Rebekah Reilly, dispatcher at the Waco Police Department, gets ready to start her shift. Many dispatchers are working 50-hour weeks or more to cover a staff shortage.
A lifeline between the community and emergency help is thinning as the Waco Police Department struggles to fill more than 40% of its dispatch positions.
The department, which dispatches police, fire and emergency medical service calls from across the county, is seeking to hire 16 additional dispatchers to reach the allotted staffing of 40 positions, including four part-time positions.
In the meantime, 24 dispatchers are covering those dispatch duties, with life and death often at stake…
In an increasingly digital era, networks are key to enabling the federal mission. In this regard, government agencies can turn to the private sector to ensure they have the most relevant, modern capabilities to support not just telecommunications, but also the ready flow of data that helps to drive mission outcomes.
“We thrive as a nation when public and private enterprises are working together,” said Jason Porter, president of AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet.
The county-contracted Mission Critical Partners, a public safety communications consulting firm, performed an assessment of the county’s public safety radio network.
Caleb Dispenza, Madison County’s emergency operations director, worked with the company on its assessment.
Tim Hennemann, a senior technology specialist with Mission Critical, appeared before the board to deliver the company’s findings.
According to Hennemann, the purpose of the project was to assess the county’s current EHF (Extremely High Frequency) system compared to public safety standards…
Isabella County will transition to a new way of keeping people informed about emergencies in the county early next month. It will mark the end of the county’s current CodeRED system, in place for eight years.
Smart911, the new system, is live and allows people to sign up for alerts. Either through a phone app called Smart911 or the website smart911.com, county residents can create a profile that will allow them to sign up for alerts to be sent to their phone…
The Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department and the dispatch center for the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office wanted to clear up any confusion.
Longboaters know Greer Island and Beer Can Island are synonymous. They also know La Lenaire Drive is on Jewfish Key, which has eight residential homes but is only accessible by boat.
Emergency calls from all of Longboat, and most of the rest of Sarasota County, are routed to the Sarasota Emergency Operations and 911 Dispatch Center on Porter Road, about 15 miles east of Longboat Key Town Hall. From there, a telecommunicator gathers information on the type of emergency, location and more. Town police or fire units are then assigned to respond, backed up by responders from other jurisdictions if necessary. Countywide, call takers can handle as many as 650,000 calls a year, about 10% of which typically come from Longboat Key…
CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) – Leaders in Carteret County are working to fill open telecommunication positions as fewer people are available to answer serious calls.
“We are known as the first, first responders,” Kelly McAlexander, Carteret County telecommunication.
“So, when people are needing help in their worst of moments for whatever reason, we’re typically who they call when they don’t know who else to call… READ MORE
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.
