GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) — Accidental emergency calls have become a costly problem at the Brown County 911 Center.
“We have to spend our time and resources on seeing where and how that call came in,” Cullen Peltier, Director of Brown County Public Safety Communications said.
The popularization of SmartPhones, like iPhones, has led to an increase in those types of calls…
When former correctional officer Michelle McKeaveney’s mental health spiralled into an operational stress injury (OSI), online therapy wasn’t an option.
Last Wednesday, however, the U of R released a new online tool for public safety personnel throughout Saskatchewan. Researchers plan to expand it into Quebec, and eventually across Canada…
Bill Kerry, director of the Ithaca College Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management, discussed the creation of a Public Safety app with the Student Governance Council on Feb. 3 at a meeting held in the Public Safety office.
Kerry said that development for the app began in Fall 2019 and that it should be completed during Spring 2020. He also said that in addition to the Public Safety office, Information Technology and the Office of College Communications helped to develop the app too…
Verizon offers national security, public safety and first responder plans under the U.S. Navy Spiral 3 contract, the most recent edition of the Navy’s Wireless and Telecommunications contract. These mission critical communication capabilities from Verizon include Verizon’s wireless preemption technology and mobile broadband priority for defense, which enable military and security personnel to stay connected during emergencies. Verizon’s services are designed to enhance the ability of military and national security personnel to stay connected, serve their missions and protect human life…
Posted by: Chris NussmanThe nation’s leading 9-1-1 organization is welcoming the establishment of an independent body to encourage greater interoperability in Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) systems.
Together with other stakeholders, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) will participate in the new NG9-1-1 Interoperability Oversight Commission, an independent body that will oversee key programs related to interoperability in NG9-1-1, including the PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) Credentialing Agency (PCA) and the NG9-1-1 Forest Guide.
The PCA will address the need for Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to manage secure credentials within the 9-1-1 industry. A PKI is a set of policies and certificate-issuing bodies that cooperate in establishing trust so that entities in a sensitive industry can communicate securely. The PCA is a root Certificate Authority (CA) that sits at the root of the NG9-1-1 PKI. This is the same model used by the STIR/SHAKEN system to authenticate telephone calls, and also used by the global aerospace industry, the United States cable television industry, the U.S. Federal Government and others. The PKI is required to be established under standards developed for NG9-1-1, such as the NENA i3 core services standard.
The Forest Guide is another service required by the major standards for NG9-1-1, including work published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and NENA, to help with location-based routing when the local system can’t find a destination. In NG9-1-1, a caller’s location is typically used for location-based routing to connect a caller with the correct Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). When the local system fails to find the right PSAP for a call, it will query the Forest Guide for help. Current standards envision one Forest Guide will exist for each large region, such as United States or Canada. The Federal Communications Commission’s Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture (TFOPA) has also called for a Forest Guide for the United States, with independent governance.
These new services are critically important and will require ongoing, stakeholder-driven oversight, which will be provided by the NG9-1-1 Interoperability Oversight Commission. The commission will oversee the development and operation of both services, including budgets, policies, management procedures and any fees. Seats on the commission will reflect all affected stakeholders, including 9-1-1 authorities, commercial providers, standards development groups, elected officials and 9-1-1 operators.
“This is a landmark moment for public safety,” said Brandon Abley, Technical Issues Director for NENA. “The PCA and Forest Guide are critically important services, and the Commission will make sure stakeholders can trust how they are operated. NENA will have no direct control over these entities, allowing for fully independent oversight. We’re following the exact same model used in other critical industries.”
NENA is actively soliciting volunteers to sit on the commission. An open letter with submission instructions is available here, and the bylaws for the Commission are here.
