A letter that Rockingham County leaders sent to the city of Harrisonburg back in June circulated on social media this week. In it, the county expresses their intention to terminate the legal agreement governing the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Emergency Communications Center. WMRA’s Randi B. Hagi reports.
When summer winds down, many families prepare to send students away from home for the first time to attend college. At the same time, colleges and universities nationwide diligently work behind the scenes to welcome students to a safe and secure campus.
Ensuring students enjoy their college experience safely is a top priority for campus safety officials at Delaware State University (DSU). For James Overton, Vice President of Student Affairs and Police Superintendent at DSU, keeping students safe and first responders connected means making the FirstNet network — the nationwide network dedicated to emergency communication — a key part of its campus safety initiative. FirstNet helps ensure that students can reach university police at all times.
Moberly Joint Communications is now dispatching fire calls for multiple Randolph County agencies, according to a Wednesday news release from the city of Moberly.
According to the release, this is a major step toward a fully consolidated countywide dispatch system.
911 call centers, also known as PSAPs (Public Safety Answering Points), are the critical lifeline between the public and first responders. Every year, these centers process hundreds of millions of calls, from life-threatening emergencies to routine, non-urgent reports. Yet the operational challenges facing these centers are mounting. Staffing vacancies, growing call volumes and the complexity of modern emergencies have stretched many centers to their limits.
The Lyon County Emergency Communications Center has officially begun piloting its new AI call bot, named “Betty”, starting Monday, Dec. 1.
The AI bot will begin answering ten types of select low-risk non-emergency call types, such as simple information requests or reports that do not require emergent assistance for Emporia, Lyon County, and Emporia State University. The AI technology will not affect emergency calls.
Garrett County Government announced that county 9-1-1 communications have transitioned under the Garrett County Government, Emergency Management Division. This move strengthened the coordination and service continuity across law enforcement, fire, and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) responses to local and regional incidents.
