Throughout the 1980's, the City of Indianapolis struggled to consolidate its emergency communications systems. Emergency responders utilized multiple radio systems that were incapable of communicating with each other. Attempts to resolve this problem were initially unsuccessful. That all changed on October 20, 1987.
An Air Force fighter jet experienced problems over Indianapolis and crashed into the Airport Ramada Hotel. The emergency response was massive, and amazingly only nine people were killed. However, responders were faced with a familiar problem; they couldn't communicate with each other. One of the more enduring images from that day was a firefighter juggling several radios and a pay telephone in an attempt to communicate with other agencies. As work at the scene continued that evening, city leaders decided enough was enough.
To answer the question of who would build and operate a county-wide communications system, a new agency was created. The Metropolitan Emergency Communications Agency (MECA) was given the task of designing, building and administering a state-of-the-art communications system. On January 10th, 1992 a new 800 Megahertz emergency communications system went on the air.
The next step was moving the city and county's public service agencies to the new system, further increasing interoperability with all units of government. MECA also has added a paging system that is used throughout local government, mobile data capabilities for emergency responders, and Record Management Systems (RMS) for both police and fire to their responsibilities.
Long recognized as a leader in emergency communications and interoperability, MECA is upgrading its radio and data systems, allowing our customers to fully utilize new and emerging technologies.