Palo Alto Police Department's leading technology expert has been tapped by Gov. Jerry Brown to serve on an advisory board charged with improving California's emergency communications.

Charles Cullen, who has been serving as the Police Department's technical services director since 2008, will join nine other public-safety experts on the California State 9-1-1 Advisory Board, the city announced. During the two-year term, Cullen will attend monthly meetings in Sacramento and help formulate recommendations on policies, practices and procedures for the California 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Office and for training standards for managers of public-safety answering points (PSAPs), call centers focused on emergency response. According to a statement from the city, the state board also makes recommendations relating to budget, funding and reimbursement of California's 9-1-1 system and to the rollout of new police-dispatch technologies.

The subject is well familiar to Cullen, a former public-safety official who has spent the past few years working on a regionalized dispatch system that would serve Palo Alto, Mountain View and Los Altos. He joined the department in 1997 and worked his way up through ranks, becoming the lead public-safety dispatcher and communications manager. He currently represents the city on the Silicon Valley Regional Interoperability Authority and has also served in leadership roles on the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials and the CAL-National Emergency Number Association.

As technical services director, Cullen is responsible for the Records Division, the Communications Division, court liaison, code enforcement, crime analysis, radio shop and all technology used by the department, according to the city.