911-Inc. » Public Safety News

Bill Would Extend Narrowbanding Deadline

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:51:05 +0000

Even with seven years of warning, many public safety agencies have not taken the first steps to meet the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) requirement to narrowband their radio channels by Jan. 2013. Now a U.S. Congressman wants to give them two more years to comply. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-NJ) has introduced H.R. 3430 to extend the narrowbanding deadline to Jan. 1, 2015. He argues that the nation’s cities and towns don’t have funding for the mandate until Congress passes the HEROES Act, a bill related to broadband that includes some narrowbanding grants. ”Without cooperation from Congress, already overburdened local taxpayers in each town will potentially be on the hook for several hundred thousand dollars to meet an unfunded federal mandate,” Rothman said in a press release. He also noted possibly enforcement against public safety agencies by the FCC for non-compliance. He cited a figure from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO)—64.4 percent of first-responder licensees in New Jersey have not converted to narrowband. Download (pdf) Rothman’s two-page bill here.

Dispatchers On Strike Night of Delayed Response

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:38:09 +0000

A Toronto (Ont.) coroner’s inquest heard testimony from EMS comm center supervisors that a union-called strike may have forced them to perform several tasks at once, on the same night a heart attack victim waited 35 minutes for an ambulance. James Hearst, 59, appeared intoxicated to a caller in the lobby of an apartment building in June 2009, and an ambulance crew decided to stage and wait for police for 20 minutes, rather than immediately respond to the scene. But EMS dispatcher Ryan Leblanc testified Monday that he may have been performing multiple tasks when he took the 911 call reporting Hearst. “A lot of…jobs were condensed so that one person would be doing more than one job,” he told the panel. It’s not clear from the testimony if staffing contributed to the delayed response. Read more about the incident here and Leblanc’s testimony here.

Bureaucracy Issues Feature List For Radio

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:52:57 +0000

A deeply-buried subcommittee within the federal government has issued an “extended essay” on the subject of nationwide, public safety communications, documenting its desirable features, while not breaking any new ground. The examination was prompted last June by a request from the country’s Chief Technology Officer to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In turn, the NIST assigned the task to the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), who handed it off to the subcommittee on Public Safety Networks. The final report notes the required flexibility, use of IP protocols, backward and forward compatibility, security and ruggedization features. It also said that a future system would require an app development process. Download (pdf) the full VCAT document here, and read the NIST’s press release on the report after the break.

New Report Outlines Key Features of Next-Generation Public Safety Communications

January 31, 2012

WASHINGTON—Creation of a next-generation public safety communications network requires leadership from a single non-profit organization devoted to this purpose, according to a report released today by a federal advisory committee. Such a network would support voice, video and data transmissions, and ideally be at the disposal of all first responders—the medical, emergency, law enforcement or military personnel who are first on the scene of events that threaten public safety.

The report was released by the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), which reviews and makes policy recommendations to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST is engaged in the research supporting public safety communications and operates a testbed at its Boulder, Colo., campus. The committee held meetings and collected input from the communications and public safety communities, as well as the public.

“Public safety service is among the most important functions that government provides,” says Vint Cerf, chair of the VCAT and vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google. “In the 21st century, we have an opportunity to re-invent public safety communications, taking advantage of smart devices that use digital and packet-based communication technologies. This report is aimed at improving communication options available to first responders.”

Public safety communications reach across many geographical, jurisdictional and technological lines, involving federal, state and local agencies, as well as private organizations and even volunteers. All have different procedures, budgets and existing technologies that would need to be coordinated to create a communications solution for the entire country.

To meet this challenge, the committee recommends that a non-governmental, non-profit organization be charged with development of standards that would support creation of the network.

As a model, the report describes the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, which includes representatives from a large number of sectors with an interest in the next-generation power grid. According to the report, “that panel has been an effective mechanism for serious work on the elaboration of standards and requirements and identification of useful specifications for Smart Grid devices.”

The committee envisions an organization that can establish “frameworks for cooperation that can build on common planning, standards, technology, budgeting and practices.”

