by AllThingsECC.com | Oct 14, 2018 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Richard Mirgon, Public Safety Consultant
How many times do we say to friends, colleagues and people we know “How can I help”? We do that more often in public safety because helping is in our core. We are service-oriented and we care about our communities. How often do we want to help, but don’t know how to help? Let me make a small suggestion that could end up being a big idea.
FirstNet is up and running. FirstNet built by AT&T is aggressively working every day to meet the commitment they made to the FirstNet Authority and to the first responder community. One key element of that is coverage. We know it is improving everyday and will continue to improve. Coverage is King as they say and we can help improve coverage. As AT&T is building out our band 14 spectrum, they are building and modifying cell sites coast to coast. Many of these sites will need local permits and approvals. This process can be extensive and is different for each community. One element that will slow this process down is when the permitting authority doesn’t understand who or what FirstNet is.
We can help by educating and briefing our local planning departments, planning commissions and elected officials about FirstNet. I am not suggesting we bypass the process. Those processes exist for a reason, but one element that can slow down a process is not understanding the intent of the request or the impact on the community. When we educate our local officials, it allows them to make better and quicker decisions. With that said it is also my belief that asking for permits to be expedited supports the community we serve.
As we all know wireline 9-1-1 is no longer the primary mode to access public safety. It is wireless 9-1-1 that accounts for 80% of all 9-1-1 calls. Each and every cell site impact someone’s life and safety. Here is how impactful a cell site is.
- There are 323,448 cell sites in the US according to statista.com
- There are over 240 million 9-1-1 calls made every year, 80% via wireless according to nena.org. That is about 192 million wireless 9-1-1 calls.
- Each cell site processes on an average of 593 9-1-1 emergency calls a year.
That is a significant number. Now, I realize as much as anyone that the number is an average and there are sites in major cities that see more calls, with some rural sites seeing far fewer calls. However, you can’t deny that the numbers are staggering. I can’t think of a single other technology that saves or impacts more lives.
So back to my point. As the numbers show, every cell site in the US saves lives. Sites being built for FirstNet not only save lives in our community, they protect the lives of our first responders and provide access to additional lifesaving technology and information. Our first responders have become dependent on broadband data and are becoming more dependent every day. Permitting and approving cell sites should be a national and local priority.
It is time to take action once again, but this time on a local level. Reach out to your local officials, planning departments, and permitting authorities and asked that they give priority to FirstNet sites. Writing a memo, sending an email or providing a briefing to those officials is simple and meaningful. Firstnet.gov has a number of PowerPoints and information brochures to make this task easy and painless.
Again, I am not suggesting bypassing the laws and regulations. I am asking that we support those requests for FirstNet sites. That they be given priority in the permit and request process – because it matters. It makes a difference to our community and it saves lives.
(This is a corrected version of the article. we would like to thank our readers for pointing out math errors.)
Richard Mirgon is a Public Safety consultant focused on FirstNet. He is a Past President of APCO International and has over 35 years of public safety and first responder experience. For more information about the author please go to http://www.next-paradigm.com/about/
by AllThingsECC.com | Oct 10, 2018 | Comm Center News
By Christopher Vondracek
ESInet is making a more nimble 911 Center a possibility in North Carolina’s capital city.
The City of Raleigh, North Carolina and Wake County, a 1 million urban area who shares a 911 Center for dispatch, and recently they begun taking their first calls on ESInet (or emergency services internet protocol), a broadband-enabled network that makes PSAPs more resilient and effective. According to a release from AT&T, Raleigh-Wake County is the first public safety answering point system in the nation to implement AT&T’s i3 ESInet service. “We were working on a 50-year old technology, the old analog phone system, the old copper wire technology, and a lot of them still work,” said Dominick Nutter, director of the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center. “But with the phone systems going IT-based, we felt like it was time for a shift.”
Now, residents making the more-than one million calls annually in the Raleigh-Wake County area have their distress calls routed to a telecommunicator on the broadband system. And the shift happened just in time for hurricane season. “The big part is redundancy and resiliency of our individual 911 centers,” said Nutter. “If something gets cut between us and anywhere else, the phone calls can automatically be routed to another connection. There is a second pathway. On the old analog way, we could be cut anywhere, and we might lose that connection.”
The built-in dependability and flexibility of the new system was on display during Hurricane Florence. Even though they’re about 2 hours from the coast, they lent a hand to dispatch centers in the impacted area. “We were, during the middle of the hurricane, running dispatch for New Hanover County, which is Wilmington,” said Nutter. “They’re on the old system, and had they remained there, they likely would’ve failed. But we were able to, with AT&T, to revamp the architecture to connect their analog with our ESInet, and we took the phone calls from out on the coast of Carolina. We were also able to bring some telecommunicators to our center and then they were able to dispatch to Wilmington.” The model could be used in future disaster situations far away from the Carolinas. “It could be someone experiencing an earthquake in California, and we’d do the same thing,” said Nutter.
Late last year North Carolina opted in to FirstNet, and Nutter said Raleigh officials are also interested. “That’s something we’re evaluating, and we’re supposed to have a meeting in November with FirstNet.” But the latest upgrade in technology has meant that they’ve taken what a release from AT&T calls “the critical first step toward next-generation 911.” Already, Wake County and Raleigh are receiving text message distress calls. Within a month, Nutter anticipates building the capacity to allow videos and pictures, as well, to be sent. “This is a significant change, and it’s very important for our hearing and speech impaired community,” Nutter said. “Years ago, they had to be around a device near their homes. Now, the hearing and speech-impaired community will text us. Of if they see something, they can take a video or picture and then text that to us. It’s a tremendous shift.”
