by AllThingsECC.com | Dec 11, 2019 | Comm Center News
BERKELEY SPRINGS — The Morgan County Commission voted unanimously
this week to purchase a number of portable radios for emergency
responders and law enforcement and new equipment for its 911 Center.
The
10-year lease from Motorola Soluation, worth $2.5 million at 2.93%
interest, purchases six dispatch consoles ($675,000), computer–aided
dispatch (CAD) software and computer equipment ($544,000), a call-taking
station ($483,000) and radios ($1.2 million before a “bundling”
discount of $414,570 for 157 portable radios, 74 mobile radio units and
two control stations).
An $800,000 down payment on the grand total of $2,502,500 will be applied, and an annual payment of $198,871 will be made beginning with FY 2020-2021. The lease includes a service plan with a refresh in equipment in five or six years.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Dec 11, 2019 | Comm Center News
“This morning at approximately 6:20 am, during a semi-annual fire
alarm system test at the E911 Center, there was an accidental discharge
of the FM-200 Fire Suppression system.
Out of an
abundance of caution, EMS and Fire responded to the scene. Five
employees were assessed at local medical facilities and were released
without incident.
There was no disruption to 911 communications during the incident. Staff was able to transfer calls and dispatch to an unaffected part of the building until the backup center could be brought on line at an alternate location.”
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by AllThingsECC.com | Dec 11, 2019 | Comm Center News
CHICOPEE, MA (WGGB/WSHM) — Starting Tuesday, a new emergency
dispatch center will be serving the town of Longmeadow and city of
Chicopee.
It’s called the WESTCOMM regional emergency communication center.
Starting
December 10, a new dispatch center in Chicopee will be receiving all
911 calls made in the city, plus the town of Longmeadow.
“It’s a cost effective way to get the information out to
the police and fire departments from doing it in one area,” said Erin
Hastings, executive director of WESTCOMM RECC.
Hastings told Western Mass News they are able to receive grants from the state 911 department.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Dec 11, 2019 | Comm Center News
Last year, Dallas’ police and fire departments teamed up with
Parkland Hospital to rethink how they responded to 911 calls involving
mental health crises. They placed a social worker inside the dispatch
center to triage calls and sent out a special team staffed with a mental
health professional whenever possible. They targeted South Central
Dallas, the area with the highest concentration of mental health-related
calls.
The hope was that social workers could handle these cases without relying on the city’s overcrowded emergency rooms and jails.
The results have been promising. In 2019, the volume of psych patients at Parkland’s ER rose 30%. But the trend has largely been reversed in areas covered by the program, which is called RIGHT Care. The number of psych patients arriving from those areas dropped by 20%.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Dec 11, 2019 | Comm Center News
LANCASTER – Fairfield County Sheriff’s
Office radio dispatcher Ted Duffus never knows how a call he handles may
turn out. It could be nothing or it could mean life or death.
“Every phone call’s a new challenge for us,” Duffus said. “There’s nothing, nothing the same. Not from one second to the next.”
It’s no exaggeration to say Duffus routinely deals in life and death situations at work. Years ago he heard a caller commit suicide with a gun while he was on the line with them.
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