City councilor questions 911 response (NM)

Over the past 10 months, Louie Sanchez has called the police nearly a dozen times about the goings-on outside his Allstate Agency office on Central and 61st. And the city councilor — a former Albuquerque Police Department officer — wants to know why officers weren’t immediately dispatched to his latest report about a man threatening or maybe hitting another with a gun. He said he believes calls are getting downgraded from what should be considered the highest priority to where officers are not even sent to the scene.

Last week, after the last meeting, council services requested the city’s Office of Internal Audit conduct an audit of 911 emergency response times, said Nicole Kelley, the city auditor. She said they are determining what the scope and objective of that review would be…

Public Safety Telecommunicators Week: dispatchers in the spotlight (MT)

Public Safety Telecommunicators Week: dispatchers in the spotlight (MT)

They are often referred to as the “first first-responders” – 911 dispatchers see and hear a lot on the job, and this week is dedicated to them and the service they provide. National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week was created in 1981 to dedicate a week to those in the public safety community.

Great Falls dispatchers say they are seeing an increased volume of calls and that the national week of recognition helps spotlight their jobs…


Public safety agencies honoring dispatchers, while also looking to fill staffing shortages (CA)

Public safety agencies honoring dispatchers, while also looking to fill staffing shortages (CA)

SANTA MARA, Calif. — Public safety agencies across the country are taking time this week to honor dispatcher workers during National Public Safety Communications Week, which runs from April 10-16.

“Our public safety dispatchers and call takers are an extraordinary group of women and men who answer calls for help 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said in a statement. “Answering calls for help from members of the public and dispatching cops, paramedics and firefighters to law enforcement, medical and fire emergencies, many of which are interconnected, requires great levels of dedication to duty, coolness under extreme conditions, technical skills, an outstanding ability to communicate, and large doses of tact, patience, common sense and empathy for the plight of others…

FirstNet supports eMBMS one-to-many capability, set for FirstNet PTT on iOS devices this month

FirstNet supports eMBMS one-to-many capability, set for FirstNet PTT on iOS devices this month

FirstNet soon will offer 3GPP-standard mission-critical-push-to-talk (MCPTT) service on Apple iOS devices, and the public-safety LTE network can deliver efficient one-to-many broadcast communications via evolved multimedia broadcast and multicast services (eMBMS) LTE technology, according to an AT&T official.

Scott Agnew, assistant vice president of FirstNet solutions for AT&T—the nationwide contractor building the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN)—said these capabilities are part of a series of enhancements to the FirstNet MCX portfolio being announced last month and this month.

Given the popularity of Apple devices in the public-safety sector, having an iOS-capable version of FirstNet PTT—the Samsung-powered MCPTT offering—available is important, Agnew said…

Fort Worth celebrates National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week (TX)

The City of Fort Worth is celebrating April 10-16 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. This week, sponsored by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International and celebrated annually, honors the thousands of men and women who respond to emergency calls, dispatch emergency professionals and equipment and render life-saving assistance.

Fort Worth’s 911 telecommunicators processed 1.4 million calls last year — 790,000 of those were emergency calls…