Posted in All, Press Release on Dec 17, 2025
Howard Tien didn’t come into public safety by accident, and he didn’t come into NG911 chasing trends. For him, this work has always been about one thing: helping people when it matters most — and making sure the systems behind that help actually hold up when lives are on the line.
“I always wanted a career where I could help people,” Howard says. “Doctor, soldier, police officer — something in service. That’s always been there.”
Growing up in Taiwan and later coming to the United States as a teenager, Howard saw firsthand how opportunity and responsibility intersect. In his early twenties, that sense of purpose turned into action. He became an EMT, served as an EMS reserve with the Pasadena Fire Department, and soon after entered the world of emergency communications.
In 1999, Howard joined the Los Angeles Police Department as a 911 operator trainee. Over the years, he rose through the ranks — instructor, supervisor — before moving into IT, where he became responsible for supporting LAPD’s 24/7 dispatch operations and leading major system implementations.
That dual experience — sitting at the console and later supporting the infrastructure behind it — shaped how Howard sees emergency communications.
“I’ve answered the calls. I’ve supervised the floors. And I’ve been the one responsible when systems fail,” he explains. “You see the whole picture.”
Howard has lived through every major phase of 911 technology — from early Nortel systems to selective routers, from analog trunks to IP-based networks. And while legacy systems have served their purpose, he’s clear-eyed about their limitations.
“Legacy did its job,” he says. “But it wasn’t built for what we’re dealing with today.”
Smartphones didn’t exist when much of the current 911 infrastructure was designed. Text, video, real-time data, precise location — all of that lives outside the reach of traditional systems. Dispatchers are often forced to rely on verbal descriptions alone, even when richer information already exists in the caller’s hand.
“We’re asking people to describe emergencies while we ignore data their phones can already provide,” Howard says. “That’s not sustainable.”
From Howard’s perspective, the move to NG911 isn’t optional or theoretical. It’s a natural evolution toward SIP-based infrastructure that can handle voice, text, images, video, and data — not as add-ons, but as core capabilities.
“This is where emergency communications is going,” he says. “There’s no real debate about that.”
Despite the technical advantages, Howard understands why many agencies hesitate.
“The biggest challenge is the unknown,” he explains. “People are comfortable with what works today. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
But Howard pushes back on the idea that waiting is safer.
“Waiting actually makes it worse,” he says. “Legacy equipment is failing more often, and a lot of the core components aren’t even manufactured anymore. Agencies are running on stockpiled parts.”
Delays don’t reduce risk — they compound it. When systems fail unexpectedly, agencies are forced into rushed, expensive migrations under pressure.
“You end up suffering from legacy failures while trying to migrate at the same time,” Howard says. “That’s the worst possible scenario.”
His advice is simple: start early, even if the transition happens in phases.
“Spacing it out gives you control,” he says. “Waiting takes it away.”
Today, as Director of Operations and Technology at NGA, Howard focuses on helping agencies understand what they already have, what’s aging, and how to move forward without disruption.
In many cases, NG911 infrastructure is already deployed but not fully utilized.
“I’ve walked into agencies that didn’t realize they had a functional NG911 system sitting in their environment,” Howard explains.
He recalls recent work with LAPD leadership, where NGA conducted system health checks, ran live test calls, and verified interoperability with neighboring agencies — all while the system was technically “not live.”
“They were surprised,” Howard says. “But the system worked. Transfers worked. The redundancy was there.”
For Howard, resilience isn’t theoretical. It’s operational.
“If something major happens tomorrow — an earthquake, a large-scale event — agencies need to know what alternatives they have,” he says. “You don’t want to discover that during the crisis.”
Looking ahead, Howard believes the next five years will define emergency communications for decades.
“What we build now shapes the next 30 or 40 years,” he says. “There has to be room to grow.”
Artificial intelligence is already entering the space, often as overlay solutions designed to compensate for legacy limitations — real-time transcription, translation, and video tools layered on top of aging systems.
“AI is filling gaps because legacy can’t support these functions natively,” Howard explains. “NG911 can.”
From his perspective, NG911 isn’t about replacing people or adding complexity. It’s about giving dispatchers and responders better information — earlier.
“If responders can see what’s happening, they can bring the right tools,” he says. “That changes outcomes.”
When asked what advice he gives agencies beginning their NG911 journey, Howard doesn’t sugarcoat it.
“Any delay is working against you,” he says.
He also encourages leaders to be intentional about vendor selection — and to ask harder questions than usual.
“Everyone talks about success,” Howard says. “I want to hear about failure.”
He believes the strongest partners are the ones who have faced problems, learned from them, and stayed accountable through difficult deployments.
“I don’t trust ‘smooth sailing,’” he says. “Either you’re not telling the whole story, or you’re about to fail spectacularly when things get hard.”
For Howard, NG911 migrations aren’t transactions — they’re partnerships.
“I expect commitment,” he says. “Nights, weekends, holidays if necessary. This work doesn’t stop.”
That expectation comes from experience — years spent on-call, troubleshooting failures in real time, knowing that lives don’t pause for maintenance windows.
Howard describes himself as someone who’s always willing to take on the assignment no one else wants.
“If nobody wants it, give it to me,” he says. “I’ll figure it out.”
That mindset has carried him through decades of change — and it continues to guide his work today.
“The only thing that doesn’t change is the need to keep changing,” Howard says. “In public safety, you can’t afford to fall behind.”
For him, NG911 isn’t about technology for its own sake. It’s about making sure that when the next call comes in — no matter when or where — the system behind it is ready.
Howard Tien serves as Director of Operations and Technology at NGA, where he helps public safety agencies modernize their emergency communications infrastructure through resilient, interoperable NG911 solutions. His career spans more than two decades in public safety and IT, including service as an EMT, 911 operator and supervisor, and IT systems leader with the Los Angeles Police Department.