Posts From External News Source
Prioritizing 9-1-1 Calls Will Get Review in Riverside
August 1, 2011RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Riverside County’s emergency dispatch system treats all 9-1-1 calls as life-threatening emergencies and deploys firefighters and ambulances, a practice that emergency providers call potentially wasteful and dangerous.
Read full articleSwatting 9-1-1: Hoax Calls Add Pressure, danger
August 1, 2011PASSAIC COUNTY, N.J. — A California couple with a 2-year-old daughter is awakened late at night by heavily armed police storming their home after a false report of a shooting. A Texas family is stunned when officers with automatic weapons respond to their house expecting a drug-fueled murderer who is demanding $50,000 in exchange for hostages. And a Wyckoff neighborhood is put on lockdown as the Bergen County SWAT team shoots tear gas into what proves to be a home occupied only by a cat. In each case, the people who wound up in the crosshairs were actually victims of a dangerous and increasingly common hoax known as “swatting,” so called because a bogus emergency call prompts the response of a SWAT team.
Read full articleVirginia Tech Campus Addresses Now Standardized
August 1, 2011BLACKSBURG, Va. — In a move to imporve emergency response to the campus and working in collaboration with Blacksburg officials and campus and town police, Virginia Tech University has implemented standardized addresses for all campus buildings.
Read full articleCounties Will Save $3 Million on 9-1-1 Switch
August 1, 2011WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — Westmoreland County and two of its neighbors won’t have to pick up the tab on implementation of a new switching system for the 9-1-1 emergency dispatch system, and as a result, each will save nearly $1 million.
Read full articleNYC Emergency Communications Director Quits Before Revamp
August 1, 2011NEW YORK — The expert hired to rescue the city’s effort to build a new 911 system is leaving his job after less than a year and long before the new emergency communications network is ready.
Read full articleMaine EMA Director Tells U.S. Senate Committee Emergency Communications in Maine Is ‘Relatively Healthy’
July 29, 2011The director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency told a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday that emergency communications in the state have improved since the terrorist attacks of 2011, thanks in large part to federal funding.
Read full articleCohasset 9-1-1 Call about Baby a Hoax
July 29, 2011COHASSET, Ma. — Police in Cohasset say a 911 call from a woman who claimed she had just given birth behind a gas station and needed medical help was apparently a hoax.
Read full articleCity Disappointed with County Approval of PSAP Proposal
July 28, 2011ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — During its regular meeting Tuesday, the Alamogordo City Commission voted down a proposal from the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration to resolve the PSAP consolidation issue, a point of contention between local officials and the state for nearly a decade.
Read full articleFranklin County Delays New 9-1-1 Center by at Least a Year
July 27, 2011FARMINGTON, Maine — A plan to build a new emergency 911 dispatch center for Franklin County will not be ready to go before voters until next year at the earliest, instead of this fall as some county officials had previously hoped. Commissioners decided last week to have a building committee review the project before presenting it to voters. The committee will consist of county officials and at least one community member.
Read full articleCity Asks County to Evaluate Police Dispatching
July 25, 2011LEBANON, Pa. — Police calls in Lebanon may soon be handled by the county. Currently, police calls in the city are handled by the Lebanon police department’s own dispatcher.
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