by ECC Editor | Aug 13, 2020 | Articles
Many buildings use video and audio monitoring, transmitting data to monitoring centers, which contact first responders when alarms are triggered. But even in 2020, information about a scene where an alarm was triggered is still often relayed to first responders by telephone.
“Video or audio data may be available in a monitoring center, and a description of what the operator sees or hears is commonly relayed to the ECC [Emergency Communications Center] verbally,” says Celia T. Besore, MBA, CAE, executive director of The Monitoring Association, the trade organization representing the professional monitoring industry…READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 13, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
he FCC has denied petitions by public safety and utility organizations to stay its decision to open up the entire 6 GHz band for unlicensed WiFi use pending judicial review.
In an order issued Thursday, from Ronald Repasi, acting chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, the FCC said that neither the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) nor the Association of PublicSafety Communications Officials-International, Inc (APCO) had shown they were likely to win their case on the merits, had not shown their members would suffer irreparable harm absent a stay, had not shown that others would not be harmed by a stay, or that the stay was in the public interest, all of which boxes need to be checked to earn a stay…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 13, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
As public safety users rely more and more often on mobile technology, what are the common issues they encounter with smartphones and tablets that are almost always designed for consumer use?
At the recent virtual incarnation of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) annual stakeholder meeting, researchers Yee-Yin Choong and Shanee Dawkins presented some of the data from a survey of more than 7,000 first responders and in-depth interviews with more than 200, which they have been mining for insights on how public safety personnel use mobile devices and applications and some of the problems that they encounter…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 13, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
Those who have followed public-safety communications over the past dozen or so years probably know about the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) and the Public Safety Alliance (PSA). While created for different reasons, these two organizations worked closely together during the four-year run-up to the passage of the bill that created FirstNet in 2012.
The PSST was formed as a public-safety not-for-profit so it could qualify to be designated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the license holder for the first nationwide public-safety broadband spectrum, which at the time was 5 MHz X 5 MHz (10 MHz total) that had been converted from what was then called “wide-band spectrum.” The FCC issued the license to the PSST in 2007, six years before FirstNet. Two years later in 2009, the PSST and the PSA endorsed the broadband technology known as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) or 4G to be used for the Nationwide Public-Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN)…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 12, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
By First Responder Network Authority
Alachua County Fire and Rescue is an all hazards agency in Gainesville, Florida. They benefit from FirstNet capabilities in their everyday EMS operations. FirstNet connects their mobile data computers to gather information while in route to calls. They use FirstNet-enabled smartphones to get priority service in an emergency. The EMS team also uses FirstNet to send health data directly from the ambulance to the hospital. READ MORE
by ECC Editor | Aug 11, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
“911 call takers are gatekeepers for the entire criminal justice system. We need to start treating them that way.”
Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black child, was playing with a toy pellet gun in a Cleveland park when a police car arrived on the scene. Within moments of exiting his squad car, officer Timothy Loehmann shot and killed Rice. The surveillance video of the November 2014 shooting garnered worldwide attention, and Rice remains a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Like the majority of police killings of unarmed civilians, this incident began with a 911 call… READ MORE