Nutter’s 911 center counts roughly 140 people in its ranks, including about 112 people who are answering phones. The fear of data overload isn’t felt by Nutter. He welcomes the public having more ways to share information. “It’s a good thing because we’re all human, and you see something and might not be the exact same thing that you remember. But having a picture of a suspect wearing a red and white sweatshirt that you may’ve thought was pink and grey, now you have that essential data.”
Nutter said approximately 70 percent of their 911 calls come in from cellphones, and while the technology may very soon be available to send videos or images, Nutter said he still relies on the old-fashioned phone calls. “We always encourage people to text if you must, call if you can. Texting can take much longer to process an emergency incident, and it really is a rare exception when people should be texting.” He imagined if someone were in a home during a break-in and the distress call was made in hopes of eluding the intruder. “It’s important to have the capability.”
While ESInet and the fiber-optic-based phone service may in the long run save taxpayer dollars by building efficiencies, Nutter says the reason for any change is primarily the improved quality of outcomes. “It’s like car insurance,” Nutter said. “We’re not in the business of saving money. We’re in the business of delivering protection to our clients. And that means we’re in the business of making sure we have the best products available.” The 911 Center for the City of Raleigh oversees the county fire and EMS dispatch. “I think the most important thing is the reliability and speed that has been greatly increased,” said Nutter.
Christopher Vondracek is a freelance journalist living in Washington D.C., most recently with Courthouse News.
by AllThingsECC.com | Oct 6, 2018 | Comm Center News
Upgrading U.S. public-safety answering points to IP-based next-generation 911 (NG911) technology will cost $9.5 billion to $12.7 billion during a 10-year period, according to a much-anticipated cost study released today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
SOURCE: Urgent Communications
DATE: October 5, 2018
Requested by Congress, the cost study is expected to help guide federal lawmakers as they consider potential legislation that would help fund the transition from legacy 911 to NG911. Historically, 911 has been funded by state and local governments, although the federal government managing a $110 million grant program for 911 upgrades that was included in the legislation that created FirstNet in 2012.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 30, 2018 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Tom Gagnon
With state and locality budgets facing increased pressure, the prospects of transitioning equipment purchased and maintained with grant funds to a budget line item can appear bleak. However, with the correct approach, the odds of a successful transition can be greatly increased.
Following September 11, 2001, states and localities received unprecedented federal grant funding, which resulted in major acquisitions of public safety communications equipment. While greatly enhancing public safety entities’ (PSE) effectiveness, these acquisitions were often made without establishing long-term sustainment plans.
Sustainment funding became an afterthought, as states and localities hurried to secure use-or-lose grant opportunities or assumed grant funding would remain sufficiently adequate to perform sustainment. Facing myriad competing priorities, state and locality governments often accepted risk by assuming equipment maintenance, upgrade, and replacement could be accomplished—in part or completely—with grant funds.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 21, 2018 | Comm Center News
RapidSOS announces a partnership with Google to deliver Android Emergency Location Service (ELS) information to public-safety answering points (PSAPs) for free, providing U.S. 911 centers with a method to access improved wireless-caller location much more quickly to enhance incident-response efforts.
SOURCE: Urgent Communications
DATE: September 21, 2018
RapidSOS CEO Michael Martin said that ELS is “very similar” to Apple Hybridized Emergency Location (HELO), which uses device-based hybrid location—technology that leverages information from Wi-Fi access points and myriad sensors on a device, as well as traditional GPS—to locate an emergency caller.
“We actually piloted with them [Google] back in January, in three 911 centers around the country,” Martin said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “It was a fairly small pilot, but they’ve now announced that, as of September, that we’re deploying this across the United States.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 20, 2018 | Articles, Comm Center News
Download Original Paper
Abstract
Introduction: Risk management is an area of critical importance for emergency services and public safety agencies, including emergency communication centers. However, almost no information currently exists regarding litigation against, or involving, emergency dispatch.
Objectives: The primary objective in this study was to characterize the most common types of adverse events, actions, and omissions of action that lead to lawsuits against emergency dispatchers and their agencies.
Methods: The study was a systematic literature review. Research and legal document databases were searched systematically for terms relating to emergency dispatch and litigation. The only data collected were publically available records, including legal documents from state, local, and federal case files, and documents pertaining to dispatch litigation obtained from research and news databases.
Results: 84 dispatch-related legal cases were reviewed, of which five were excluded for various reasons. Multiple (two or more) calls was the most common dispatch problem named as the issue in the suit, followed by delayed dispatch or response, customer service issues or mishandled calls, and failure to provide pre-arrival/post-dispatch instructions. A median $1 million settlement or decision was awarded to plaintiffs.
Conclusions: This study identified a number of common and preventable dispatch errors that characterize the majority of lawsuits brought against emergency communication centers. Such problems increasingly leave emergency communication centers open to serious legal liability. Our findings indicate that there exists a clear, expected, and enforceable standard of practice for emergency dispatching, and that this standard is increasingly applied by both the courts and the public in judging the actions of emergency communications centers and individual dispatchers.
Topics:Abandonment|Adverse Incidents|Allegations|Defendant|Emergency Dispatch Protocols|Lawsuits|Legal Obligations|Litigation|Negligence|Plaintiff|Pre-Arrival Instructions (PAIs)|Priority Dispatch
