by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 24, 2025 | Comm Center News
The Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center is currently seeking feedback from the public on its delivery of public safety services. As part of their annual accreditation process, the center has opened its doors, metaphorically speaking, inviting comments from residents before the April 30 deadline. Input is encouraged on topics such as the center’s adherence to CALEA standards, community engagement, and the overall quality of public safety services provided.
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 23, 2025 | Comm Center News
What happens when you call 911?
Here’s everything a dispatcher does to get emergency services to your location when you dial 911.
Miguel Fernandez, NorthJersey.com
- Brown County Public Safety Communications is facing an ongoing staffing shortage.
- The center’s shift schedule is set to change in May, which dispatchers say will disrupt lives and risk more employees leaving.
- Dispatchers addressed the Brown County Board of Supervisors to share their concerns and seek support.
GREEN BAY – The Brown County 911 dispatch center needs a life jacket, lead dispatcher Caroline Carpiaux told the Brown County Board on Wednesday.
Amidst severe ongoing staffing shortages, dispatchers were informed in February, based on an outside consultant report, that the center’s shift schedule would change starting in May. This goes against what they were told in August, Carpiaux said, that “there would be no schedule changes for 2025 in efforts to take the year and fine tune a change for 2026.”
Dispatchers also addressed the Public Safety Committee with their concerns at the committee’s March meeting. During that meeting, Public Safety Communications Director Chancy Huntzinger said the new schedule would improve efficiency and was designed as close to the current schedule as possible.
The abrupt change has blindsided staff, causing elevated stress, anxiety and concerns, Carpiaux said. Dispatchers set their schedule a year in advance, she said, and a change will impact home lives from child care and court custody arrangements to vacation time.
Dispatcher Kirk Parker also addressed the County Board, stressing the impact the mid-year change will have on working hours. Under the new proposed schedule, Parker said, dispatchers expect to be forced into working 14 hours on their scheduled shift days and may still be forced to come in on days off.
“Instead of wreaking havoc on our personal lives in the middle of the year,” Parker said, “why not work together to go through matrixes scenarios, be a team and come up with what we all can agree upon to be an efficient schedule starting January 2026?”
As the center remains staffed at just 30%, Parker said, dispatchers agree a change is needed to the schedule, which consultants described as complex and difficult to manage. The concern is how it’s being implemented.
In an already understaffed department, the new changes bring the risk that even more people will leave, Carpiaux said, people “who have proven they will do absolutely anything to stay here and help in any way that we can.”
“There are people that are ready to toss a headset on a desk and be like, ‘yeah, I didn’t sign up for this,'” Carpiaux told the Press-Gazette. “I signed up for long hours. I signed up for a stressful job. I signed up to listen people to take their last breaths. I signed up for that, I know that I did, but I didn’t sign up for someone to rip my life from underneath me in the middle of a year.”
And the risk of losing the current team affects more than just the dispatch center, Carpiaux said, it affects the community that depends on dispatchers to get emergency services to them.
No action was taken by the board regarding the dispatchers’ concerns, though multiple supervisors expressed their concern for the employees. Supervisor Patrick Evans said he would vote in favor of the dispatchers’ request, but that it isn’t the board’s authority because the changes were presented as a temporary work rule.
Scheduling decisions are an administrative responsibility, Corporation Counsel David Hemery said, and while the County Board can vote to ask the center’s management team reconsider their decision, they can’t make the change themselves. However, that option wasn’t available Wednesday night as no official action item was up for a vote.
Even though no action was taken, Carpiaux said the conversation among supervisors is the reaction dispatchers were looking for. She hopes it’s the start to a snowball that will keep rolling.
“It’s huge that it’s finally starting to seem like we’re being heard,” Carpiaux said.
Vivian Barrett is the public safety reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at vmbarrett@greenbay.gannett.com or (920) 431-8314. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @vivianbarrett_.
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 23, 2025 | Comm Center News
Each dispatcher undergoes extensive training to prepare for working under pressure. Not everybody makes it.
In 2022, Durango Emergency Communications reported that 99% of candidates weren’t able to complete the training program.
“My crew is incredibly well-trained and skilled,” said Kati Fox, director of the Durango Emergency Communications Center.
“But in that moment, when you only have your voice to impact a situation where someone’s life is at risk, that’s the very definition of helplessness. And one of the key factors in whether someone develops PTSD from a traumatic incident is whether they felt helpless at that moment.”
Even the best-trained dispatchers feel the weight of the job, especially when taking high-stakes calls for 12 hours a day.
