Online interface gives emergency dispatchers up-to-date information in one place

Online interface gives emergency dispatchers up-to-date information in one place

Between documenting resources that are available, logging important timestamps, fielding phone calls from utility companies, giving information to responding units and talking to victims, dispatching emergency services amid a rapidly evolving event can be a difficult assignment—and that’s not to mention the stress of trying to help someone in the middle of what might be the worst day they’ve ever experienced.

It wasn’t that long ago when dispatchers did their work in emergency communication centers (ECCs) using analog phones, taking notes on paper documents. These days, incidents can be tracked with GIS technology, messages can be sent via text, video footage can streamed in from automated drones and, as of this week, all of it can be seen on a single screen…

A plea to first responders: Join FirstNet to expand your communications options

Decision-making. We all have our methods, but how can you be sure you’re not making decisions that leave a better choice on the table? When budget dollars are tight and expectations are high, it helps to get critical procurement decisions right the first time, and the best way to accomplish that is to truly understand your choices.

Optimizing technology in order to meet the expectations of your citizens and administrators is no longer optional. The slow burn of technological advancement within public safety has hit what might best be described as the powder keg of progress. With it comes stiff competition for your precious budget dollars and an inherent expectation your team is already leveraging every technological advantage most 12-year-olds use every day. When it comes to under-utilizing readily available technology to best serve, “I didn’t know about it” will not be a defense…

Promoting Collaboration: Telecommunicators and Field Responders

Promoting Collaboration: Telecommunicators and Field Responders

Collaboration is the key to any good partnership. As a public safety telecommunicator or a responder, the radio can become just a voice on the other end of the line, and not a real person. As our small, law enforcement-run agency expanded in rural South Dakota, we wanted to maintain our connection to field responders with whom we interacted daily.

The Watertown South Dakota 9-1-1 Center had great partnerships with our law enforcement officers. However, we struggled with communicating our dispatch procedures to our area ambulance and fire departments. In a few years, we had grown from dispatching for two counties to six, and taken on dozens of fire and ambulance agencies…



Inteliquent Introduces Next Generation 911 Location Agent

Inteliquent, Inc., the largest independent voice communications provider in the United States, continues to improve the next generation 911 landscape with the launch of their NG911 Location Agent. With this new fully i3 compliant solution for Originating Service Providers (OSPs), Next Generation Core Services (NGCS) providers and Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), Inteliquent greatly simplifies the management of complex location and multimedia data delivery in i3 capable markets.

Public safety professionals developed the i3 architecture as a standard for defining network components and protocols required to interface and ensure smooth interoperability in NG911 environments. Inteliquent’s NG911 Location Agent will provide organizations generating NG911 Requests for Assistance (RFAs) access to i3 data delivery. This streamlines connectivity to NGCS providers and delivers robust, context-rich data and multimedia to i3 PSAPs in a secure, resilient manner…

Public Safety Advocate: PTT Corrections, CHP Joins FirstNet, Smarter Smartphones, Rural Broadband Feeding Frenzy

First and foremost, Tango Tango Push-To-Talk (PTT) is FirstNet-certified for both the Android operating system and iOS (Apple), not Android-only as stated in the list of vendors that have met FirstNet’s rigorous evaluation. I also neglected to note that Tango Tango, JPS VIA, and ESChat are the only FirstNet-certified PTT applications I am aware of that are fully interoperable with each other.

Tango Tango has been growing quickly as a result of working primarily with smaller departments that want interoperability with Land Mobile Radio (LMR) and PTT over FirstNet. Tango Tango also enables fire departments to send alert tones to FirstNet smartphones as well as normal alerts to pagers…

RapidSOS launches app store with public-safety software partners

RapidSOS today announced the launch of the RapidSOS Partner Network, an application store of software solutions that integrate with RapidSOS to deliver critical information to 911 personnel, command centers and public-safety officers that is designed to improve emergency-response efforts.

While RapidSOS is known for delivering data tools to 911 centers and partnering with other solution providers, the RapidSOS Partner Network is being established to make it easier for emergency call centers (ECCs) to access new capabilities through an app-store experience, according to Jessica Reed, vice president of global sales for RapidSOS…