by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 20, 2021 | Comm Center News
Public safety dispatchers say app saves time in an emergency, when seconds count
Residents can download the Smart911 app for free and input personal information that will help dispatchers find their house, contact them in case of an emergency and help prepare first responders to assist residents in a crisis.
“It can be really useful if for some reason you’re not able to talk on the phone or give us all the information that we need or you just don’t remember because you’re in the middle of a crisis,” said Nicole McInnis, a public safety dispatcher at SunComm911 Communications in Yakima County…04
by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 20, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
Department of Homeland Security teams are working to make aging IT infrastructure interoperable and ready for 5G emerging technology.
Norman Speicher was looking at colleges in Boston, Massachusetts, with his daughter when he made a 911 call on behalf of someone who suddenly fainted. His phone connected to a cell tower on the south side of the city, and algorithms routed the call to the wrong dispatch center, as the dispatcher informed him. This delayed help by four or five minutes.
The episode illuminates some of the interoperability cracks in computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems between 911 call centers, first responders and law enforcement…
by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 20, 2021 | Comm Center News
Meriden’s chronically understaffed Emergency Communications Center is understaffed again — a condition that puts police, firefighters and the public at risk and is therefore completely unacceptable.
The staffing of this critical service has been in a dire state almost routinely over a period of years. The city is going to “really take a hard look” at the chronic turnovers plagued the center, according to Mayor Kevin Scarpati, because another sharp dip in staffing levels now has some dispatchers working multiple shifts.
How much a “hard look” will accomplish, though, remains to be seen…
by ECC Editor | Jul 20, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
Four key phases exist in a VoIP project: assessment, design, procurement, and implementation. An independent consultant can bring you an unbiased perspective throughout the journey by identifying potential bottlenecks, estimating budgets, determining what needs to be upgraded or replaced, and developing a set of system requirements to ensure a competitive bid process and smoother implementation. Here, I’ll share an inside view of how to make the most of each phase of the VoIP process—giving you a taste of the value a consultant brings to the table.
VoIP projects typically take six to 12 months to complete, and engaging an outside expert to handle the process takes a burden off your IT department. The consultant can work as part of the IT group, performing many of the tasks necessary to complete critical phases while still allowing oversight from the project team… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 20, 2021 | Comm Center News
In the heat of the mayoral campaign, candidate and Alderman Cara Spencer zeroed in on St. Louis’ broken 911 emergency call system, declaring that if she were mayor, fixing it would get priority attention. Not to be outdone, Tishaura Jones echoed Spencer’s assessment while asserting that the then-treasurer was the only candidate ready to “hit the ground running” with solutions. While Jones has spent much of her three months in office championing non-urgent causes such as transferring inmates from the city’s medium-security jail or cutting the police budget, one of the most urgent problems — the dysfunctional 911 call system — has gone from bad to worse.
As the Post-Dispatch’s Erin Heffernan reports, understaffing at the city’s 911 call center means people in need of urgent help aren’t getting it. On one recent afternoon, there were only two dispatchers to handle all emergency and nonemergency calls for a full eight-hour shift. The result was that callers had to wait up to eight minutes to speak to a human…
by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 20, 2021 | Comm Center News
GREAT BARRINGTON — A police officer who delayed dispatching an ambulance for more than 25 minutes said he had been distracted in the station’s 911 communications center when that call came in, an internal investigation says.
Officer Andres Huertas was disciplined with temporary suspensions, according to documents related to a probe of the episode, obtained by The Eagle.
In a memorandum about the flawed April 26 dispatch, Huertas told Great Barrington Police Chief Paul Storti that at the time of the call for an ambulance to East Street to assist Luis Del Mar, he was fielding other calls in the dispatch hub, as well as letting people into the lobby at the Main Street station. Del Mar had been struggling for breath and died that night…
