ISP Officer who brought P25 and SAFE-T system to ISP in 2007 - Retires

[Indianabrad]

Sept. 20, 2025
ISP Communication Commander Retires
After Nearly 42 Years in Law Enforcement


Captain Erwin “Erv” Faulk has announced his retirement from the Indiana State Police following a law enforcement career which has spanned nearly 42 years.
Faulk, a native of Hendricks County, is a graduate of Cascade High School and Indiana University with a degree in Criminal Justice. As a student at IU University, he worked as an IU Cadet Officer and became a certified Law Enforcement Officer. In August of 1983 he was accepted into the 41st Indiana State Police Recruit Academy.

On December 25, 1983, Faulk was appointed as a Trooper and assigned to the Indiana State Police Post in Putnamville, where he served the citizens of Hendricks, Morgan and Putnam County. In 1993 he was assigned to Criminal Drug Interdiction, and during his time with that team, thousands of pounds of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, along with millions of dollars in drug proceeds were seized. The Criminal Interdiction Team was awarded the Governor's 1994 Exemplary Award for their effort. In April of 1994, Faulk was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and transferred to the Indiana State Police Area V Command to plan and assign Troopers to all the special events in and around Indianapolis including the Indy 500, Brickyard 400, Formula One, National Drags and the Indiana State Fair. Part of that responsibility included response with the Mobile Command and other special details around the state.

In December of 2005 Faulk was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant to serve as the District Commander of the Indianapolis Post until August of 2007 when he was promoted to the rank of Captain to assist with the mandate to regionalize the Indiana State Police Dispatch Centers and to manage radio communications.

During his time in this communication supervisory role, the ISP Dispatch Centers were consolidated from 18 separate Dispatch Centers into six Regional Dispatch Centers and they were all modernized with Computer Aided Dispatch technology. This provided Troopers with the ability to communicate with the CAD system and allowed the CAD to locate Troopers in the field. The Indiana 911 System was incorporated into the ISP Dispatch Centers as secondary PSAPs and can receive transfer 911 cellular calls so the caller could be located. The radios carried by all ISP Troopers can now be programmed remotely so that the Trooper can stay in the field, instead of driving for programming to a secondary location.

Yesterday, September 18th, his last day in uniform, Faulk was inducted into the Indiana Traffic Safety All-Pro Hall of Fame at the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute’s 2025 Traffic Safety All-Pros Award Ceremony held at Lucas Oil Field.

Faulk will be spending more time with family and friends and enjoying some vacation time.

 

[west-pac]

That article says nothing about 'SAFE-T and P25 in 2007'. SAFE-T was built in 2000 - 2001 though (pre-9/11), but I'm not sure when it switched to P25.

 

[AK9R]

As I recall, SAFE-T in its original form was Motorola Type II trunking with P25 digital voice on some talkgroups.

 

[Indianabrad]

What became SAFE-T was an analogue trunking system that was first built for the ISP only in 1994, which I used to listen to on my Pro-2004.
In 2007 the above said officer/commander over saw the transition to P25 digital. I remember it well and had to go buy a Pro-197 to hear the ISP again. All those years between 1994 and 2007 the ISP only (at least in my area) was on the Indiana 800 MHz Analog tower system. Many Indiana counties were still exclusively using VHF 155.XXX MHz until 2007 or later.
Those who don't remember or were too young to, are prone to making up shlte that doesn't resemble the historical record.
I'm 58 y/o and I was there in my young adulthood and remember it well.

 

[west-pac]

25 Years of SAFE-T
Twenty-five years ago, in 1999, the Indiana General Assembly created the Integrated Public Safety Commission (IC 5-26). Back then, it wasn't uncommon for different agencies within the same geographical area or discipline to have their own dedicated radio communications system. Many agencies were using low-band VHF, a few were using UHF and 800 MHz. But the overall problem was that not everyone could talk to each other in the event an incident expanded beyond their agency, or local area or county.

