Charleston County 911 using in-house mental health counselor after uptick in calls (SC)

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – The Charleston County Consolidated 9-1-1 Center is utilizing a new resource to deal with mental health and psychiatric-related calls.

Over the last several years, the center has seen an increase in mental health calls. According to the 911 center’s director, Jim Lake, they had 6,466 mental health or psychiatric concern calls in 2019… READ MORE

How a public safety system became a Covid lifeline

TRIAL BY FIRE: When the coronavirus pandemic arrived, medical professionals scrambled to set up outdoor testing centers, telemedicine links and data hubs to track how the disease spread.

For many communities, including in remote and underserved parts of the country, a lack of one key resource threatened to throw the whole effort sideways: broadband internet…

FCC Lets States Lease Public Safety Airwaves to Private Sector

The Federal Communications Commission voted Wednesday to give states more flexibility over a swath of airwaves previously reserved for public safety.

The order, adopted in a 3-2 vote with both Democratic commissioners dissenting, enables states to lease their rights to 4.9 GHz band airwaves for commercial purposes and for critical infrastructure, such as utilities providing electricity…

ND & MN 911 SNAFU (MN)

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Emergency Communication Networks division continues to investigate a multi-state 911 outage on Sept. 28.

According to CenturyLink’s preliminary review, 135 calls to 24 Minnesota public safety answering points failed to be routed during the 48-minute disruption… READ MORE

New building gives Maryville Public Safety a new face and more space for daily operation (MO)

Just past the front doors of the new Maryville Public Safety building, guests walk over the agency’s logo, printed large on the floor and glance at a plaque solidified on the wall next to them. “R. Keith Wood Public Safety Facility” it reads, commemorating the work of the long-time public safety director who’s vision for the agency shines even after his retirement.

The new building houses all of Maryville Public Safety, including police, fire and dispatch. With several improvements focused on efficiency and functionality, the building took several months to complete, but several more years at that to plan and execute…

Public Safety Advocate: Spectrum, Spectrum, and PTT Interoperability

Public Safety Advocate: Spectrum, Spectrum, and PTT Interoperability

Welcome to October! This has been a tough year for everyone, especially for the public-safety community. However, there continues to be good news on the communications front along with, of course, some bad news. On the plus side, after a very strong bi-partisan vote, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 451, the repeal the T-Band giveback. Currently, the FCC is faced with having to auction the T-Band spectrum (470-512 MHz) that is designated for use by the public-safety community in eleven major metropolitan cities and their surrounding suburbs…