After more than six years in her position, Office of Public Safety Communications Director Karen Wong is retiring from state service at the end of the month, capping a career in California state government that began in 1976.
Wong began her career at the Employment Development Department 40 years ago as an entry-level stenographer. After raising her three children for several years, she eventually joined the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, where she rose to become the chief of telecommunications and oversaw the state correctional system’s radios, telephones and low-voltage alarm systems.
Telecommunications always was her primary interest, Wong said. “I just really enjoyed it. I like the technology; I like the fact that what you do in public safety communications, and when I was telecommunications in the prisons, you have a direct impact on public safety. And in government you don’t always get to impact the greater good that you see every single day. I think that’s what drove me to this,” Wong said.
Later during her 21-year career at CDCR, Wong was tapped to serve as the deputy director of environmental health and safety. She went on to work on emergency management issues at the department’s correctional safety division, and then was asked to become deputy director of administration at CDCR for inmate mental health and dental.
Those well-rounded experiences would serve her when in October 2009 the Schwarzenegger administration appointed her to lead the state’s public safety communications office, which moved from the Department of General Services to the then-Office of the Chief Information Officer. Wong was reappointed when the Brown administration arrived, and her office moved under the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
The Public Safety Communications Office oversees and sets strategic direction for 911, and the microwave network and public safety radios used by state agencies. Wong also serves as California’s point of contact for FirstNet, the nationwide public safety communications network that’s under development. In her role, Wong forges partnerships with the FCC, Department of Homeland Security, National Cybersecurity and Communications Innovation Center, and a wide range of other organizations.
She said it’s an exciting time to be working in her field because the technology is converging.
“There will be no longer just be a radio system that supports voice; radio systems will be there for voice but what we’re going to find is that our public safety officials are going to be relying on data as much as they are on voice. And on the 911 side, while it’s just been a telephone system and we’re moving to next-generation 911, that integration will allow the public to be able to send text messages, pictures, videos to a Public Safety Answering Point.
“Then on the FirstNet side of the house, it’s going to get to our first responders and then on the radios as we continue to adopt Project 25 (P25) that sends small packets of data, you will then also get data on your radio system,” Wong said.
Wong and her husband are fulfilling a dream and relocating to New Orleans. Once they’re settled, she expects to keep busy and resume her career.
“Through and through I am a public servant, and there so many improvements that can be made anywhere – it doesn’t have to be just California – on public safety communications,” Wong said.
