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Most agencies have a communications plan — until the plan becomes the incident. In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley digs into a reality many departments don’t fully plan for: what happens when cellular networks overload, land mobile radio coverage breaks down and agencies struggle to communicate at the very moment demand is highest.
Jim is joined by LAPD Commander Randy Goddard, the acting commanding officer and chief information officer for the department’s Information Technology Bureau. Goddard also served as an incident commander during the Palisades fire and will lead LAPD’s Incident Management Team 1 for upcoming global events, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He explains what unified command looked like when key systems failed, why “coverage” is not the same as “capacity,” and what redundancy and manual backups need to look like in modern policing.
Commander Goddard is a featured contributor to Police1’s “26 on 2026: A police leadership playbook.” Download your copy here.
About our guest
Commander Randy Goddard has dedicated nearly three decades to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). For the past four years, he has been a key leader in the LAPD’s Information Technology Bureau (ITB), currently serving as the Acting Commanding Officer and Chief Information Officer. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the management and implementation of cutting-edge technology programs and services that enhance operational efficiency and security measures within the Department.
Commander Goddard’s leadership extends beyond technology. He played a pivotal role as one of the Incident Commanders during the Palisades Fire, demonstrating his exceptional ability to manage resource deployment and coordinate with multiple agencies in response to a significant disaster. His leadership is a cornerstone of the LAPD’s preparedness for upcoming high-profile global events, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup games and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, where he will lead the LAPD’s Incident Management Team No. 1.
About our sponsor
This episode of the Policing Matters podcast is sponsored by OfficerStore. Learn more about getting the gear you need at prices you can afford by visiting OfficerStore.com.
Tune in to hear
- How the Palisades fire went from a routine brush response to a fast-moving urban disaster driven by extreme winds, terrain, fuel and dense housing
- Why Goddard says the incident exposed the same interagency communications gaps highlighted after 9/11 and why that problem still shows up when demand peaks
- What command and control looks like when unified command is miles away, your people are staged elsewhere and radio and cellular service are unreliable
- The difference between having coverage and having usable capacity and how thousands of responders can saturate a network even when towers are still standing
- What practical redundancy looks like in the field, from dual-carrier phones and satellite capability to “walkie-talkie mode,” paper ICS forms, whiteboards and other manual backups when the cloud goes dark
Key takeaways from this episode
The incident can outgrow “routine” faster than your communications can adapt. Goddard describes the Palisades fire as unlike typical brush fires because of extreme winds, topography, heavy urban density and abundant fuel conditions. The operational lesson: escalation can be exponential, so plans built around “normal” incidents often fail before the first operational period is over.
Interoperability is still a weak link, even decades after 9/11. He draws a direct line to 9/11-era findings: agencies still struggle to communicate across systems when it matters most. If your radios cannot talk to neighboring agencies or you lack a realistic patch plan, unified command turns into parallel operations.
Infrastructure failure is only half the problem — capacity collapse is the other half. Even where infrastructure remained intact, the sheer number of responders created a “new city” effect that saturated networks and dropped calls. The lesson for leaders: planning must account for peak load and sustained duration, not just signal coverage on a map.
Redundancy has to be layered and operational, not theoretical. Goddard’s real-world workaround included dual-carrier capability and shifting roles so his operations chief was physically co-located with field resources. He also points to satellite connectivity as an emerging third layer, but stresses it should complement, not replace, ground-based redundancy.
If you can’t go manual, you’re not actually prepared. When connectivity failed, the fallback was paper ICS forms, whiteboards, printed copies and simplified radio use at short range. Goddard’s point is blunt: agencies need a non-network plan B that people still know how to execute under stress, not one that lives in a binder.
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