https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • Microwave/RF
    • T&D World
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

View From The Top


Let’s not just change 911—let’s revolutionize it

  • Written by
  • 15th February 2018
Disruptive innovation isn’t easy and can be a little scary—but when it occurs, it’s a beautiful thing to witness.

What is in this article?

  • Let’s not just change 911—let’s revolutionize it
  • Let’s not just change 911—let’s revolutionize it
  • Let’s not just change 911—let’s revolutionize it

Let’s not just change 911—let’s revolutionize it

The original idea behind 911HelpMe was to provide citizens with a way to communicate with public safety via the Internet, even when they cannot access the 911 system. Now the center is contemplating using 911HelpMe to gather information from social-media platforms—such as Facebook and Twitter—to further enhance situational awareness.

Enhanced Situational Awareness—Genesis Pulse is a computer-aided-dispatch (CAD) enhancement tool that integrates with the Waze crowd-sourcing navigation application and leverages numerous data layers—e.g., automatic vehicle location, personnel tracking, and weather/storm—to help telecommunicators make better dispatching decisions by providing them with more information in an easily digestible format.

For example, telecommunicators can look at their screen and immediately know where each responding unit is located at any given moment, as well as how long it will take them to arrive at the incident (based on traffic, accident and road closure information provided by Waze). This is critical information, because the best unit to dispatch isn’t always the closest; it’s the one that can arrive fastest.

The platform also indicates on the map which units’ shifts will end before they can respond to and mitigate the emergency incident. Meanwhile, circles on the map surrounding each 911 call for service enable telecommunicators to determine which units are close enough to the event, based on information provided by Waze, to meet contracted response-time metrics—if the unit is inside the circle, it can be dispatched. As time ticks down, the circles progressively shrink, providing a clear visual cue to the telecommunicator regarding which units still can be dispatched in time.

The weather and storm layers also are quite useful, because they enable telecommunicators to move responding units out of the path of a major storm.

Speaking of Waze, the solution was discussed at several junctures during the summit. Increasingly, motorists are reporting incidents to Waze instead of calling 911. In fact, it was reported that

  • Waze users report an event before a 911 call is placed 40% of the time
  • Waze events precede the 911 call by four minutes, on average

It is estimated that for every minute saved in emergency response, 10,000 lives can be saved annually. When you do the math, it is easy to see the significance of apps like Waze for emergency response.

In fact, there was speculation during the summit that Waze might be integrated with 911 systems in the future—perhaps to enable the 911 system to push out notifications to motorists regarding a wrong-way driver on a freeway, or to receive reports from Waze users about debris in the roadway. In both instances, serious accidents could be avoided.

Cloud-Hosted CAD—RapidDeploy is a web-based, cloud-hosted, scalable, Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS)-compliant CAD solution that provides all the functionality of traditional premises-hosted solutions, but without the effort and expense required to implement, operate and maintain such systems. Meanwhile, it also eliminates the need to version upgrade the system and manage its life cycle.

The name of the solution is revealing, as the company claims that it can deploy a full CAD capability in about an hour after receiving a PSAP’s master data file; in contrast, it takes from 18 to 24 months to deploy a traditional CAD solution. This is something that every agency whose current CAD system is approaching end of life should consider.

Administrative Call-Takers—When people think about disruptive innovation, they typically do so in a technology context—but innovation also can occur operationally.  We live in a “if you see something, say something world,” which is great, but that can create challenges in the form of ever-increasing 911 call volumes.

Combine this increased number of 911 calls with the fact that many PSAPs are understaffed and that telecommunicators often find themselves answering non-emergency calls that come into the 911 center via 10-digit administrative lines, and the result is that call-answering standards are not being met.

To lessen the burden on its telecommunicators, Charleston County created administrative call-taker positions to handle the non-emergency calls—if they field an emergency call on an administrative line, they simply transfer it to a 911 telecommunicator.

This innovative approach to staffing paid immediate dividends. First, call-answering times improved, because telecommunicators no longer were overburdened by having to answer non-emergency calls.

Second, the administrative call-taker positions helped alleviate a huge staffing shortage the center had—at one time, 40 positions were vacant, in part because half of all applicants washed out during training, because they lacked the skillsets needed to be a telecommunicator.

Let’s not just change 911—let’s revolutionize it
1 | 2 | 3 |
Let’s not just change 911—let’s revolutionize it
Tags: APCO Commentary Dispatch/Call-taking Incident Command/Situational Awareness NENA NG-911 Public Safety System Operation View From The Top Commentary

Related Content

Commentary


LTE and liability: Why the fire service must move forward with digital incident command

  • 2
6th May 2022

Partnership and collaboration must be the foundation for emergency communications

18th April 2022

FirstNet success means no hypothetical ‘shots’ need to be fired, Swenson says

22nd February 2022
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Sesame Solar leverages mobile solar, hydrogen to power efforts beyond the grid dlvr.it/ST8m3K

1st July 2022
UrgentComm

Newscan: On front lines, communications breakdowns prove costly for Ukraine dlvr.it/ST7fnC

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

China-backed APT pwns building-automation systems with ProxyLogon dlvr.it/ST6q7m

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Samsung fills its 2G hole in new challenge to Ericsson and Nokia dlvr.it/ST6hBK

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Militarized drone swarms coming dlvr.it/ST6dNz

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Take American City & County’s budgeting survey dlvr.it/ST6Yxb

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Final cases made about Airwave, ESN, before CMA issues provisional decision on Motorola Solutions dlvr.it/ST4Q6X

29th June 2022
UrgentComm

Polaris Wireless: Manlio Allegra talks 911 Z-axis tech, future IoT opportunities dlvr.it/ST1384

28th June 2022

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • Microwave/RF
  • T&D World
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X