Updated April 17, 2024 at 6:04 PM ET
HONOLULU — As wildfires ripped across Maui last August, the head of the emergency management agency dragged his heels about returning to the island amid the unfolding crisis, while a broad communications breakdown left authorities in the dark and residents without emergency alerts, according to a report released Wednesday.
The soft gray light pouring into the windows of their upper floor control room, coupled with the calm, low voices of Porter County’s E911 dispatchers, belies the urgency of the accidents and medical emergencies the first class telecommunicators field on a recent rainy Friday afternoon before this, National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.
—Telecommunications specialists at the Natrona County Public Safety Communications Center handled over 29,600 calls 911 in 2023, according to the Casper Police Department.
“We call them the ‘first’ first responders,” CPD Information Officer Amber Freestone told Oil City News.
Calling 911 is meant to save lives. But the emergency service, and others like it, are also viewed as ripe targets for criminally minded cyber-attackers, according to a new federal assessment – and any vulnerability in those critical networks can expose victims to a multitude of dangerous ripple effects.
TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Police Department and the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay have partnered to launch a crisis intervention dispatch service program. The announcement comes during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.
