Fire Dispatch: What Dispatch Did This Year

The year 2020 long will be remembered for being a turbulent year. No other in recent history spawned so many challenges for the fire service, and dispatch was far from immune. As field personnel coped with how to best respond during an epidemic, dispatchers dealt with the new reality of infection control in the communications center. The typical PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) is rife with the potential to spread germs: a confined space, which often has questionable ventilation, where telecommunicators literally sit elbow to elbow for 12 or more hours at a time, communally sharing devices, such as keyboards and chairs, and repeatedly touching common surfaces, including console surfaces, monitors, telephones and controls. In some smaller centers, headsets even might be passed from person to person during shift change…

Nearly $500K Awarded to Tech to Protect Finalists

The largest prize challenge in NIST’s history reached its culmination last month as contestants of the Tech to Protect Challenge, a software development prize competition birthed by NIST’s Public Safety Communications Research division (PSCR) with partners the First Responder Network Authority and FirstNet by AT&T, earned nearly $500K in funding for exhibiting progress toward commercialization after gaining initial funding during the May Demonstration Round contest…

How To Become A 911 Dispatcher Step By Step Guide

Have you ever been in an emergency and called 911? Most of you would have, and the person who responds to your call is a 911 dispatcher whose duty is to receive the calls and respond to an emergency. The 911 dispatcher is another career within the law enforcement agencies that act as a bridge to mitigate emergencies within the United States.

There are many tempting aspects of the job of 911 Dispatcher that has compelled many people to look for the ways of becoming a 911 dispatcher, if you are reading this article you might be one of them who wonder, how to become a dispatcher or how much do 911 dispatchers make?

Audit Warned of Outage Risk Before Kansas 911 System Failure

(TNS) — Children are taught from a young age to dial 911 in an emergency. Whether it’s a heart attack, a break-in or a fire, 911 answers the call right away.

A widespread 911 service outage across Kansas on Sunday afternoon is testing that assumption.

A roughly three-hour disruption sent police and sheriffs scrambling to post alternative phone numbers to social media. Multiple counties were unable to log into the state’s 911 system during that time. What happened if you called varied from area to area, with some agencies able to reroute calls before service was fully restored by around 4:40 p.m… READ MORE

Remembering Ray Flynn

  • By Edward Parkinson, FirstNet Authority CEO

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) is saddened to learn of the passing of Assistant Sheriff Raymond Flynn (Ret.) of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.  We extend our thoughts and prayers to Ray’s family and friends.

Ray dedicated his life to public service and helping others.  He was a nationally recognized leader on public safety communications issues, and is considered a founding member of the FirstNet Authority family through his work on the Public Safety Alliance and FirstNet’s Public Safety Advisory Committee.  

FirstNet owes much of its success today to people like Ray, whose tenacity and hard work as an advocate for public safety led to the establishment of the nationwide public safety broadband network. 

The FirstNet Authority will miss Ray and remember the legacy he leaves behind for public safety every day.