‘We were holding calls for 2 to 3 hours ‘: Retired 911 operator says St. Louis City’s dispatch … (MO)

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) – A former 911 dispatcher is pleading with St. Louis City to fix what she calls a broken system with a skeleton crew for a call center.

“When I left, we were holding calls for 2 to 3 hours,” says retired 911 police dispatcher Maureen Ramsey. “We would get people that they would send for us to interview that were wanted.”

N.J. officials will send police with mental health experts to 911 crisis calls in state’s largest city

NEWARK, N.J. — The man needed help, but he didn’t want help.

Suffering from a mental illness with nowhere to go but Newark Penn Station last month, the man could have been forced by police into a squad car or an ambulance and hauled away.

Instead, authorities say, a mental health worker paired with police officers talked the man into getting the help he needed.

More upgrades to Valley’s emergency response technology | Opinion (PA)

Valley emergency responders and the residents they serve are getting additional tools to help with timely response, in instances where seconds matter.

Last week, the East Central Emergency Network, which handles the 911 system in Columbia and Montour counties, successfully transferred its emergency call traffic into the state’s Next Generation 911 network.

County and its largest union reach tentative agreement three-year contract (CA)

Santa Clara County government’s largest union, Service Employees International Union Local 521, representing more than 12,000 workers, announced July 28 it had reached a tentative agreement on a labor contract providing an effective 13% in wage increases over three years.

The union represents emergency dispatchers, social workers, county hospital staff, and parks and roads workers, among others.