by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 9, 2021 | Comm Center News
The City of Fort Atkinson’s 911 ambulance service contract with Ryan Brothers Ambulance, Fort Atkinson, will not be automatically extended.
The city is proposing to bring 911 ambulance service under the purview of the Fort Atkinson Fire Department, as well as increase staffing at both the Fort Atkinson Fire and Police departments.
Upon staff recommendation, Fort Atkinson City Council members Tuesday voted unanimously, by roll call, to have the city’s existing contract for services with the ambulance provider end on Dec. 31, 2022…
by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 9, 2021 | Comm Center News
Almost every year on Sept. 11, local public safety agencies in Statesboro hold a commemoration of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, whose repercussions are still being felt.
This year the observance, hosted jointly by the Statesboro Fire Department and Statesboro Police Department, but with Bulloch County agencies and possibly others also planning to attend, will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday outside the Statesboro Fire Department headquarters, 24 West Grady St. It will be open to the public, but don’t expect an elaborate ceremony, even on the 20th anniversary…
by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 9, 2021 | Comm Center News
GENEVA (AP) — Rich countries with large supplies of coronavirus vaccines should refrain from offering booster shots through the end of the year and make the doses available for poorer countries, the head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday, doubling down on an earlier appeal for a “moratorium” on boosters that has largely been ignored.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said he was “appalled” after hearing comments Tuesday from a top association of pharmaceutical manufacturers that vaccine supplies are high enough to allow for both booster shots for people in well-supplied countries and first jabs in poorer countries that face shortages. He said that’s already been the case…
![“Hello, this is 911, what is your emergency?” (ID) ([Editorial]](https://allthingsecc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/61328af39f372.image_.jpg)
by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 9, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
I can’t say I remember it, but I had just celebrated my fifth birthday.
My parents, like all others, gave me some presents. I’d wager that there was also a Dairy Queen ice cream cake involved at some point.
It had to have been a happy day.
48 hours on from that day, the whole of America was a very somber place.
Four planes had been hijacked by Al-Qaeda, two of them destroying the World Trade Center, one smashing into the Pentagon, and one crash landing into a field in rural Pennsylvania.
Too young to remember the attacks for myself, I had to have been just as confused about the magnitude of the situation as every other child in the country.
Over the years, video of the attacks slowly but surely would be ingrained into my memory, filling in the blanks that eluded my younger mind.Firefighters about to be engulfed by a massive dust cloud. Police running over piles of shattered concrete and tangled, twisted metal beams. Dispatch call audio being played over alternating camera feeds of New York City….
by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 9, 2021 | Comm Center News
Release:
This semester, Valdosta State University students are getting hands-on experience working with the Valdosta Fire and Police to create a social media strategy plan for each department.
Recognizing that organizations all over the world — including public safety agencies — are using social media to communicate with increasingly diverse and large audiences, the city’s Public Information Office continued a partnership with VSU’s Social Media Theory class that began in 2015. Taught by Dr. David Nelson, the students are divided into groups and tasked with developing a realistic social media plan that targets and engages millennials in their local government. The project will then be judged by the city’s Public Information Office and both chiefs to constitute a large part of their overall class grade and provided a real-life experience for the university students…
by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 9, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
Drones—Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
Concern is growing within the public-safety ranks about citizens flying drones over incidents that call for first responders. When incidents involve wildfires, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) usually declares no-fly zones up to 5,000 feet above the fires. I am told some drones can receive no-fly zone alerts and they will not fly into no-fly areas. Unfortunately, more common, less expensive drones do not have that capability.
When a drone is reported in the area of an incident, planes and helicopters (helos) are grounded and cannot assist when needed during wildfires and under certain other circumstances. Because of this, many within the public-safety community are calling for the FAA and potentially the FCC to permit public-safety personnel to disable drones flown by citizens or reporters and to recommend ways to do so. It is reckless for people to continue to fly drones into areas where public safety must be able to monitor the safety of equipment and personnel assisting them from above. There are hefty fines for violating FAA rules but first, someone has to find the person flying the drone and he/she must be arrested. Perhaps some of our military’s methods for disabling drones would be appropriate for public-safety use…
