Marysville to examine dispatch options (CA)

On paper, Tuesday night’s Marysville City Council discussion for approving the use of a consultant for the possible consolidation of dispatch services used by the city’s police and fire departments should have been a fairly cut and dry process.

The possibility of consolidating services to Yuba County has been a discussion among the council and city staff for some time with discussions being held in ongoing meetings between Marysville’s police and fire chiefs, city staff and council members.

A controversy, however, sprung up recently among some in the community who saw the need for possibly hiring a consultant for $34,605 as a misdirection of city funds…

Should 911 dispatchers be considered first responders? (VA)

Should 911 dispatchers be considered first responders? (VA)

ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – Answering calls in a time of crisis can be an emotional toll for 911 dispatchers. But without the classification as first responders, they do not have the same access to benefits.

Local dispatch centers are pushing Virginia legislators to step in and make a change.

Emergency dispatchers may not be on the front lines but their role behind the scenes is vital.

With more than 57,000 citizens in Franklin County, Emergency Communications’ Peggy Foley said there are 18 dispatchers ready to answer calls…

CRESA earns reaccreditation (WA)

Emergency dispatch center Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency announced Tuesday it earned reaccreditation for the eighth time.

CRESA achieved the status of Medical Accredited Center of Excellence, awarded by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch.

Only 11 other dispatch centers around the world have been reaccredited as often as CRESA, the agency said in a news release…

Technical challenges delay Southwick-Westfield regional dispatch (MA)

Technical challenges delay Southwick-Westfield regional dispatch (MA)

SOUTHWICK — Technical issues are causing a delay to the initial time frame for Southwick emergency calls to transition to a regional emergency dispatch center in Westfield. The completion date has now been pushed out by about six months.

“There are a lot of technical issues that we still need to work out – and that’s been our challenge,” Southwick Police Chief Robert Landis said last week. “We have to go through a procurement process to do that right, and make sure all of our bases are covered. We don’t want to be coming back and piecemealing anything.”

Nina Barszcz, dispatch administrator for the Westfield Public Safety Communications Center, who has been overseeing the project, also said last week that she now anticipates Southwick will be fully merged into the center by the beginning of 2023…

Public Safety Advocate: Survey, Happy Anniversary FirstNet

We will be in Washington, DC next week to participate in a celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the signing of the bill that created FirstNet. Thus there will not be an Advocate next week but I will recap the anniversary activities the following week.

The survey we posted three weeks ago is still up and, again, if you have not had time to respond, I hope you will be able to take a few minutes to complete it this week. Thanks to all who have responded and those who will respond this week…