CANTON – Dial 911 on your cellphone in Canton earlier this month and you’d talk to a second dispatcher before police or firefighters could head your way.
Cellphone-placed emergency calls in the city were answered by Stark County dispatchers and then transferred to city dispatchers. The process often meant the caller had to repeat the information and calls could get dropped during the transfer.
And with an estimated 80% of emergency calls coming in from cellphones, dispatchers were transferring many calls.
Now, the vast majority of 911 cellphone calls in the city go directly into the Canton’s emergency communications center or CanCom… READ MORE
NORTH GEORGETOWN – Several fire departments recently upgraded their communication systems after receiving a roughly $900,000 regional grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
North Georgetown, Sebring, Beloit, Damascus and Homeworth fire departments will be installing the Ohio Multi-Agency Radio Communication System (MARCS), a radio and data network that provides “statewide, secure, reliable public service wireless communication for public safety and first responders,” according to the Ohio Department of Administrative Services…
he Owensboro-Daviess County 911 Oversight Board has approved a plan that will cut out significant time between when an alarm goes off and the time a first responder is dispatched, said Paul Nave, director of the dispatch center.
He said the new ASAP to PSAP program should be operational by mid-April.
The initials stand for “Automated Secure Alarm Protocol” and “Public Safety Answering Point.”
Nave said that if an alarm — burglar, fire or any other type — is attached to the system, “when the alarm goes off, it comes into the 911 center, and we immediately dispatch police, fire or ambulance, depending on the type of alarm. There are no delays… READ MORE
The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau today is continuing to take actions against telecom vendors that the agency perceives to be a threat to national security. The latest companies whose equipment or services have been deemed to be a security risk are AO Kaspersky Lab, China Telecom (Americas) Corp and China Mobile International USA Inc.
The regulator had earlier deemed Huawei and ZTE equipment as a threat and is requiring providers that deployed equipment from those companies (mostly Huawei) to replace it…
Fayette County hopes to use American Rescue Plan funds and grant money to upgrade the radio system used by the sheriff to dispatch emergency services.
The Board of Supervisors and the Fayette County E911 Commission met in joint session at the courthouse last week to advance the radio system issue that has been discussed for more than a year.
According to meeting minutes, the supervisors voted unanimously to conditionally allocate $2.85 million of the county’s American Rescue Plan funds to transition from the current radio system to Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System. They also voted 3-0 to apply for grants to help fund the radio system…
A few decades ago, government security managers were tasked with overseeing physical features like fencing, CCTV cameras, doors and locks. Today, security stretches far beyond brick and mortar infrastructure—into the digital realm. With the meteoric rise in ransomware and cybercriminals for hire in recent years, threats are omnipresent online. Many American dispatch centers and public safety organizations aren’t prepared, according to experts on the subject speaking at last week’s 2022 International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) in Las Vegas.
“Public safety is one of the most under-protected infrastructures in all of North America. We all protect our phones more than we protect 9-1-1, and it should not be that way,” said Paul Hill, a cybersecurity expert from Motorola speaking on a panel about the subject moderated by Dick Tenny, of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency…
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.