The report concludes that a public safety communications network should:

incorporate commercial technology where appropriate;
extend commercial technology to achieve robustness;
provide for backward compatibility or interoperability through standards adoption and/or
development where feasible, including interoperation with existing and new 911 systems;
give high priority to cost-effectiveness, ease of use and affordability;
take advantage of Internet and other packet-based technologies to support multi-media communication and mobile ad hoc network formation;
incorporate assigned public safety spectrum and other data communication spectrum assignments and include opportunity for sharing where feasible;
incorporate strong, federated authentication and other security technology to positively identify and authorize personnel and equipment permitted in the system;
incorporate advanced position location capabilities, including indoor and underground location, and;
make extensive use of open national or international standards and, where appropriate, open source software.
And significantly, the network must be able to adapt to new technologies as they are developed.The report’s authors hope “that its release will spawn further focused discussion and action to improve support for public safety response in the United States and elsewhere.”

More information on the VCAT can be found at http://www.nist.gov/director/vcat/index.cfm.

Officers Protest Computer System As ‘Hindrance’

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:22:20 +0000

If you happened to meet a Bethlehem (Penn.) police officer, you’d never know he might be wearing a silent protest to the department’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software underneath his uniform. In fact, some officers are wearing “CODY SUX” t-shirts under their uniform shirts, a protest to the $770,000 CAD and records system that was installed in 2008. The system was originally intended to streamline the flow of information for patrol officers and dispatchers. However, now officers say the system is more of a hindrance than a help, with frequent computer crashes and other glitches. Mayor John Callahan says public safety hasn’t been compromised, and executives at CODY Computer Services Inc., which supplied the system, say they haven’t received any problem reports from the city during the past six months. City officials claim CODY told them the system problems could be fixed for $100,000, but CODY executives dispute that figure. City officials have filed a formal notice of a possible breach of contract lawsuit against CODY, and have made inquiries about possibly replacing the entire system. Read more about the situation here.

Family Hopes To Find Dispatcher’s Killer

admin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:38:20 +0000

The Garland County (Ark.) Sheriff’s Department says it has a person of interest in the murder of Hot Springs Village dispatcher Dawna Natzke, and her family is hoping someone will come forward with information for an arrest. Natzke went missing last Dec. 23rd, and her body was found in a local pond on New Year’s Eve. Read about a memorial service for Natzke held earlier this month.

Calif. City Switches to Verified Alarms Only

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:11:45 +0000

The San Jose (Calif.) Police Department hopes to eliminate 15,700 responses in 2012 after the city council approved a verified burglar alarm policy. As one element to improve street patrol staffing, police will now respond only to burglar alarms when there is additional information that a crime is actually occurring. Panic, duress and robbery alarms will continue to receive a response, as well as burglar alarms at firearms dealers, banks, ATM’s and other critical locations. Police chief Chris Moore noted that several other cities have adopted a verified policy, including Salt Lake City (Utah), and have experienced no change in crime that can be traced to the policy. Interestingly, Moore said that alarm companies attribute 80% of the alarms to just 20% of premise owners, and suggest focusing on chronic alarms. But Moore said studies by other cities show a wider responsibility for false alarms among property owners. Download (pdf) Moore’s report to a city council committee on the proposal, and read more about the policy here.

Google Maps Adds Public Safety Alerts

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:12:52 +0000

As part of a larger crisis response project, Google Maps has today launched a Public Alerts Web page, showing the locations of weather, earthquakes, floods and other location-specific incidents. For example, today’s map shows flooding in northern Indiana and severe thunderstorm warning in Louisiana. In a blog posting, Public Alerts engineer Steve Hakusa says, “We’re learning as we go.” He does not say how quickly information from various federal government sources will be posted on the maps. A question-and-answer page says Google will expand the range of alert sources over time, including state and private sources. Google already provides a Common Alerting Protocol-based service to which local public safety agencies can subscribe, and transmit emergency or urgent information. View the Public Alerts map page.

This is the main map of Google Public Alerts. You can zoom in and see details of any specific incident.

This is a zoomed-in view of a Google Public Alerts entry. Hover the cursor over the shaded area to see details of the incident.

