Comm Center News
Office Of The Mayor Of Seattle: Mayor Jenny Durkan Announces Proposal To Create A New Alternative to Non-Emergency Calls (WA)
Seattle (July 23, 2021) – Building off of the City's work to reimagine policing and community safety, Mayor Jenny A. Durkan announced a proposal to create a new specialized triage response that will provide an alternative model for some non-criminal 9-1-1 calls and...
NYC is sending social workers instead of police to some 911 calls. Here’s how it’s going. (NY)
NEW YORK — Teams of mental health professionals and EMTs responding to 911 calls in a pilot program in Harlem have reduced the rate of hospitalizations for people in crisis, data released by New York City shows. But advocates say more work is needed to eliminate...
San Luis Obispo adds mental health crisis teams to address mental & substance abuse calls (CA)
KCBX's Angel Russell reports. As cities across the country grapple with the issue of police responding to mental health and substance abuse crisis related calls, the city of San Luis Obispo is expanding on one program — and creating another — to help shift...
Emergency service workers push for mental health leave (SC)
Emergency personnel are pushing for workers compensation to cover mental health leave. LEXINGTON, S.C. — Emergency personnel are pushing for workers compensation to cover mental health leave. Currently, if a firefighter or police officer suffers PTSD on the job,...
Matthew Ballou, a South Berwick firefighter and dispatcher for Biddeford Public Safety, dies at 32 (ME)
Matt Ballou Photos courtesy of Ballou family Matthew Ballou, a South Berwick firefighter and Biddeford Public Safety dispatcher known for his easy smile, quick wit and professionalism, died Wednesday following a complication from surgery. He was 32. Ballou died at...
Lighting strike taking out system may accelerate Cape May’s move to county dispatch (NJ)
CAPE MAY — In “one really incredible crack” on Wednesday, the city's decision as to whether to move to the countywide emergency dispatch system got a lot easier when lightning struck City Hall. “It fried our dispatch center. It fried our backups, everything,” said...
Company questions Kern about contract to upgrade emergency radio system potentially worth $78M (CA)
One company said it was deliberately excluded from multi-million dollar contracts with Bakersfield, Kern County, and Taejong Ranch to upgrade the county’s public security communications network. EF Johnson, a Minnesota-based radio maker, wrote in a June letter to the...
Public Safety Agencies Announce Plan for New 911 Triage Team (WA)
Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz (Photo: Paul Kiefer, PubliCola News) By Paul Kiefer By next summer, Seattle’s emergency call dispatchers may have a new crisis response team at their disposal. The new unit, called Triage One, would be housed within the Seattle Fire...
Escambia County signs new agreement for emergency medical helicopters. Here’s what it does (FL)
Escambia County will now default to using a different primary medical helicopter company in what county officials say is an attempt to get the best, quickest service to residents, but the competitor who has been bumped down the call list is worried that will have the...
UPD dispatch wins upgrade (TX)
Uvalde City Council members recently approved the purchase of a new records management and dispatch system for the Uvalde Police Department at a cost of approximately $210,000. UPD Chief Daniel Rodriguez told councilmen at their July 13 meeting that the current system...
AT&T, Motorola collaborate on second MCPTT offering for FirstNet
FirstNet subscribers should have a choice of mission-critical-push-to-talk (MCPTT) services this winter, when a new offering from Motorola Solutions is expected to be available following a collaborative development effort with AT&T, the contractor building the...
Manchester selectmen, police, fire chiefs talk regional dispatch at public forum (MA)
MANCHESTER — A decision on whether the town will move its dispatch operations to the North Shore Regional 911 Center in Middleton is expected to be made in September. Between now and then, the town hopes to hold a number of public forums for residents to ask questions...
ECC prepped for phone outage, says 911 texting service is here to stay (VA)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - There are new developments in the 911 outages that affected many parts of central Virginia throughout Thursday, July 22. The Emergency Communications Center (ECC) - which covers Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and the University of...
Noble County dispatch returns the favor (IN)
WARSAW — Thursday was payback time for Noble County E-911 — in the best way possible. Noble County dispatchers filled a tote — and much more — that had been given to them by Indiana State Police dispatchers and gave it to their counterparts at the Kosciusko County...
