FirstNet posts resource guide for emergency managers

FirstNet posts resource guide for emergency managers

responders (FirstNet)

FirstNet posts resource guide for emergency managers

To help emergency responders get the most benefit from the nation’s dedicated nationwide wireless broadband network, FirstNet authorities have issued a guide detailing the network’s major features and how public-safety agencies can best leverage those assets in their communities.

The guide covers a number of topics related to emergency management communications, including features managers may use in their daily roles as well as those dedicated to incidents. It begins by explaining FirstNet’s suite of tech platforms and apps and also highlights functionalities that can be used for local mutual aid…

Greene County dispatch received 77 calls in eight minutes after sonic boom, nearly 100 total (MO)

Greene County dispatch received 77 calls in eight minutes after sonic boom, nearly 100 total (MO)

GREENE COUNTY, Mo. (KY3) – You may have heard or felt a starling boom on Monday morning, but it was not an explosion or an earthquake. It was a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier.

The Greene County Emergency Management Office confirmed a sonic boom happened around 11:40 a.m. from a Boeing test flight for the new F-15EX Strike Eagle. Many viewers as far as Branson said they felt the blast.

“After the sonic boom was heard and felt, in some cases, a lot of folks who didn’t know what it was called 911,” said Springfield-Greene County 911 Emergency Communications Department Director Kris Inman.

Inman saiddispatch received 77 calls within an eight minute time frame. He said around 100 total calls came in not long after the initial blast…

NDAA to include 9-1-1 dispatcher reclassification

NDAA to include 9-1-1 dispatcher reclassification

Legislation reclassifying 9-1-1 dispatchers from Office and Administrative Support to Protective Service Occupations was approved last week by the U.S. House of Representatives as an amendment in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), according to lawmakers.

U.S. Reps. Norma J. Torres (D-CA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) reintroduced the bill, the 9-1-1 SAVES Act, in April.

“As a former 9-1-1 dispatcher, I know first-hand the challenges that our public safety dispatchers are faced with and the extraordinary work that they do to help save lives,” Torres said in a Sept. 24 statement. “Dispatchers are the first line of response during an emergency, and they deserve to be classified in a way that recognizes that their work is on par with the work of other public servants classified as first responders. That is why I am so pleased to announce that the 9-1-1 SAVES Act to reclassify them as emergency personnel passed the House as part of the FY22 NDAA…

Local EMS head named KY 911 Director of the year

Local EMS head named KY 911 Director of the year

Hardin County E-911 Director Mike Leo has been named the Kentucky 911 Director of the Year.

Leo was presented the award in Louisville during this year’s KEMA/KENA-APCO Banquet.

Leo was nominated for the award by Hardin County 911 employee Anthony Coffey. In his submission, which was reported by the Meade County Messenger, Coffey said, “As a director he (Leo) has gone above to ensure that we not only operate at the highest level, but that we, the people underneath him, are taken care of in every way possible. …”

Having worked in the public safety field for 26 years, Leo said he was honored by the award, but at the same time, he doesn’t do what he does for recognition…

EMERGENCY SERVICES NEEDLESSLY TIED UP ON PRANK 911 CALL (MA)

On Friday at 05:15 officers from District B-2 responded to Ceylon Street for reports of a person stabbed in the eye. Boston Police and Boston EMS arrived to find a party dispersing and nobody stabbed in the eye. Officers spoke with the young man that owned the phone, who said someone “borrowed his phone and prank called 911”.

A blatant waste of vital services, a violation of MA General Law – Part IV, Title I, Chapter 269, Section 14B: (a) Whoever willfully and maliciously communicates with a PSAP, or causes a communication to be made to a PSAP, which communication transmits information which the person knows or has reason to know is false and which results in the dispatch of emergency services to a nonexistent emergency or to the wrong location of an actual emergency… READ MORE

Astoria dispatch temporarily moving to Seaside (OR)

Sep. 27—Short on staff for nearly two years, Astoria’s emergency dispatch center will temporarily move operations to Seaside in October.

The dispatch center has been running with only a handful of dispatchers since early 2020, a situation that has required staff to shoulder a significant amount of overtime each month and that Astoria Police Chief Geoff Spalding said is undesirable and unsustainable. Meanwhile, the Seaside Dispatch Center has been fully staffed for a while for the first time in more than a decade.

Over the past year, Seaside dispatchers have traveled north to help out in Astoria, but the new agreement between the two cities will place Astoria’s four dispatchers in the Seaside office until four new hires can be fully trained. The arrangement could last as long as six months…