building in production

Drew Swanigan

Mission-critical systems engineer. Public safety + production SaaS.

PSAP · P25 · dispatch consoles · APIs · workers · integrations

Day Job

Public Safety Engineering

Systems Engineer · AMK Services · 2020 – Present

Mission-critical communications deployments for PSAPs, electric utilities, and federal customers. Full-lifecycle work: system design, FAT / ATP, multi-site commissioning, RF alignment, dispatch console integration, and zero-interruption cutover.

Before the engineering side, I spent two years as a DOCJT-certified 911 telecommunicator at Georgetown-Scott County E911 — operating the same consoles I now install. Every cutover plan I write starts with “what does the dispatcher feel at 3 a.m.”

Customer Deployments
AES OhioEKPCDARTNellis AFB / Nevada DOEIowa Statewide (RACOM)VELCOMadison County KYClark County KYGSCP25Powhatan County VAEastern Shore VA
Comms Platforms
L3Harris VIDAMASTR VStatusAwareUASTwo47SUMSVIDA EdgeMotorola ASTRO P25Tait DMR / GridLinkP25 Phase 1/2SimulcastBDA / DAS
Dispatch Consoles
AvtecZetronSymphonyTelex
Infrastructure
Cisco Routing / SwitchingVLANsMPLSIP BackhaulWindows ServerLinuxSCADADNP3RTU Integration
Production

Systems in Production

What I build and ship independently. Real platforms with third-party API integrations, persistent data layers, and operational workflows that have to work the first time, every time — from a live flagship to what I’m architecting next.

In Development

ClearComm911

Real-time translation for 911 dispatch · open-source R&D

An open-source research project — not a product or service I sell. Real-time, two-way language translation for 911 and dispatch calls: a non-English caller is understood immediately, the dispatcher reads a live English transcript, and the reply is translated back, with no hold and no interpreter line. Design and architecture stage: published system architecture and CJIS Security Policy considerations, engineered so caller audio can stay inside the PSAP network boundary, with no audio retention and no training on data. Built to explore the hard parts — latency, reliability, and security — with any real-world testing limited to a controlled, non-production pilot on administrative lines.

Real-time STT/TTSStreamingCJIS Security PolicyPSAP integration
Context

From the dispatcher’s chair to the engineering side

Started in a 911 center. Two years of phone, radio, CAD, and dispatch console — every public safety agency in Scott County flowing through one chair. That’s where I learned what actually goes wrong with mission-critical systems at 3 a.m., and what dispatchers need from the people who build them.

Moved to the engineering side in 2020. Same systems, different chair. Now I deploy and commission the consoles, P25 infrastructure, and dispatch networks I used to operate. Software builds run in parallel — same discipline applied to code.

That background shapes how I write code. I care about clear failure modes, observability, and avoiding “magic.” Try to write things other engineers can actually pick up and debug at 2 AM.

Let's connect

Open to Implementation Engineer, Solutions Engineer, and Technical Account Manager roles in public safety SaaS — and always happy to talk PSAP integration, P25 cutover war stories, or SaaS builder stuff.