Tracey Porter and Lisa Buchanan, according to their supervisor, are exceptional employees who have been working for years to coordinate the best responses to emergency situations for citizens around Vicksburg and beyond.
In the lower level of the Vicksburg Courthouse, you will find the rooms devoted to Emergency Management and with it, its team, lead by one John Elfer. This team’s main priority according to Elfer is “to save lives.”
“Like with 911, it is vital that any problems with 988 are shared fast with the right people, so we understand what went wrong, and we can make it right.”
FCC commissioners today unanimously approved new rules that are designed to ensure that the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is as accessible as possible by requiring service providers to report outages to key stakeholders in a timely manner and try to reroute 988 calls to available crisis centers.
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the availability of $20 million to improve the State’s emergency communications systems through the State Interoperable Communications Grant Targeted program, which reimburses eligible counties across the state for various activities associated with emergency communication systems. This year’s grant funding objective aims to improve the overall status of land mobile radio interoperability for public safety agencies within New York, as well as its border states.
Since 2010, the Owensboro-Daviess County 911 dispatch center has only been fully staffed and fully trained during one 4-month period, Director Paul Nave said Thursday. He said every time one person leaves, it takes about a year to get a fully trained replacement in that role.
911 dispatchers are classified federally as “office and administrative support.”
“I’m not sure of the last time somebody’s secretary listened to someone burn to death or shoot themselves or discover their kid’s body in their bedroom,” said Kati Fox.
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.
