RICHMOND (August 5, 2021)—The Virginia Association of Counties (VACo) announced the 30 recipients of the 2021 Achievement Awards, which recognize excellence in local government programs. VACo received 102 submissions.
Winning entries focused on addressing issues of inclusion, belonging, and reconciliation that challenge counties today.
“I want to thank all who participated in the 19th year of the Achievement Awards,” VACo Executive Director Dean Lynch said. “Our counties face challenges every day, and those challenges are written in these program submissions. What’s also written are the innovative solutions that overcome these obstacles to make life better for communities across the Commonwealth. We celebrate these victories with all who participated…
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Florida — Across the nation, 911 call centers are dealing with staffing shortages.
According to the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), 911 dispatch departments are seeing a 15 to 20 percent rate of staff turnover.
It’s an issue seen at local departments just the same. In Pasco County, the EMA director said they’re currently hiring for 15 dispatchers. To make matters worse, the number of applicants has dramatically dropped… READ MORE
An investigation by the city’s Bureau of Emergency Communications found that while the two employees did not leak police and dispatch records in which the victim wrongly identified Hardesty as the culprit, each violated bureau policy by gossiping about some details of Hardesty’s supposed conduct to friends and co-workers, officials said… READ MORE
First, some clarification. “Mission-Critical Push-To-Talk” (MCPTT) is the form of Push-To-Talk (PTT) the 3GPP standards body developed in accordance with its PTT standard. However, networks, including FirstNet (Built with AT&T), are not using the term “mission-critical.” I seem to have confused some readers last week and I have been fielding questions about Motorola’s new offering, which, according to Motorola, will be fully-compliant with the 3GPP standard except it does not support off-network communications (ProSe).
Samsung developed the first PTT to meet the 3GPP standard and it is being offered on FirstNet as “FirstNet PTT.” Motorola’s offering will be the second 3GPP-compliant PTT application available on FirstNet. While it meets the 3GPP PTT standard, it will not use the term “mission-critical” either…
NSR911 leadership Alyson Dell Isola and Christopher Ryan (ICAM screen grab)
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IPSWICH — After a fractious start and a walkout by around 30 public safety personnel, the select board heard Monday how the town could hand off its 911 responsibilities to a regional group.
The argument started at Monday night’s board meeting after chairwoman Tammy Jones said the board would listen to a presentation only and would not from the public. That would be done at a later meeting, she added, and encouraged people to write in their feedback.
That drew grumbles and complaints for the audience that the approach was “not fair” and that people had shown up to express concerns about moving emergency dispatch from Ipswich to Middleton, where it would be based…
With EMMA, public safety responders get emergency event and threat information quickly and efficiently — ensuring that first responders have critical, decision-making information as soon as it is available.
EMMA (Emergency Management Mobile Application), developed and supported by Think Safe, Inc. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a cross-platform patented software solution with alerting, communication, and management features…
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.
