Those who have followed public-safety communications over the past dozen or so years probably know about the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) and the Public Safety Alliance (PSA). While created for different reasons, these two organizations worked closely together during the four-year run-up to the passage of the bill that created FirstNet in 2012.
The PSST was formed as a public-safety not-for-profit so it could qualify to be designated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the license holder for the first nationwide public-safety broadband spectrum, which at the time was 5 MHz X 5 MHz (10 MHz total) that had been converted from what was then called “wide-band spectrum.” The FCC issued the license to the PSST in 2007, six years before FirstNet. Two years later in 2009, the PSST and the PSA endorsed the broadband technology known as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) or 4G to be used for the Nationwide Public-Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN)…
Alachua County Fire and Rescue is an all hazards agency in Gainesville, Florida. They benefit from FirstNet capabilities in their everyday EMS operations. FirstNet connects their mobile data computers to gather information while in route to calls. They use FirstNet-enabled smartphones to get priority service in an emergency. The EMS team also uses FirstNet to send health data directly from the ambulance to the hospital. READ MORE
IPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) – After more than a year of planning, fire departments across Tippecanoe County are coming together.
Five departments have signed a new “automatic aid” agreement that will soon go into effect.
It’s a measure the departments are taking to help reduce response time during emergencies.
“If you’re having that heart attack or if your house is on fire, you don’t really care if that firetruck has West Lafayette Fire on the side of it or Lafayette Fire,” said Lafayette Fire Department’s Chief Richard Doyle…
“911 call takers are gatekeepers for the entire criminal justice system. We need to start treating them that way.”
Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black child, was playing with a toy pellet gun in a Cleveland park when a police car arrived on the scene. Within moments of exiting his squad car, officer Timothy Loehmann shot and killed Rice. The surveillance video of the November 2014 shooting garnered worldwide attention, and Rice remains a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement.
If you have called 911 within Lewis County in the last 31 years, there is a reasonable chance you have talked with Davene Rodocker.
Rodocker is a supervisor for Lewis County 911 Communications and has been a part of the staff since 1989. In her 31 years of experience answering the lines at the Lewis County 911 Communications Center — from harrowing life-threatening emergencies to the utterly ridiculous phone calls — Rodocker has just about heard it all… READ MORE
Learn about current efforts to continue to protect the 4.9 GHz Band for public safety as well as recent filings, key decisions impacting these efforts, and how you can support PSSA’s initiative to protect the 4.9 GHz band for public safety.