City Extends Test of Text-To-911 Feature

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:40:18 +0000

A test of texting 911 in Durham (NC) has been extended by three months to collect more data for a decision if the service should become permanent. The city, in collaboration with Intrado and Verizon Wireless, has been accepting text messages from citizens since August 2011, and routing them directly to the city’s public safety comm center for handling by dispatchers. The city has not reported on the level of success of texting 911, which is intended to help those with hearing disabilities and people who cannot directly make a voice call to 911. In a press release announcing the extension of the test period, comm center director James Soukup admitted, “There can be limitations to sending an emergency text message.” He said the city wants to thoroughly explore all the possible incident scenarios, “to see if this type of technology works and if any problems arise that must be corrected before ‘text-to-911’ technology could be implemented on a widespread level.” The press release lists several issues with text-to-911, including text messages take time to compose and transmit, only Verizon Wireless customers can text to 911 and significantly, “If customers are outside or near the edge of the county, the message may not reach the Durham Emergency Communications Center.” Read a list of all the limitations noted by the city after the break.

According to the press release -

Verizon Wireless customers in Durham should keep the following in mind if they send a text to 911 during the extended trial period:

Customers should use the texting option only when calling 911 is not an option.
It can take longer to receive a text message because someone must enter the text, the message then goes through the system, and the 911 telecommunicator must read the text and then text back. Picking up the phone and calling 911 is still the most efficient way to reach emergency help. Texting is not always instantaneous, which is critical during a life-threatening emergency.
Providing location information and nature of the emergency in the first text message is imperative since the Durham Emergency Communications Center will not be able to access the cell phone location or speak with the person who is sending the text. Text abbreviations or slang should never be used so that the intent of the dialogue can be as clear as possible.
Customers must be in range of cell towers in the Durham County area. If customers are outside or near the edge of the county, the message may not reach the Durham Emergency Communications Center .
Texts sent to 911 have the same 160 character limit as other text messages.
Verizon Wireless customers must have mobile phones that are capable of sending text messages. Any text message to 911 will count either against their messaging bundle or be charged at 20 cents each.
At this point in the trial period, the messaging software pre-loaded onto the Droid from Motorola (original version) does not format text messages correctly when the digits 911 are entered as the “To”address. Installing the free “Verizon Messages” application for Droids (version 1.3.24a) from the Android Market fixes this issue.
The texting function should only be used for emergency situations that require an immediate response from police, fire, or emergency medical services. Non-emergency issues should still be communicated to the Durham Emergency Communication Center through its non-emergency line at (919) 560-4600.

The Durham Emergency Communication Center is the first center in North Carolina, and only the second in the U.S., to allow text-to-911 messages.

State Settles Radio Contract Lawsuit

admin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:46:30 +0000

After three years of legal action, the state of New York has agreed to pay back $25 million to Tyco Electronics Corp., part of $50 million the state recovered after canceling the company’s contract for a state-wide public safety radio network. The $2 billion radio network was based on new technology, which the company claimed would provide adequate coverage. However, after many delays, few implementations and complaints of poor coverage, the state decided to end the contract. Upon cancellation in 2009, the state took $50 million from a line of credit posted by M/A-COM as part of its contract agreement. M/A-COM was later purchased by Tyco, who sued the state over the amount of money that it owed the state. In court documents filed this week, the state agreed to a partial refund. Download (pdf) an earlier Court of Claims document that describes the lawsuit.

Maine Proposes E911 Surcharge For iPads

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:55:05 +0000

The Maine legislature is considering a bill that would—for at least the third time—change the surcharge on monthly telephone bills to support the state’s E911 system, and would expand the surcharge to some non-voice devices, including iPads. The bill proposed by Rep. Stacey Fitts (R) would increase the surcharge from the current 45¢ a month to 50¢ to fund improvements for a next-generation 911 (NG911) network. The surcharge was originally 50¢ in 2008 when it was lowered to 30¢, the same year the state diverted the E911 surplus to the general fund. In 2009 the surcharge was increased to 45¢. In addition to a surcharge increase, the bill would add voice-over-Internet (VoIP) devices to those subject to the surcharge, including iPads using a cellular carrier under a monthly plan. Download (pdf) the proposed bill here., and read more about the bill here.