Gridlock Guy: Helping ease the load for our heroic dispatchers

Gridlock Guy: Helping ease the load for our heroic dispatchers

by | Apr 19, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News

Last week was National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, a time to annually reflect on and appreciate the people that are just as vital to the first responders community as the men and women who drive up to relieve our problems. Dispatchers are the calm voices on the other end of the phone from usually some of the worst moments in the callers’ lives. And those phone calls roll in sometimes constantly in a 12-hour shift. Dispatchers are key in making sure those calls turn into timely action by police, fire, EMS, and other frontliners…

Getting real-time crash data to responders

Getting real-time crash data to responders

by | Apr 17, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News

highway accident (image by plasid / Shutterstock, Inc.)

Public safety answering points (PSAPs) in California can get real-time crash notifications through an agreement between a cloud-based emergency response platform and General Motors’ OnStar emergency system.

Announced at the end of March, the collaboration between OnStar and RapidDeploy gives 911 call takers in the state immediate data about accidents that they can use to improve response – for instance, dispatching several ambulances to a multi-vehicle pileup.

Public Safety Technology Alliance (PSTA) to shut down

by | Apr 17, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News

After three years of existence, the non-profit Public Safety Technology Alliance (PSTA) will cease operations within 45 days as officials say they believe that the organization achieved its primary goal to promote public safety’s use of open-standard technologies

“PSTA achieved its mission,” PSTA board member Jeff Johnson said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications…

NIST links public safety radios, broadband network

NIST links public safety radios, broadband network

by | Apr 17, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) engineers are espousing the benefits of a low-cost computer system connecting older public safety radios with the latest wireless communications networks.

“This NIST project aims to develop a prototype infrastructure that could be used by commercial entities to create a low-cost solution for public safety users, allowing them to interconnect their radio systems to broadband networks,” NIST engineer Jordan O’Dell said…

Public Safety Telecommunicators Help Locate Child Taken in Home Invasion

by | Apr 17, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News

During National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) recognizes those who save lives in times of crisis and raises awareness of the hard work and dedication of public safety telecommunicators.

The Roswell (GA) 911 Emergency Communications Center became a member of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) Missing Kids Readiness Program (MKRP) in 2017. The communications officers train several times a year on missing, endangered, and exploited children…

Rosenworcel Wants to “Revitalize” CSRIC

Rosenworcel Wants to “Revitalize” CSRIC

by | Apr 17, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News

Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council, CSRIC, wireless network communications security, FCC, Federal Communications Commission, 5G
An image from a recent online meeting of the seventh CSRIC.

The acting chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission plans to “refocus and revitalize” the group that advises the FCC on improving the security, reliability and interoperability of U.S. communications systems. And she wants it to focus on 5G…