This is such an important lesson about the diferrence between technical redundancy and operational resilience. Your point about testing individual components versus testing the integrated response ecosystem really resonates. It reminds me of conversations around companies like Axon who are trying to integrate everything from 911 dispatch to body cameras to evidence managment into one platform. On paper it sounds like the ideal integrated system, but your experience shows that even when all the peices work individually, the handoffs and human factors can break down under real world conditions. The once a year joint exercise point is particularly telling. Technology vendors will sell you seamless integration but the reality is that maintaining operational capability across organizational boundries requires constant practice and familiarity. The medical dispatch software gap is a perfect example, you knew about it ahead of time but it still created friction in the actual failover. Makes you wonder how many other known limitations exist in public safety tech ecosystems that we've decided are acceptable compromises until we have to actually rely on them during a crisis. Really appreciate this grounded perspective on system testing.
You nailed it on the Axon integrated platform example.
Worth noting that some companies are taking a different approach. Motorola, for instance, partners with or acquires products like Rave and RapidDeploy but keeps them relatively independent. They focus on strategic integration points rather than forcing everything into one monolithic system.
That model seems to preserve the mission focus of individual products while still enabling coordination where it matters.
But your broader point stands: even well-integrated systems break down at the handoffs when people haven't practiced together under realistic conditions.
I just wrote about how this challenge is accelerating with AI getting bolted onto everything. Vendors pushing quarterly releases, systems changing faster than we can test them.
This is such an important lesson about the diferrence between technical redundancy and operational resilience. Your point about testing individual components versus testing the integrated response ecosystem really resonates. It reminds me of conversations around companies like Axon who are trying to integrate everything from 911 dispatch to body cameras to evidence managment into one platform. On paper it sounds like the ideal integrated system, but your experience shows that even when all the peices work individually, the handoffs and human factors can break down under real world conditions. The once a year joint exercise point is particularly telling. Technology vendors will sell you seamless integration but the reality is that maintaining operational capability across organizational boundries requires constant practice and familiarity. The medical dispatch software gap is a perfect example, you knew about it ahead of time but it still created friction in the actual failover. Makes you wonder how many other known limitations exist in public safety tech ecosystems that we've decided are acceptable compromises until we have to actually rely on them during a crisis. Really appreciate this grounded perspective on system testing.
You nailed it on the Axon integrated platform example.
Worth noting that some companies are taking a different approach. Motorola, for instance, partners with or acquires products like Rave and RapidDeploy but keeps them relatively independent. They focus on strategic integration points rather than forcing everything into one monolithic system.
That model seems to preserve the mission focus of individual products while still enabling coordination where it matters.
But your broader point stands: even well-integrated systems break down at the handoffs when people haven't practiced together under realistic conditions.
I just wrote about how this challenge is accelerating with AI getting bolted onto everything. Vendors pushing quarterly releases, systems changing faster than we can test them.
If you're interested: https://tr.ee/TWYjap
Appreciate the thoughtful comment.