Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System

01/29/2026

01/28/2026

12/31/2025

On this New Year's Eve, thank you to those involved in the numerous interoperable events in which public safety and public service dedicated their efforts to protecting lives and property. The strategic partnerships, collaborations, and interoperable engagements strengthen the community and create more cohesive and resilient public safety responses. Here is to a bright 2026. Stay Safe and Thank You for all you do for all of us.

12/29/2025

Updated key messages for the Late December Blizzard.

12/29/2025

Look to ISICS Standard 1.7.0 for the Minimum Programming Requirements for both subscriber radio and agency consoles. By including these resources in all equipment, responders will have the needed interoperable resource at any given event they may respond to in Iowa, no matter the region, if the event is coordinated on the Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System.

12/28/2025

Your operational performance directly reflects your practice habits. Dedicating communications modules and components into every training opportunity and regularly in daily drills instills confidence in utilizing less often relied upon resources such as the ISICS interoperability talkgroups and channels, creates muscle memory and comfort with equipment, allowing for seamless on-scene coordination, and decreases the need for responders to rely upon patches when they can employ best practice and locate the required resource natively in their equipment.

12/27/2025

Communication in interoperable incidents should use plain language to ensure that information dissemination is timely, clear, and understood by all intended recipients. Codes, acronyms, and jargon should be avoided in incidents requiring the participation of multiple agencies or organizations. On the Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communication System, Standard 1.3.0 ensures this alignment with the National Incident Management System and Incident Command System. When it is required we work together at an incident, we can and will communicate successfully on ISICS, the redundant, resilient backbone of interoperable communication for all of Iowa's public safety community.

12/26/2025

As we close out out the Christmas season, a few helpful reminders to keep you cyber-safe into the new year.
Avoid using public Wi-Fi, use a hotspot and access systems via a VPN
Engage 2-factor authentication on accounts
Verify before you click - AI is making it more difficult to spot spam, utilize the SLAM method evaluating email messages:
S - Sender - verify sender matches someone you recognize
L - Link - hover over links to ensure the URL is recognizable to you
A - Attachment - were you expecting this attachment? if in doubt call or contact the sender to ensure it is safe to download
M - Message - look for grammar and spelling errors which may indicate illegitimate or spam email

For more tools and information visit the CISA website for their Cybersecurity Awareness Program with updated helpful information

10/24/2025

The ISICSB Training and Outreach Committee provides online training modules on a number of different topics including use of the regional and statewide interoperable talkgroups, statewide pursuit communications, StatusBoard, and landing zone coordination. We maintain a list of known offered training around the state and other technical documents and forms for users of the ISICS platform. Check out this free and easily accessible site here; https://dps.iowa.gov/isicsb-0/isics-education-training submit any training requests to the SWIC.

See ISICS training opportunities and educational resources.

10/03/2025

We are just days away from the 2025 Central States Red River Communications Boot Camp! Are you ready!

Deployment orders are being emailed to registered and approved students as we speak! If you do not have your deployment email in the next 24 hours, please let us know!

10/01/2025

Communication is critically important in public safety, yet is definitively one of the least trained topics. Strategically plan to include radio communications in every facet of exercise and tactical training to include both operational and interoperable situations and fill an identified gap in almost every after action report.

09/29/2025

What are the ISICS Calling or Tac talkgroups for? Purpose, Scope, Operation, and Monitoring explained.