"9-1-1"
New Emergency Warning Sirens & 9-1-1 Upgrade Planned for St. Louis County
November 19, 2010St. Louis, Mo. — The new emergency warning system for St. Louis County is working its way through St. Louis County municipalities, minding its manners along the way, and stepping on a minimum of local jurisdictional toes.
Read full articleHeart Attack Symptoms & Calling 9-1-1 Campaign for Women
November 11, 2010To encourage women over age 50 across the country to recognize the signs and symptoms of heart attack and call 9-1-1 promptly, the Office on Women’s Health has announced a Request for Applications for its Heart Attack Symptoms & Calling 9-1-1 Campaign for Women. Funding is available for activities and events in support of the campaign.
Read full articlePSAP Consolidation
November 1, 2010“[T]here are clear benefits to consolidation,” states a new report to the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. “The sharing of resources allows for the elimination of duplicate costs, supports coordinated responses, provides greater interoperability, and ultimately leads to more effective and efficient service.”
Read full articleState Training & Certification Survey
September 1, 2010Despite the need, there are no national minimum training standards for 9-1-1 telecommunicators. There’s little consensus on how much training in what subjects is necessary and how—and whether—to fund such training. Each state has taken its own path. This article discusses the results of a national survey to determine what each state requires with regard to training.
Read full article2011 APCO Western Regional Conference Call for Papers
August 25, 2010The 2011 APCO Western Regional Conference will be held at the Ontario (Calif.) Convention Center Feb. 7-9. Proposals for presentations…
Read full articleMarion County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office Launches Text Messaging Service
August 12, 2010The Marion County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office has launched a text messaging service that will enable citizens to text the agency for help in an emergency by texting 352/351-9111. The system, which was developed in-house, enables urgent text messages to be received and handled by a system that is separate from the agency’s 9-1-1 system.
Read full articleIllinois Cracks Down on False 9-1-1 Calls
August 12, 2010Governor Pat Quinn has signed a bill into law to deter individuals from placing false 9-1-1 calls by increasing penalties for fake 9-1-1 offenses. The law allows people making a fake call to be charged with a Class 4 felony, punishable by one to three years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.
Read full article9-1-1 Outage in Northern Jackson County Remains a Mystery
June 7, 2010Customers in White City, Eagle Point, Shady Cove, Butte Falls and Prospect were unable to make the three-digit call for help from 2:36 until 8:32 p.m. on Sunday and again from 6:33 to about 9:30 a.m.
Read full article9-1-1? There’s an App for That
April 15, 2010There’s a new iPhone app called Silent Bodyguard. When activated, the application silently sends an emergency alert and your GPS location to a pre-set list of phone numbers and e-mail addresses at 60-second intervals without alerting onlookers or potential attackers. Public safety telecommunicators need to know how to manage those calls and have a procedure in place for how to best use the GPS information being delivered to you.
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