Telecom Study: Radio Project Will Create 100K Jobs
Not only would a national public safety radio network provide communications for first responders, constructing and maintaining it would create 100,000 badly-needed jobs, two economists hired by a telecommunications group have reported. According to …
Lone Dispatcher Handled Propane Railcar Incident
The city of Lincoln (N. Calif.) was the country’s fastest-growing at the 2010 census, but its budget leaves it with only enough money to staff one on-duty dispatcher at all times. So when 911 calls started ringing in last month to report a leakin…
Dispatcher Accused of Embezzling Funds
A Sutter County (N. Calif.) sheriff’s dispatcher has been charged with embezzlement, according to the county district attorney. Annette Medeiros is accused of taking up to $10,000 over 12 months from the Sutter Sheriff’s Deputy Association bank…
Lawsuit: His Dog Bit Woman, He Delayed EMS
A woman who was allegedly attacked and injured by a dog in Enfield (Conn.) has now filed a lawsuit against one of the town’s dispatchers, claiming the dispatcher cancelled an ambulance response to the incident and tried to conceal his ownership …
Dispatchers Organize Local Hurricane Relief
Dispatchers from the Colonie (NY) communications center helped start a drive to collect supplies for those affected by Hurricane Irene.
FCC Tech, Police Nab Radio Pirate
An Federal Communications Commission (FCC) technician tracked down a man making pirate radio transmissions on a Las Vegas (Nev.) Metro Police frequency last February, and police confronted him with the radio still in his hand. Now, besides narcotics c…
10 Years After Sept. 11th, Radio Interop Not Achieved
Despite assembling 230,000 people and spending $50 billion a year on national security, a bipartisan group of experts and politicians says the country is not as safe as it could be from future terrorist attacks, and pointed to radio interoperability as…
Dispatcher Fired, Failed to Act on Stop Sign Call
A Pickaway County (Ohio) sheriff’s dispatcher has been fired after failing to take action on two citizen calls reporting that a highway intersection stop sign that had been obscured with plastic wrap by two teenagers as a prank. Hours after the c…
Hoax Call Sends Police to SWATing Incident
Police in a suburb of Atlanta (Geo.) say the telephone call their dispatcher received reporting a home invasion robbery was a hoax intended to generate large police response. In this case, a woman used a VoIP phone line to make the call, and dialed th…
Earthquake Generated No Problems & Press Release
The 5.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the east coast on Tuesday created no problems for public safety communications centers in a 10-state region, but it did generate a press release that linked the earthquake to political efforts to create a nati…