by AllThingsECC.com | Oct 22, 2021 | Comm Center News
The City of Fort Atkinson has accepted a proposal from Mueller Communications, Milwaukee, to serve as the communications consultant for a possible public safety referendum next April.
The proposal, which excludes an optional community survey, carries a total price tag of $46,781.
Execution of the agreement is contingent on the approval of a Fort Atkinson Community Foundation grant for $23,390.50 or the receipt of other non-general fund dollars…
by AllThingsECC.com | Oct 22, 2021 | Comm Center News
After launching in parts of Harlem this summer, New York City is planning to expand a pilot program that enables 911 to dispatch teams that are led by social workers to mental health calls instead of the NYPD. The B-HEARD program will cover all of Harlem by early November before expanding into the Bronx.
But new data released Friday suggests that even as the program’s reach grows, 911 operators still send the overwhelming majority of mental health calls — about three of every four — to police teams. It’s a protocol that New Yorkers with mental illness, their family members and mental health advocates have fought to change in recent years…
by AllThingsECC.com | Oct 22, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News

For agencies considering the transition to P25, the video offers insights and advice from public safety officials with firsthand experience.
The Project 25 (P25) standard for public safety land mobile radio (LMR) enables responders from different disciplines and jurisdictions to communicate seamlessly during joint operations regardless of the manufacturer of their equipment.
This capability is fundamental for saving lives and property, and agencies nationwide recognize its importance. Two issues, however, often make agencies hesitate to adopt P25 technology. First is the perceived high cost of P25 equipment and its implementation; second is the advent of long-term evolution (LTE) broadband technologies in public safety…
by AllThingsECC.com | Oct 22, 2021 | Comm Center News
The Central South Dakota Communications Center in Pierre is receiving new equipment thanks to some one-time funding from the State of South Dakota.
The 911 Coordination Board, administered by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety, has awarded the public safety dispatch center $108,388 to purchase new radios and computers, creating two additional work stations.
According to Cindy Gross, Communications Center Manager, they serve as the backup answering point for other dispatch and state radio centers. She says the additional work stations give them the ability to dedicate technology and staff to handle traffic when one of the other communications centers across the state needs an assist. Additionally, Gross says, if there was a large emergency within its service territory, the additional consoles could be dedicated specifically to that incident…
by AllThingsECC.com | Oct 22, 2021 | Comm Center News
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Serious allegations contained in a new federal lawsuit paint Lehigh County’s 911 Center as a place where discrimination, negligence, and outright incompetence run rampant.
One especially startling claim in the lawsuit is that one dispatcher’s negligence and racism possibly resulted in two people dying in a house fire.
One of the most serious claims in the more than 70-page lawsuit concerns a 911 dispatcher and a Spanish-speaking man who called 911 from inside a burning home on North Fair Street in Allentown in July of 2020. The dispatcher allegedly told the man who was making the 911 call to speak English and hung up. The man who was inside the burning home and a 14-year-old boy died in the fire…