Five teens who crashed off a rural Longmont (Colo.) road at night dialed 911 and tried to describe their location to a Larimer County dispatcher. The teens suffered serious leg injuries–two boys each had to have a leg amputated. Through three calls, the teens retraced their route from a local high school, and tried to explain where they had crashed. Read more about the incident and listen to the calls here.

Kent County (Mich.) dispatcher Shawn Holtrop has been disciplined for an error in dispatching fire units to a medical emergency that ended with the patient’s death. County officials suspended the two-year veteran without pay for 36 work hours and said he will be retrained. Holtrop correctly dispatched AMR ambulance, but then mistaken re-dialed AMR, believing it was the fire department. He reached a second AMR dispatcher, and didn’t realize the error until the victim’s wife called again to ask about the response. County officials say dispatchers are now required to confirm to whom they’re talking when calling other agencies.

Parsippany Township (Morris County, NJ) police dispatcher George Roggenkamp was arrested by police in Paterson (NJ), who say they witnessed him buying 26 heroin-filled glassine envelopes at a housing project. The Passaic County prosecutor’s office said Roggenkamp, 44 was charged with possession of heroin and possession with intent to distribute. Roggenkamp was immediately suspended without pay by the police department. He was a 5-year veteran of the agency and worked the evening shift.

The London Transport agency has signed a $226 million contract with Airwave for a radio network to be used by police and other emergency services throughout the Tube, which includes a major network of underground tunnels in London and 125 underground stations. Airwave has already provided a national digital radio network to law enforcement agencies in the UK, and about 165,000 officers are already using the system. The new Tube system will allow London Metropolitan Police, fire and EMS agencies to also communicate below ground. The contract piggy-backs on a $3.9 billion digital radio system for Tube general operations, and is scheduled to be operation in 2008.

Telecom giant AT&T has contributed $1 million to public safety organizations as part of its corporate responsibility program, including a $750,000 donation to the Public Safety Foundation of America, Inc.. The group will distribute the money as grants to assist government agencies establish Phase II and VoIP E911 systems, and use it for other programs and research. The PSFA is operated by APCO as a non-profit charitable organization, and accepts donations from individuals and corporations. AT&T also gave $250,000 to the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation, which serves police officers, their families and communities nationwide. Read the full press release here.

The words all sounded familiar: the police association said the department’s radio system is outdated and creates a hazard to officers and the public. The deputy police commissioner said that negotiations for of a statewide radio network were continuing, he couldn’t release details. A union spokesman pointed to one area in particular that has bad radio coverage. The difference in these reports: they were all made about the radio system in Tasmania, an island off the south coast of Australia.

Sprint-Nextel has submitted a progress report to the FCC on the huge 800 MHz rebanding project. The company said that as of last Dec. 26th, all non-Sprint Nextel, non-SouthernLINC channel 1-120 radio users “were completely retuned to comparable replacement channels” in the 809-817 MHz/854-862 MHz channel block in 26 NPSPAC regions. Those regions included several of the country’s largest and most heavily populated areas, the company said. The report said that Sprint-Nextel had negotiated “hundreds” of agreements with radio users and submitted the required paperwork to the FCC. Download (pdf) the company’s report here.

A San Antonio (Tex.) family of an infant is questioning why they received a recording when they called 911 after the baby stopped breathing. A family member dialed 911, according to the logging tape, and the call was promptly answered at the police department. But the dispatcher then transferred the call to the EMS comm center, where a recording played. The 911 dispatcher stayed on the line and told the person, “Don’t hang up sir.” It took an EMS dispatcher four minutes to answer the call, and a spokesperson said that did not meet the agency’s standards. Read more and listen to the 911 call here.

The city of Emeryville (N. Calif.) asked the FCC for a rule waiver so it could switch to a higher-bandwidth mobile data system, and now the FCC has granted the city a temporary waiver. Emeryville wanted to upgrade their mobile data system from 9.6 Kbps to 43.2 Kbps, and to use a different format (“mask”) on 800 MHz channels. However, the FCC said doing so might preclude use of adjacent frequencies by other agencies. So they approved a waiver until the region’s 800 MHz systems are rebanded. At that point, the city could apply for other 800 MHz frequencies that would allow the wider bandwidth without a waiver. Download (pdf) the FCC waiver grant here.

The FCC has turned down a waiver request from the state of Florida, who asked to use non-standard frequencies at three sites of its state-wide 800 MHz radio system. The state submitted interference reports that seemed to indicate that the frequencies would cause little or no interference with other 800 MHz users. However, the FCC pointed out the state used a method of measuring interference that isn’t specifically applicable under the FCC’s rules. And, the FCC performed its own analysis that showed interference to eight different radio sites. Download (pdf) the FCC’s order here.

Livingston County (Mo.) sheriff Steve Cox has released the department’s 2006 statistics, including how many calls for service the comm center handled, dispatcher call handling, car stop demographics and much more. Dispatcher Cathy Peniston handled the most incidents (869) and March was the busiest month (418). Read more here.

Add presidential candidate and U.S. Senator John McCain to the list of persons and groups with a plan for nationwide, interoperable communications for public safety agencis. McCain said he will introduce legislation to create such network using 30 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band, set aside in a trust. “It is now time to think big and bold and solve the interoperability crisis once and for all,” McCain said in a press release. “If we do not act now, this valuable spectrum will be auctioned off and this opportunity will be lost forever.” McCain’s legislation matches existing proposals for such a network, including the Cyren Call project from Nextel co-founder Morgan O’Brien that the FCC turned down last year, saying only Congress could authorize use of the frequency band. Read McCain’s press release here.

The Des Moines Register newspaper has posted an audio slide-show of the city’s police department comm center, with narration by dispatcher Ann Moeller. Watch the show here.

In the aftermath of a delayed response to a fire, the Austin-American Statesman newspaper has published a long article detailing “inconsistencies” and other problems at the city’s fire department comm center. According to the article, the city’s EMS dispatchers are evaluated on how they handle phone calls, and the police have a protocol system for determining what units to send. However, the firefighter-dispatchers have no protocols and aren’t formally evaluated on call handling. The reporter also found the fire dispatchers “have the discretion to not send firefighters to calls, including requests to investigate smoke and odors.” Read the article here.

Former Young County (Tex.) Sheriff’s dispatcher Beth Dodson and jail supervisor Carolin Teague are scheduled to go on trial next week on charges they lied to a grand jury while testifying about a 911 logging tape. The same incident led to indictments against former sheriff Carey Pettus and former chief deputy Gary Barnett. Dodson and Teague were also indicted on charges of tampering with the 911 tapes. Both women face from two to 10 years in prison and fines up to $10,000 on the felony perjury charges.