Duncan Swan | British APCO and the Global Future of Emergency Communications

In 1987, a fire at a London Underground station exposed a serious gap: police and fire crews had no reliable radio communication once they went underground. Duncan Swan, a young engineer at Philips at the time, spent the next two years helping fix it, building radio communications into all 123 stations. In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, hosts Emily McNulty and Steve McDonnell welcome their first UK-based guest of Season 3, Duncan, now Chief Operations Officer of British APCO, for a conversation on his four-decade career, what a global network of public safety associations can accomplish together, and where AI is (and isn't yet) earning trust in emergency response. Here's what you'll hear about: How a fire at a London Underground station led to his first major public safety comms project Leading technical assurance on the UK's billion-pound Emergency Services Network How a global network of public safety associations helped catch a worldwide false-call surge Where AI is already helping in UK public safety, and where the industry still draws the line His take on how close AI is to earning the same trust people put in a human dispatcher Episode Breakdown: 0:00 Welcome to our first UK-based guest of the season 2:16 Full introduction and background 3:00 Icebreaker: This or That 18:17 How a fire at a London Underground station led to his first major public safety project 25:57 Leading technical assurance on the UK's billion-pound Emergency Services Network 31:46 Taking the helm at British APCO 40:15 How a global network of public safety associations caught a worldwide false-call surge 43:14 Where AI is helping in public safety today, and where the industry draws the line 51:05 What AI means for training and supervision in the UK's emergency centers Connect with Duncan Swan on LinkedIn Listen to more episodes of The Wilmac Wire:  Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | iHeart | Riverside