by AllThingsECC.com | May 10, 2022 | Comm Center News
CHICOPEE, MA (WGGB/WSHM) – When calling 911, a dispatcher is the first one to answer your call and they are a critical lifeline for many. Western Mass News recently learned that there is a dispatcher shortage locally with one dispatch center in Chicopee is four dispatchers away from potentially having a delay in emergency response.
[Reporter: Are you really able to manage?]
“We are managing right now. If we were to get any lower, we would be struggling. We’d have to consider shortening our minimum staffing,” said Erin Hastings, executive director of WestComm.
Right now, WestComm is short six dispatchers with 30 currently on staff. This is the biggest shortage Hastings has seen in her 30-year career…
by ECC Editor | May 10, 2022 | Comm Center News
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota state government is launching a campaign to recruit telecommunicators to take phone calls and dispatch emergency services at 911 centers.
The Sioux Falls-based marketing firm Epicosity has signed a three-year no-bid contract for $44,500 with the state Department of Public Safety and the South Dakota 911 Coordination Board.
South Dakota has 32 county, municipal and tribal public-service answering points… READ MORE
by ECC Editor | May 10, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
While participating in the 2022 Enterprise Connect annual conference panel on Managing E911 for Compliance and Safety, Martha Buyer, an attorney who was involved with the creation of Kari’s Law, stated, “Enterprises that operate multi-line telephone systems, and have either installed new systems or completed a major upgrade since February of 2018, don’t really have an excuse for non-compliance that would likely hold up in court. There are other areas of state and federal laws that if not specifically requiring compliance, suggest that non-compliance is a bad place to be. Specifically, OSHA regulations require organizations provide a safe workplace. It would not be a tough argument to make in court that anything that could be construed as denial to access of 911 absolutely creates an unsafe workplace… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | May 10, 2022 | Comm Center News
Four Guilford Metro 911 (GM 911) employees were honored at the NC Public Safety Communications Conference in Wilmington, NC last week.
- Jeri Phillips was named the NC National Emergency Number Association (NENA) Telecommunicator of the Year.
- Angela Mitchell was named the NC NENA Communications Supervisor of the Year.
- Keith Hayes was named the NC Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Radio Technician of the Year…
by AllThingsECC.com | May 10, 2022 | Comm Center News
HAVERFORD – U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon joined local police chiefs, county District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, Delaware County Council members and other officials Monday in announcing a $650,000 grant to fund a new pilot program for “Mobile Crisis Teams” that will assist police in responding to situations where a person may be suffering from a mental health emergency.
“We know from statistics that about one in four people who are in the criminal justice system have mental health issues because we’re not adequately funding mental health supports outside the criminal justice system, so this is a way to try to start redressing that balance instead of foisting all of our problems on our schools or our police forces,” said Scanlon at a meeting on the funds Monday inside the Haverford Township Municipal Building…
by AllThingsECC.com | May 10, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News, Press Release
Device Location Now Used to Route 9-1-1 Calls and Dispatch First Responders to the Right Location Faster, Accomplishing Long-Standing FCC Policy Goal
DALLAS, May 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — What’s the news? AT&T* is the first carrier to launch location-based routing to automatically transmit wireless 9-1-1 calls to the appropriate 9-1-1 call centers on a nationwide basis. Through this new “Locate Before Route” feature from Intrado, AT&T can quickly and more accurately identify where a wireless 9-1-1 call is coming from using device GPS and hybrid information to route the call to the correct 9-1-1 call center, also known as public safety answering point or PSAP…
