Top 5 stories: Week of Feb. 2 – 6

Here’s a look at the most popular stories on IWCE’s Urgent Communications from last week:

1. “How many PSAPs do we need? O’Rielly’s challenge could portend a new era for 911 operations” – To kick off the first meeting of the new Task Force on Optimal Public Safety Answering Point Architecture (TFOPA), FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly asked members to consider consolidation options (see #5 story below). In this column, IWCE’s Urgent Communications Editor Donny Jackson notes the potential of “virtual” consolidation of public-safety answering points (PSAPs), as opposed to physical consolidation.

2. “Body-worn cameras for law enforcement: A really big deal and really, really Big Data” – Consultant Edmond Vea’s column outlines some of the opportunities and technical challenges associated with the deployment of body-worn cameras on law-enforcement officers. In addition, Vea invites readers to participate in an online survey examining some of the key operational questions associated with body-worn cameras.

3. “Motorola Solutions MOTOTRBO software release features new text-to-speech, battery capabilities” – In this podcast, Ben Ansell, Motorola Solutions’ global marketing manager for MOTOTRBO, highlights key features in the platform’s latest software release, including text-to-speech and over-the-air battery management functionalities. 

4. “Lawmakers, railroads say 2015 positive-train-control (PTC) deadline should be extended by several years” – During a recent hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, senators said they would support legislation to extend this year’s deadline for railroads to implement positive-train-control (PTC) systems, because railroad officials say they are still several years from completing the implementation of the technology.

5. “FCC Commissioner O’Rielly hints at PSAP consolidation as task force begins 911 architecture work” – There’s a new task force that whose job it will be to get into the nitty gritty of next-generation 911 architecture. The group, called the Task Force on Optimal Public Safety Answering Point Architecture (TFOPA), kicked off its first meeting last week with comments from FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, and it was clear the commissioner had consolidation on his mind. “If we were to build a PSAP system today from scratch—knowing what we know about network architecture and emergency communications—there would likely be considerably fewer PSAPs,” O’Rielly said during the meeting. He encouraged the task force to weigh “all options on the table.”

You can read a list of task force members here and here.