Automated alarm calls streamline 911 service (FL)
County are getting faster response times to alarm activations — and at no additional cost.The Volusia Sheriff’s Office Communications Center is speeding up response time and freeing up more dispatchers to answer 911 calls with a new, automated system that responds to burglar, fire and medical alarms instantly, with no phone call required.In its first full month, implementation of the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP) system already resulted in about 1,200 fewer calls to VSO dispatchers, who handle every 911 and nonemergency call for every law-enforcement, fire and EMS service in Volusia County.
“If technology can help us provide better, faster service, we have to take advantage of it,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said of the new system, which went live in May with the participation of major alarm companies across the U.S. “This will speed up our response to alarms, and at the same time, free up more dispatchers to take 911 calls that absolutely require a human being on the line.”In the past, alarm companies had to manually call the nonemergency line to report a home or business burglar, fire or medical alarm activation. That meant a dispatcher had to answer the call, receive the information and enter it into the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system.With the new ASAP system, the alarm notification is all electronic, and all the information is automatically populated and entered in CAD.
The Volusia Sheriff’s Office was the 86th emergency communications center in the country to implement ASAP, and the ninth in Florida.
WORKING SEPARATELY, BUT STILL A TEAM — Telecommunicators Ashleigh Murray, left, and Alecia Kanaby, with her back to camera, work at separate stations in the Volusia Sheriff’s Office’s Communications Center, but are both part of the team that handles all emergency and nonemergency calls for police, fire and medical units countywide.
PHOTO COURTESY VOLUSIA SHERIFF’S OFFICE
The companies participating include ADT, Stanley Security, Rapid Response Monitoring, Vector Security, Security Central, Securitas, Tyco (Johnson Controls), Quick Response, ADS (Nashville), Alert 360, Guardian Protection, Affiliated Monitoring, National Monitoring Center, AT&T Digital Life, Protection One, Vivint, and Brinks Home Security.No action is required on the customer’s end, and there is no additional cost for residents or businesses. Alarm companies will continue to contact home and business owners to notify them of any alarms.Any customers who are unsure if their alarm service provider is participating in the new system should contact the provider.
Ohio County In Dire Need Of Dispatchers
WHEELING — Some recently retired or retiring first responders might soon get a call, as there is an immediate need to hire experienced dispatchers for the Ohio County 911 system, county commissioners learned this week. Recent departures and expected retirements in the...
Intrado and ADT Partner to Enhance Emergency Response via Direct Data Messaging to 911
Intrado Corporation (“Intrado”), a global leader in technology-enabled services, and ADT, a leading provider of security, automation, and smart home solutions, today announced a partnership that enables ADT to deliver additional data to 911 centers and first...
Volusia first responders getting new radios (FL)
Combing the woods on a call for shots fired, Sgt. Robert Mitchell has two invaluable tools to protect himself and the residents he swore to protect: his gun and his radio. The sergeant was relieved to hear the County Council recently approved new radios with better...
Online interface gives emergency dispatchers up-to-date information in one place
Between documenting resources that are available, logging important timestamps, fielding phone calls from utility companies, giving information to responding units and talking to victims, dispatching emergency services amid a rapidly evolving event can be a difficult...
Proposal would merge Lewiston-Auburn 911, Androscoggin County dispatch agencies under county control (ME)
Jen Beal monitors information Thursday during her shift inside the Lewiston-Auburn 911 Center in Auburn. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal AUBURN — County taxes in Lewiston and Auburn help pay for the Androscoggin County emergency dispatch center, but the service is not...
Upcoming Webinar
4.9 GHz Band: Review of the FCC Order
On October 22, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) released its Eighth Report and Order (Eighth R&O) regarding utilization of the 4940-4990 MHz (4.9 GHz) band that protects incumbent users as requested by us, the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA). This Eighth R&O addresses a number of issues related to the use of this band by public safety. Please join us for a briefing on this order and how it impacts public safety.
This presentation will be led by Chief Jeff Johnson (ret) and Attorney Jason Karp, one of the nation’s leading experts in public safety spectrum regulations.
REGISTER
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