Virginia’s COMLINC: An example of a successful transition to a viable funding source

by | Sep 30, 2018 | Articles, Comm Center News

By Tom Gagnon

With state and locality budgets facing increased pressure, the prospects of transitioning equipment purchased and maintained with grant funds to a budget line item can appear bleak. However, with the correct approach, the odds of a successful transition can be greatly increased.

Following September 11, 2001, states and localities received unprecedented federal grant funding, which resulted in major acquisitions of public safety communications equipment. While greatly enhancing public safety entities’ (PSE) effectiveness, these acquisitions were often made without establishing long-term sustainment plans.

Sustainment funding became an afterthought, as states and localities hurried to secure use-or-lose grant opportunities or assumed grant funding would remain sufficiently adequate to perform sustainment. Facing myriad competing priorities, state and locality governments often accepted risk by assuming equipment maintenance, upgrade, and replacement could be accomplished—in part or completely—with grant funds.

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RapidSOS partners with Google to deliver improved wireless 911 caller location to PSAPs

by | Sep 21, 2018 | Comm Center News

RapidSOS announces a partnership with Google to deliver Android Emergency Location Service (ELS) information to public-safety answering points (PSAPs) for free, providing U.S. 911 centers with a method to access improved wireless-caller location much more quickly to enhance incident-response efforts.

SOURCE: Urgent Communications

DATE: September 21, 2018

RapidSOS CEO Michael Martin said that ELS is “very similar” to Apple Hybridized Emergency Location (HELO), which uses device-based hybrid location—technology that leverages information from Wi-Fi access points and myriad sensors on a device, as well as traditional GPS—to locate an emergency caller.

“We actually piloted with them [Google] back in January, in three 911 centers around the country,” Martin said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “It was a fairly small pilot, but they’ve now announced that, as of September, that we’re deploying this across the United States.

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Litigation and Adverse Incidents in Emergency Dispatching

Litigation and Adverse Incidents in Emergency Dispatching

by | Sep 20, 2018 | Articles, Comm Center News

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Abstract

Introduction: Risk management is an area of critical importance for emergency services and public safety agencies, including emergency communication centers. However, almost no information currently exists regarding litigation against, or involving, emergency dispatch.

Objectives: The primary objective in this study was to characterize the most common types of adverse events, actions, and omissions of action that lead to lawsuits against emergency dispatchers and their agencies.

Methods: The study was a systematic literature review. Research and legal document databases were searched systematically for terms relating to emergency dispatch and litigation. The only data collected were publically available records, including legal documents from state, local, and federal case files, and documents pertaining to dispatch litigation obtained from research and news databases.

Results: 84 dispatch-related legal cases were reviewed, of which five were excluded for various reasons. Multiple (two or more) calls was the most common dispatch problem named as the issue in the suit, followed by delayed dispatch or response, customer service issues or mishandled calls, and failure to provide pre-arrival/post-dispatch instructions. A median $1 million settlement or decision was awarded to plaintiffs.

Conclusions: This study identified a number of common and preventable dispatch errors that characterize the majority of lawsuits brought against emergency communication centers. Such problems increasingly leave emergency communication centers open to serious legal liability. Our findings indicate that there exists a clear, expected, and enforceable standard of practice for emergency dispatching, and that this standard is increasingly applied by both the courts and the public in judging the actions of emergency communications centers and individual dispatchers.

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Commercial carriers commit to adopting technologies to improve 911 location accuracy

by | Sep 12, 2018 | Comm Center News

All four nationwide wireless carriers—AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint—will add device-based hybrid (DBH) location technologies that are designed to improve wireless emergency-caller location information, even within buildings, but public-safety officials expressed concerns about efforts surrounding vertical-location data.

SOURCE: Urgent Communications

DATE: September 12, 2018

“Dialing 911 is likely the most important call you ever make, and the wireless industry’s adoption of DBH technologies will make it easier for first responders to find you indoors more quickly and accurately,” said Tom Sawanobori, senior vice president and CTO for CTIA, a key trade association for commercial wireless providers.

DBH solutions leverage a combination of available technologies—from satellite GPS to sensor data and crowd-source Wi-Fi—to determine a 911 caller’s location. This approach is similar to the one used by popular commercial ride-sharing and navigation applications, which typically provide much better location data than carriers provide to 911 centers today, particularly when a wireless caller is inside a building, where GPS signals may not reach.

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Filling The Gaps

Filling The Gaps

by | Sep 12, 2018 | Opinions

Heidi DiGennaro

There are times when the protocol does not fill the gaps on a call. Every call is different; that is the nature of our business and no protocol can cover every situation. One of the best pieces of advice I received when I started was, “If you think you know everything, quit. You don’t.” So what do you do when the protocol isn’t enough? Below are scenarios the protocols do not cover and you, the emergency dispatcher, must think fast to handle them.

Caller pretending not to have you on the phone

People will call and pretend like they aren’t talking to an emergency dispatcher. You need to be at your best because most likely they are in danger, someone else is in danger, or something wicked your way comes. Many have heard about the woman who called to order a pizza while in a domestic violence situation, and the dispatcher caught on and helped her. What if that dispatcher had missed the cues?

What to do?

Listen. Callers need you to listen to what they are not saying. What’s the caller’s tone of voice? What’s happening in the background? Are they aware they have misdialed? Did they whisper in the phone that they couldn’t let the other person with them know that they are calling for help?

Stay quiet and use a soft tone of voice. Many emergency dispatchers crank up the volume on their phones loud enough where people around the caller can hear conversations. If you are loud, you might put the caller in danger. A soft tone shows your caller that you understand there is a problem. Callers will try to give you what they can. Have you heard calls where the telecommunicator is saying in a strident or bored tone, “This is 911. Do you have an emergency?” Do you want this to be you in the media playback?

Caller drops off and leaves an open line

Occasionally, the caller says one thing and the line stays open; she does not answer you thereafter. Increasing your volume means the louder you are, the more you are not listening to what’s happening in the background. You could miss shots fired or cover over them with your fourth, fifth, or sixth “answer me” request.

I handled a call from a female who told me the address and about the domestic situation before she stopped answering, and I had an open line. Months later I was told my silence allowed the recording to capture the rape in progress. By my not talking and only listening, the recording captured the entire crime, and it was used against the suspect in court to secure a conviction.

You, the emergency dispatcher, can help yourself when the protocol does not fill the gap. Identify the gaps. If you have a suggestion, forward it. The Academy has a process in place to request changes; make suggestions and benefit all of us. Review the protocols frequently and find the gaps; discovering there is a gap during a call isn’t the right time. Play the “what-if” or “what would I do” game by yourself or with others in your center to go over the protocols and where they stop.

If the situation has never happened before, protocol cannot cover it. Think of major events in your jurisdiction that happened once and never again. Now you probably have a plan for this odd event that occurred once. How many oddball, screwy, kick-you-in-the-teeth situations do you think are out there that you haven’t seen yet? The only thing you can do is to accept there is a gap and suggest change. No protocol can cover every eventuality, and understanding that not all calls will fit on the protocol reduces stress and anxiety.

You’re the one that people call in a crisis and part of you managing the chaos of a 911 call is knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the tools in your toolbox.