LISBON — After a recent problem with an AT&T maintenance outage made it impossible for the dispatchers at the county’s 911 answering centers as well as other dispatcher to communicate with each other, the county 911 Emergency Service Committee on Thursday approved...

Arapahoe County’s emergency dispatchers will receive more money and better benefits after they were designated Wednesday as first-responders just like sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and paramedics. The move for the 36 dispatchers who answer 911 calls and communicate...

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Western Iowa Tech's Security Institute is looking for help from the county for a major repair project. That building hosts Woodbury County's communications center and emergency management offices. The college is looking to make repairs to the...

Residents who want to receive emergency alerts from the city of Dublin will need to register by Feb. 15. The city has used Code Red for the past 11 years for its Dublin Emergency Calling System, said Lindsay Weisenauer, public-affairs officer for the city. The...

WOOD RIVER - The Wood River Police Department has recognized two key members of its staff as both Officer of the Year and Telecommunicator of the Year. Detective Brent Rombach and Records Supervisor Arron Weber were the two recognized. "Detective Rombach was...

JUPITER — From around Northlake Boulevard to the Martin County line, every town along the coast uses the same 9-1-1 dispatch and police communications service — except Tequesta. That would change under a proposal by Tequesta Police Chief Gus Medina at a...

ONTARIO – The Public Safety Radio Network (PSRN) in Ontario, a network of radio infrastructure that is used by public agencies and emergency responders in the province, is set to go silent to the public’s ears by 2023 as the network is modernized and upgraded to use...

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) — Accidental emergency calls have become a costly problem at the Brown County 911 Center. “We have to spend our time and resources on seeing where and how that call came in,” Cullen Peltier, Director of Brown County Public Safety Communications...

When former correctional officer Michelle McKeaveney's mental health spiralled into an operational stress injury (OSI), online therapy wasn't an option. Last Wednesday, however, the U of R released a new online tool for public safety personnel throughout Saskatchewan....

Bill Kerry, director of the Ithaca College Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management, discussed the creation of a Public Safety app with the Student Governance Council on Feb. 3 at a meeting held in the Public Safety office. Kerry said that...

13 hours ago   (0 Comments)Posted by: Chris NussmanThe nation’s leading 9-1-1 organization is welcoming the establishment of an independent body to encourage greater interoperability in Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) systems.
Together with other stakeholders, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) will participate in the new NG9-1-1 Interoperability Oversight Commission, an independent body that will oversee key programs related to interoperability in NG9-1-1, including the PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) Credentialing Agency (PCA) and the NG9-1-1 Forest Guide.
The PCA will address the need for Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to manage secure credentials within the 9-1-1 industry. A PKI is a set of policies and certificate-issuing bodies that cooperate in establishing trust so that entities in a sensitive industry can communicate securely. The PCA is a root Certificate Authority (CA) that sits at the root of the NG9-1-1 PKI. This is the same model used by the STIR/SHAKEN system to authenticate telephone calls, and also used by the global aerospace industry, the United States cable television industry, the U.S. Federal Government and others. The PKI is required to be established under standards developed for NG9-1-1, such as the NENA i3 core services standard.
The Forest Guide is another service required by the major standards for NG9-1-1, including work published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and NENA, to help with location-based routing when the local system can’t find a destination. In NG9-1-1, a caller’s location is typically used for location-based routing to connect a caller with the correct Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). When the local system fails to find the right PSAP for a call, it will query the Forest Guide for help. Current standards envision one Forest Guide will exist for each large region, such as United States or Canada. The Federal Communications Commission’s Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture (TFOPA) has also called for a Forest Guide for the United States, with independent governance.
These new services are critically important and will require ongoing, stakeholder-driven oversight, which will be provided by the NG9-1-1 Interoperability Oversight Commission. The commission will oversee the development and operation of both services, including budgets, policies, management procedures and any fees. Seats on the commission will reflect all affected stakeholders, including 9-1-1 authorities, commercial providers, standards development groups, elected officials and 9-1-1 operators.
“This is a landmark moment for public safety,” said Brandon Abley, Technical Issues Director for NENA. “The PCA and Forest Guide are critically important services, and the Commission will make sure stakeholders can trust how they are operated. NENA will have no direct control over these entities, allowing for fully independent oversight. We’re following the exact same model used in other critical industries.”
NENA is actively soliciting volunteers to sit on the commission. An open letter with submission instructions is available here, and the bylaws for the Commission are here.

MELVILLE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 5, 2020-- February 5, 2020 -- Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL) announced today, that during its second quarter of fiscal 2020, its subsidiary, Comtech Solacom Technologies, Inc., which is part of Comtech’s Commercial...

After an 18-month legal battle, Pinellas County settled a lawsuit with contractors over poor construction in the Public Safety Complex — an $81 million fortress built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. Last week, the county withdrew the lawsuit and reached a $1.1...

The Public Safety Center is being constructed in Maple, on a site in Community Park near the Regional Aviation and Technical Training Center. When it is completed in early 2021, the facility will house all of Currituck County’s public safety departments under one...

WORCESTER – The Worcester City Council meets Tuesday night, February 4. Ahead of each City Council meeting, ThisWeekinWorcester.com [TWIW] will provide a preview to help keep readers informed of the on-goings of the city’s governing body. Each preview will highlight...

Nearly two years since the mass shooting at an Antioch Waffle House when police were dispatched to the wrong restaurant, Nashvillians are still awaiting answers on any changes made at the Emergency Communications Center. When attorney's deposed the 9-1-1 director, she...

LE MARS, Iowa (KTIV) - The Plymouth County Communications Center received over 19,500 calls in 2019 with 6,000 of those being 911 calls. Now they are planning to add another dispatcher to the team to help with future calls like that. According to Plymouth County...

Omaha, NE — They’re the voice that could be your lifeline on the worst day of your life. 911 dispatchers are calm. They’re quick thinking. And they’re stressed. Really stressed. The phone rings and right away someone is crying for help. Michelle Hatch can hear this...

Franklin County Emergency Services Telecommunicator Brady Strite is the county’s Employee of the Month for January. County commissioners announced Strite’s selection last week. Strite, a county employee since March 2019, was one of 10 nominees for January’s...

NG9-1-1 RFP Considerations Document Now Available
1 hour ago   (0 Comments)Posted by: Chris NussmanThe NENA Request for Proposal Considerations Information Document is intended for 9‑1‑1 authorities that have made the decision to issue an RFP for the purpose of procuring all or part of a Next Generation 9‑1‑1 system. This document recommends a structure and content to guide a project team that has been given the charter to develop an RFP. It anticipates that other work has been done and decisions have been made that support the development of the RFP. Implementation of this document will assist 9‑1‑1 authorities in developing an RFP to procure elements of an NG9‑1‑1 system, including PSAP Functional Elements, NG9‑1‑1 Core Services, GIS data and services, and Management Information System (MIS) data collection and reporting.