Thankfully, public safety leaders in the state had a vision. Since 1990, the Indiana State Police had been gradually building an 800 MHz system but progress was slow and delayed due to funding. In 1997, the Indiana General Assembly appropriated $7.5 million to the Indiana State Police to build the next phase of the project, but the superintendent, Mel Carraway, took a fresh look at the radio communications problem before proceeding. Over the next couple of years, several statewide summits were held, bringing together hundreds of public safety professionals and elected officials from local, state and federal agencies, representing all disciplines and jurisdictions, to discuss the future of public safety communications. The resulting Statewide Public Safety Voice/Data Communications System Strategic Plan (1998) laid the foundation for what would become a national model for the shared system approach to solving the lack of interoperable communications.

The state issued an RFP in in 1999, eight vendors responded, and Motorola was chosen to build out Indiana's 126-site statewide Safety- Acting for Everyone, Together (SAFE-T) public safety communications system. In 2000, in an unprecedented show of support, 68 counties formed 12 consortiums and applied to become a part of SAFE-T's demonstration project. But while support was high, sources of funding were not.

Then, on September 11, 2001, the coordinated terrorist attacks on America exposed deep gaps in the country's ability to respond to large disasters. Chief among those gaps was the ability for first responders to communicate. Firefighters lost their lives because they did not receive the same evacuate order that law enforcement received in the Twin Towers. This tragic fact, more than anything, spurred the Indiana General Assembly to create a dedicated source of funding for SAFE-T. HEA 1001, passed in March of 2002, designated a portion of existing BMV fees to help fund system implementation.

Fast forward to 2024. In these past 25 years, a staggering amount of progress has been made, both technologically and in terms of improved cooperation and coordination. SAFE-T has grown from an idea in the minds of visionaries into a public safety land mobile radio system that has served as the national model for other states. Now the SAFE-T system has modern technology like Smart Connect and Critical Connect to allow first responders more paths to communication and interoperability and we’ll continue to progress in the years to come. Here’s to 25 years of “saving money, saving lives” and continued growth!

Old people tend to make up their own facts.

 

[AK9R]

Back in the dark ages when I first got into radio scanning (early-1980s), the Indianapolis Police Department had repeaters in the 460 MHz range. The Indianapolis Fire Department, Marion County Sheriffs Department, and the township fire departments were in the 150 MHz (VHF High) range. The Indiana State Police was on 42 MHz (VHF Low) with vehicular repeaters in the 150s. Many surrounding county law enforcement, fire, and EMS agencies were in the 150s.

The crash of a USAF A-7 into the Airport Ramada Inn near Indianapolis International Airport in 1987 was a bit of a turning point. That was a large-scale incident for police, fire, and EMS. Since the incident was in Wayne Township of Marion County, Wayne Township Fire Department (WTFD) was heavily involved. Marion County had been talking about going to an 800 MHz trunked system, but making decisions and securing funding was slow. WTFD was determined to Do Something, so they started building out their own 800 MHz trunked system. Marion County soon followed suit with the first MECA system in the early 1990s. Note that the first real test of MECA was the Indianapolis Athletic Club fire in 1992 in which one guest and two firefighters died. Several accusing fingers were pointed at MECA in the investigation.

As I recall, one of the triggers for the statewide 800 MHz trunked system was a large incident sometime in the 1990s on I-70 west of Indianapolis that involved ISP, Hendricks County Sheriffs Department, and Plainfield Fire and maybe other fire departments. The cry at the time was "we can't talk to each other because we are all on different systems". At some point in the 1990s, Plainfield had started rolling out an 800 MHz trunked system that was sorta-kinda tied into MECA. When Hendricks County went onto SAFE-T, the Plainfield 800 MHz licenses were transferred to SAFE-T.

Here's a link to HEA 1001 from the 2002 Indiana Legislature: https://archive.iga.in.gov/2002/bills/HE/HE1001.1.html

This is how I recall it though I'm sure some facts have died with the many brain cells I've killed over the years. Plus, I had two stints of living out of state in the early 1990s and early 2000s.