. And that's what we try to provide for them. And, you know, FirstNet giving us this capability, makes the tribe stand out right now in the area.

Tom Lampe: So, let's look into the future. You've had FirstNet integrated into your public safety communications system. What other capabilities or features would be useful to your agency and other responders in Meskwaki Nation?

Chief Jeff Bunn: One of the things that we're really trying to do in the future is to get it set up so that surveillance at the casino will have the ability to have communications with us through this push-to-talk instead of having to have a radio so we're not carrying extra stuff on our bodies. We did have an incident recently where persons of interest were at our hotel casino, and we had to obtain a handheld radio extra so that we could communicate with surveillance so we could know what was going on. And I think if we'd had FirstNet implemented there at the casino, it would have made things a lot smoother where we could have not had to carry that clunky radio. We would have had our phone and had the ability to communicate with them directly and it would have been more secure. So, that's one of our big goals right now is to try to get them online and make things safer for us.

Tom Lampe: You’re going to create some interoperability is what you're doing.

Chief Jeff Bunn: Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

Tom Lampe: Okay, good.

Chief Jeff Bunn: Yeah.

Tom Lampe: Okay. Chief, as we close this podcast out, what advice would you share with other tribal first responders that are thinking about joining FirstNet?

Chief Jeff Bunn: Yeah. I mean, other tribes across the nation, I would definitely encourage you to get on with FirstNet and take advantage of everything that they offer. And the service that they offer is absolutely amazing. And it's only going to make the Tribal communities run so much smoother when it comes to public safety.

I thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about my tribe and our police department and FirstNet and all the things that they have done for us. We really enjoy the partnership, and we look forward to continuing to grow with FirstNet and making things better as technology changes. It's very important for us to be able to have the communications throughout the tribe, through to our community, through our officers, through dispatch, to keep our guys safe. It's kind of a must in my opinion.

Tom Lampe: All right. Very good. Thanks for joining us today, Chief. We appreciate your time.

Chief Jeff Bunn: Absolutely.

Narrator: Thanks for listening today. We're excited to have you join our podcast community. Make sure to subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, and YouTube. You can learn more about the First Responder Network Authority at FirstNet.gov and learn about FirstNet products and services at FirstNet.com.