by ECC Editor | Mar 12, 2021 | Comm Center News
WARSAW, Ky. (WKRC) – Gallatin County may be Kentucky’s smallest, but it has its share of challenges for 911 dispatchers.
I-71 runs through it and the county butts up against the Ohio River.
“Interstate 71 has around 12,000 collisions a year, and there’s a lot of other issues that happen along the interstate. And a lot of those people aren’t from Gallatin County, so when they call 911, they don’t know where they are,” Gallatin County Public Safety Communications Center Systems Administrator Ryan Bailey said… READ MORE
by ECC Editor | Mar 11, 2021 | Comm Center News
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — The Illinois Department of Transportation gave WCIA 3 News a look inside its new communications center at Station One.
The focal point of the new center is a video wall that will allow operators to track the locations of IDOT snow and ice and emergency patrol vehicles on the roads.
Staff will also be able to monitor road conditions, including flooding, and work with teams in the fields… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 11, 2021 | Comm Center News
Cooper was admitted to the hospital on February 27 after her lungs stopped. The night before, she had been ordered to work a 15-hour shift in the understaffed dispatch center despite reporting trouble breathing. She was still recovering from COVID-19, which her family believes she caught at work. Her asthma exacerbated the issues, but she was out of leave time. Yesterday, an attorney representing her husband and her estate filed a claim against the City of Phoenix alleging negligence and seeking a total of $35 million in damages…
by ECC Editor | Mar 11, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
A 911 dispatch looks about the same no matter where you are in the U.S.: sirens, strobe lights atop police cruisers, and first responders armed with guns and pepper spray, the reason for the call notwithstanding. But if you dial 911 in Denver, you might be greeted instead by a mental-health clinician and a paramedic driving a customized van equipped with food, water, and blankets. For the past six months, the city’s Support Team Assisted Response program, known as STAR, has been dispatching social workers instead of cops on nonemergency calls, with astoundingly good outcomes… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 11, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
It has been a while since I heard people claiming FirstNet (Built with AT&T) will replace Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems. I had thought by now most of us, including elected officials who hold the purse strings, would understand there is value in having both LMR and FirstNet.
FirstNet reports that the network is about 90% complete, more than a year ahead of schedule and double the number of first responders on the network. Still, there is a need for LMR systems and, just as important, there is a need for FirstNet and LMR to be able to work together to augment each other on a daily basis and during incidents. Public-safety community vendors, LMR, and FirstNet are working toward better ways to provide Push-To-Talk (PTT) across LMR and FirstNet for commonality of voice communications…
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 11, 2021 | Comm Center News
TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey bill that would designate 911 dispatchers as first responders was approved by the state Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee this week.
The bill, sponsored by state Assemblyman John Armato (D-Atlantic), would formally recognize the role of public safety communications professionals in the work of law enforcement, fire and EMS agencies, and amend state code to refer to 911 operators as 911 first responder dispatchers…
