By Ken Bednasz, VP Application Engineering at Telit, Americas.
SOURCE: IoTforall.com
DATE: February 18, 2019
The implementation of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet)—the first nationwide high-speed broadband network for America’s first responders—has opened up a whole new range of opportunities for technology to assist in their mission-critical work. FirstNet is built on an LTE network. It’s the flexibility, coverage and bandwidth of LTE and the reliability and resilience built into FirstNet that are catalyzing the emergence of applications, helping to enable new ways of working for the public safety community. FirstNet is built with AT&T in public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority.
A key example of the power and importance of FirstNet is the increasing use of real-time surveillance and data gathering by drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The benefits of drones are slowly being realized, and they’re being deployed in a growing number of agencies to enhance productivity and to increase safety and security. 
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By Kevin O’Connor
Embracing FirstNet
It has been nearly eight years since the fire service secured bandwidth 14 (D-Block) and the creation of FirstNet through aggressive lobbying and advocacy. At times, it has been a tumultuous and seemingly never-ending journey in our quest for a dedicated, interoperable public safety communications network. 
AT&T was the only major telecom company to bid. Many attempted to entice other companies to bid for the business in order to spark competition and innovation and drive down costs, but no other major carrier stepped forward, and AT&T was awarded the business. AT&T now has a 25-year contract to build out and manage the system for FirstNet, and they are doing so.
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By Edward Parkinson, Acting CEO, First Responder Network Authority
Last week, I joined the Western Fire Chiefs Association and public safety officials for a site visit to the burn area of the Camp Fire in northern California. This trip was an opportunity for the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) to learn about the public safety response to the fires that devastated Paradise, California—a town of 27,000 residents in the foothills East of Chico—directly from those fire chiefs and other first responders who were on the ground during the wildfire.
Not only did seeing the Camp Fire site leave a lasting and tremendous impression on me, it also helped provide perspective on the enormity of the more than 153,000 acres of destruction and devastation to impact Butte County last November. Everything in view was affected by the fire.
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By Charles Murph, First Responder Network Authority Senior Public Safety Advisor
With FirstNet available throughout the United States, emergency managers have greater access to real-time information than ever before. Charles Murph says that now is the time to think about how to manage the ever-larger volumes of data that will ensue.
The age of FirstNet stands to deliver situational awareness and data for Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs), whether for emergency managers in rural or metro areas in the US. When police needed to search a 300-acre wooded property in rural Alabama, they used a mix of traditional police work and cutting-edge technology to try to find evidence that could provide a long-sought break in a missing persons case.
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By Brent Williams, Senior EMS Advisor
FirstNet is making its mark across the country and as I meet with emergency medical services professionals, I’m pleased to hear their feedback on the initial benefits of having their own dedicated network. With more than 5,250 public safety agencies currently subscribed to FirstNet, we are learning more each day from first responders about how the network is enhancing emergency communications.
As guest host of the FirstNet Authority’s Public Safety First podcast, I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Paul Zeeb, Medical Director for the Metropolitan Emergency Communications Consortium in Central Ohio, and Plain Township (OH) Assistant Fire Chief Jack Rupp. Both underscored that during emergency response, the ability to share data quickly during critical and routine incidents is imperative to ensuring patients receive the best quality care available.  
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By TJ Kennedy, Co-Founder Public Safety Network
It’s been a tremendously exciting year for the development and implementation of new technologies leveraging public safety broadband capabilities.  In the course of our travels this year, we have seen tremendous progress in the use of broadband capabilities for mission critical communications across the globe, including in Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom (UK), and of course, the United States (US).  We have seen increased issuance of RFI and RFPs, and greater focus than ever on deployment of new critical communications LTE networks.
The progress in the US has been nothing less than astounding.  I could not be prouder of the implementation and operational network in place with the FirstNet.gov team and the AT&T/FirstNet team (FirstNet.com).
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By Edward Parkinson, Acting CEO
The First Responder Network Authority team is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of former Board member Ed Reynolds on New Year’s Day.  Ed was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame just a few months ago after an accomplished career in wireless technology spanning several decades.
Ed had the distinction of being a founding member of the FirstNet Board, serving during our startup days through the launch of the Network in early 2018.  He was a dedicated and valuable member of the Board’s Technology and Finance committees during that time.  
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Margaret Mims  
 Fresno County Sheriff
“When I first heard about FirstNet, I thought, ‘here’s our opportunity to fix that problem.’” – Margaret Mims, Fresno County Sheriff
Fresno County has urban areas, a valley floor and high, rugged mountains. We have sworn personnel, a mounted posse, four-wheel drive, air squadron, mountaineer and canine volunteers.
We need to be able to communicate with them when they’re in remote locations. They need to be able to talk to each other. And we need to be able to communicate with other agencies involved. So, operability is critical when it comes to our search and rescue calls.
That’s been a common theme in my nearly four decades in law enforcement when it comes to the after-action reports of major incidents. Almost every time, communication among agencies has been an issue.
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 Download Original Paper

Abstract

Introduction: Identification of persons based on verbal descriptions is one of the key skills of police work. Gathering as much description information as possible immediately following the event—for example, at the point of emergency police dispatch—could substantially improve the accuracy of suspect descriptions, the ability to locate missing persons quickly, and other key outcomes of effective police work.
Objective: The primary objective of this study was to determine what amount and type of persons description information is collected by Emergency Police Dispatchers (EPDs), both overall and by Chief Complaint Protocol.
Methods: This is a retrospective, descriptive study of the Police Priority Dispatch System (PPDS) data from five emergency communication centers in the United States of America, collected between September 2014 and May 2017.
Results: During the study period, a total of 117,160 (58.1%) calls had at least one item from the Description Essentials (DE) Tool: Person’s Description recorded. The Chief Complaint Protocols that had the highest frequency of person DE collected were Missing/Runaway/Found Person (99.0%), Suicidal Person/Attempted Suicide (97.1%), and Domestic Disturbance/Violence (90.0%). The most commonly recorded person DE elements were the four required measures: gender, race, age, and clothing. Among non-required DE elements, the most common was name (38.7%), and the least common were demeanor and complexion (1.3% each). By far the most common type of person described was “suspect” (78.4% of cases).
Conclusions: Overall, trained and certified EPDs using the PPDS are effective at collecting information about persons and entering it correctly. Different types of events require somewhat different approaches to description gathering. EPDs appear to discriminate among these different event types while (mostly) making sure to collect required information. Additionaldefinitions, small changes to when and how the ProQA DE Tool appears, and possible removal of two seldom-used descriptors have been recommended based on these findings.

Topics:Description Essentials|Emergency Police Dispatch (EPD)|eyewitness|Person Descriptions|Police Priority Dispatch System (PPDS)|suspect/subject