by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 16, 2020 | Articles, Opinions
Kathy Muhlhan
Emotional labor in emergency dispatch is the work you do to express or suppress your own emotions to produce the required emotions and responses in your caller. When I am feeling exhausted at 4 a.m. I put aside my personal feelings to meet the needs of my caller. A panicked caller requires me to adjust my conversational style and speak to them firmly. An urgent tone is required to get help organized quickly. The work of calltaking is emotional. Understanding this is crucial to learning how to care for ourselves as calltakers, and for leaders and organizations to support their staff…
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 15, 2020 | Articles
Emerging advancements in dispatch technology have provided public safety agencies with new and exciting capabilities. As 9-1-1 command centers acquire these next-generation products, the next logical step is to maximize efficiencies by integrating them with external data sources.
If only it were that simple.
Integration with external data sources requires opening up your organization’s computer infrastructure to these outside entities—and to outside threats. Attacks on public safety agencies can be devastatingly effective, from data theft to complete system incapacitation…
by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 15, 2020 | Articles
This week on A Place For My Head, Brandon Thompson and Jerry Petuck discuss a serious issue within the law enforcement community and that’s PTSD. Former police officer/911 dispatcher Jamie Gonzalez, a long time friend of Jerry’s, is featured in the upcoming documentary PTSD 911, where she shares her experience as both a dispatcher and a cop that ultimately led to her resignation…
by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 15, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Brandi Vincent
As America fights a global pandemic and braces for what could be an alarmingly active hurricane season, public safety agencies looking to modernize response efforts have a new option to participate in personal, two-way conversations directly with each other and with those they serve—via text message.
RumbleUp, a peer-to-peer texting app that’s made notable waves for political and advocacy campaigns in recent years, was accepted into the FirstNet App Catalog, a dedicated library of secure applications that can be used by more than 12,000 public safety agencies. The addition could enable first responders to directly text people on the ground in support of COVID-19 testing and contact tracing efforts, as a lifeline during hurricanes, and other natural disasters or unexpected events and much more. READ MORE
by ECC Editor | Jul 10, 2020 | Articles
Cloud-native 911 solution developer RapidDeploy has experienced some hiccups during the past few months, but the realities surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated interest and acceptance of its cloud-based CAD, mapping and analytics offerings, according to a company executive.
Historically, 911 systems have been built with premise-based technologies that require telecommunicators to be physically present in designated 911 centers to accept emergency calls from the public and dispatch public-safety resources to the scene… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 10, 2020 | Articles
Although the questions around staffing and overtime at Meriden’s emergency dispatch center are far from settled, City Manager Tim Coon says there’s one thing on which both the city and the union are in agreement: that staffing shortages need to be resolved.
Beyond that, though, the discussion descends into charges and countercharges.
The union says dispatchers are working 72 to 88 hours per week. “We have tried repeatedly to engage management in fixing the problem, and we have tried to be part of…
