Developments in 911 technology over the past 25 years brought Enhanced 911 and Wireless 911 to more than 90% of American PSAPs, but the voice-centric 911 call remained the backbone of emergency service. Now, however, with local governments taking advantage of innovative, cloud-based public-safety software, dispatchers — today better described as telecommunicators — and first responders can access critical situational details in the moments that matter most…
About a year into my first term as Pennsylvania governor, our state was slammed by the Blizzard of ‘96. I recall declaring a state of emergency and ordering my fellow Pennsylvanians to stay off the roads. Of course, our first responders were still out in the storm protecting the public.
Twenty-five years later, the emergency isn’t a blinding snowstorm, but a devastating pandemic. And again, it’s our first responders who put themselves in harm’s way.
In police stations, fire houses, ambulances and 911 dispatch centers across the nation, our first responders are working to respond to the needs of their communities and to keep themselves and their families safe from a deadly disease…
The call comes into the police department for a missing person. Sometimes it’s regarding an adult who didn’t show up for work. It might be a teenager who has run away from home. It might be a child who got separated from their parents while on an outing.
Police train for these kinds of missing person cases. But what happens when the missing person has special needs and may be unable to communicate with authorities? …
Andre’ Lanier
National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week 2021 is less than two weeks away (Sunday April 11 through Saturday April 17) creating the ideal time to revisit the history of 911 and see where we are today.
Early
days of 911
Early discussions for an emergency number originated in 1957 by the National Association of Fire Chiefs. The chiefs recommended a single number a person could call to report a fire. However, other organizations wanted separate numbers for other emergencies. Discussions on national numbers for emergencies continued until 1967…
DALLAS, April 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — What’s the news? As public safety’s partner, AT&T* is committed to evolving FirstNet® to meet first responders’ needs and supporting innovative new technologies to help them stay mission ready. That’s why we’re announcing 3 major milestones for FirstNet, the only network built with public safety, for public safety:
According to the latest update on the development of the work within the 3GPP on critical communications earlier this month (hosted by the TCCA), Chairman of 3GPP RAN Balasz Bertenyi said that the technology move from 4G to 5G is not really such a big jump. The biggest challenge for the critical communications community and people that are active in the public safety environment, is to move from digital narrowband to 4G,….and it doesn’t matter from whatever system (TETRA, TETRAPOL or P25) you are migrating from…