“Dispatch stress is cumulative,” Fox continued. “It’s like ‘you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay.’ And then it rises, rises, rises, and you crash. It can be one call that tips you over, or something in your personal life.”
To help with dispatcher mental health, the center offers free therapy sessions, mental health days, incident reviews for high-stakes calls and — most importantly, according to the dispatchers — a supportive work environment.
“I would say the culture here is absolutely amazing. Everybody cares about everybody,” said Hahn, who is in her second year of dispatching.
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 23, 2025 | Comm Center News
BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A new report looks at Vermont’s dispatch centers and emergency response.
Now, the state wants to hear from you. On Thursday, the Vermont Public Safety Communications task force will host a meeting to discuss the future of emergency communication in the state.
According to the report, Vermont has 37 independently operated dispatch centers and answering points.
That’s significantly more than some larger states.
With technology evolving faster than smaller dispatch centers, some are at risk of being left behind, including the people they are in place to help.
Thursday night at 6, Vermonters can respond to the report’s suggestions for how emergency calls are handled. You can register for that meeting here.
Copyright 2025 WCAX. All rights reserved.
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 22, 2025 | Comm Center News
CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – The Charleston County Consolidated Emergency Communications Center has adopted a new and more advanced call-handling software that improves emergency responses from the public and first responders.
The dispatch software, the Carbyne Apex Call Handling Solution, will introduce six features that increase situational awareness:
- Images and Video: Callers will be able to share live images and videos with the ECC.
- Location Services: Dispatchers will be able to send a link to obtain the exact coordinates of the caller’s location if their location is not automatically transmitted. Dispatchers will have temporary access to their exact location once the caller accepts the link.
- Responder Link: Dispatchers can transmit both received images and videos to first responders on the field.
- Translation: Allows seamless communication with non-English speaking callers by transmitting conversations in real time.
- Triage: Focuses on emergency calls and ensures that simultaneous incidents do not get delayed by other emergency calls.
- Voice to Text: Dispatchers will receive real-time text transcription of what the caller says over the phone.
Charleston County spokesperson Chloe Field said the Charleston County ECC has teamed up with Carbyne to integrate the new system alongside RapidDeploy Radius Mapping, which is a platform that provides several key benefits that include:
- Access to caller-provided emergency data.
- Crash data from Bosch, OnStar and other vehicle safety services
- Enhanced alarm data from security companies
- Instant messaging between 911 centers for information sharing
- Outbound text message capabilities for two-way communication with 911 callers
ECC Director Jim Lake said the new system will improve effective communication to ensure callers will get the necessary help as quickly as possible.
“By improving accuracy, communication, and situational awareness, it helps ensure that people in crisis get the help they need as quickly as possible. Our telecommunicators and first responders rely on clear and timely information, and these tools will make a real difference in their ability to respond effectively,” he said.
Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 22, 2025 | Comm Center News
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Gwinnett County leaders gathered together on Thursday to recognize police officers, firefighters and other public safety professionals for going above and beyond the call of duty.
Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach was at the Gwinnett County Valor Awards ceremony, where first responders were honored for their heroic, lifesaving actions.
Those honored included a communications officer who took a 911 call from a domestic violence victim and helped save her life after she was shot and officers who helped respond to an active shooter outside the county jail.
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It’s the 20th year that the Gwinnett County Chamber of Commerce presented the honors, recognizing not only those who protect and serve but those went above and beyond in life-threatening situations.
“With no tourniquet available, Officer Etienne resourcefully used a belt as a makeshift solution,” Sgt. Gregory Ross said, presenting a life-saving award to Officer Feniel Etienne, a senior officer with the Lilburn Police Department.
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Etienne was off-duty when a gunman shot someone at a Suwanee automotive shop. He immediately jumped into action.
“Happy to be there and able to serve somebody,” he said.
The top award, the gold medal for valor, went to five sheriff’s deputies for dealing with an active shooter at the jail in October.
A man in body armor showed up at the jail’s entrance with his two-year-old daughter, acting erratically. Deputies identified the potential threat as he returned the child to his car and got a shotgun out.
Eventually, the man opened fire at officers with a handgun and they fired back, hitting him.
“Their courage under fire and commitment to protecting lives prevented what could have easily been a mass tragedy,” Ross said at the ceremony.
The deputies said that “we just came together that day,” calling it a true team effort as other deputies and jail staff locked down inside and got visitors and others out of harm’s way.
The gunman from the shooting recovered and is in custody at the jail, facing multiple charges including aggravated assault against law enforcement officers.
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