Creating a culture of collaboration in public safety

Last year was unlike anything many in government have ever experienced. From the pandemic and civil unrest to a marked increase in natural disasters, local and state governments had more than their fill of crises to address.

Now, as they face budget cuts heading into a new year, local governments are looking for ways to keep their constituents safe, while also making the most of their resources. To do this effectively, agencies should invest in solutions that encourage collaboration across different departments and stakeholders and ensure resources and information are shared…

Public Safety Advocate: Closing Digital Divide Will Take Cooperation, FirstNet Stats and Announcements

Public Safety Advocate: Closing Digital Divide Will Take Cooperation, FirstNet Stats and Announcements

For more than ten years, scores of people, organizations, and federal, state, and local agencies have been using band aids to “fix” the digital divide and address poverty-level access to broadband services across the United States. Many have been writing about and actively pushing for a much more focused and central approach to finally extending broadband to everyone who wants and needs it regardless of their location or ability to pay…

AT&T : FirstNet Keeps Public Safety Connected for Every Eventuality

What a difference a year makes. It’s a little-known secret within the first responder community that Pro Football’s Big Game each year is actually a massive public safety event. But in a pandemic, does this still hold true? The short answer is yes.

Raymond James Stadium in Tampa this Sunday will be about 30% full, with 7,500 first responders invited to attend as honored guests. And while that’s a big change from the typical packed stadium, pre-game concerts and 5G fan experiences of years past, what doesn’t change is public safety’s need to be prepared for every eventuality

RapidSOS functionality helps 911 centers overcome outages after Nashville explosion (TN)

When the Dec. 25 explosion in Nashville caused outages that prevented 911 calls from being completed, many 911 centers turned to technology from cloud-based RapidSOS to both identify and locate emergency callers, so response efforts could be initiated, according to officials from RapidSOS and a Tennessee 911 center.

Cassie Lowery, assistant director at Rutherford County (Tenn.) Emergency Communications District, said the workaround is representative of the resourcefulness of the telecommunicators and other personnel at her 911 center, which also lost Automatic Location Identification (ALI) data for all 911 calls received during the outage… READ MORE

DHS Seeks to Improve Communication Between Public Safety Agencies in Joint Emergency Response Scenarios

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) jointly announced today that the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute will spearhead a $268,000 project to develop interoperability standards for Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems used by the Nation’s public safety agencies.

Managed by S&T’s First Responders and Detection Program on behalf of CISA’s Emergency Communications Division, the research project will seek to rectify the current inability of first responders (i.e., police, fire and emergency management services) to use their CAD systems to electronically exchange information with other CAD systems during a joint emergency response…