The nation’s public safety agencies should be monitoring their Web and social media sites so they can promptly respond to requests for help, according to those who answered a Red Cross survey on how the Internet fits into emergency service plans. More dramatically, 74 percent of the 1,058 adults surveyed believe that help would arrive in response to their Internet request in less than an hour. The survey results indicate a wide gap between the public’s expectation of assistance in response to Internet-generated calls for help and the ability of public safety comm centers to monitor and dispatch assistance. Despite the popularity of the Internet, only a handful of U.S. comm centers have the ability to receive text messages directly, and only from selected wireless carriers. The agencies still urge the public to telephone for help when possible. The Red Cross conducted the survey during July 2010, and focused first on how the respondents received information about emergencies. About 16 percent have used social media to obtain emergency information, including Twitter, Facebook, flickr and various mobile apps. About one-half would sign up for e-mail alerts for specific emergency information, including floods, fire, evacuation routes and flooding. Facebook was the most popular site for respondents to post their own emergency experiences, followed by a blog, Twitter and flickr. The survey then asked an open-ended question—you’ve dialed 911 repeatedly and received a busy signal. How else would you contact emergency responders? The respondents listed the police (39%), fire department (19%), friends or family (16%), or hospital (10%). They also said they’d use a wired or wireless phone (42%), digital media (like Skype, 18%), walk or drive (16%) or text message (4%). Download (pdf) a survey slide show here, and see some result graphs after the break. (more…)

The 50 states have failed to provide support for the human resource needs of the country’s public safety communications centers, according to an interim study by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO), resulting in an “F” grade. The study results were released at the group’s recent annual conference in Texas, and included a compilation of each state’s initial and on-going training requirements, implementation of emergency medical dispatch (EMD) and retirement benefits. The APCO committee members said the poor grade didn’t reflect on the quality of work by individual comm centers, but rather the the legislative, regulatory and work environments within the states. “The preliminary findings in this progress report should raise concern in every locality and state in the country,” the report states. “It should raise awareness and concern to legislatures both at the state and federal levels.” Download (pdf) the report here.

A New Jersey appeals court has issued its latest ruling in a lawsuit filed against the city of Newark almost 10 years ago alleging a dispatcher mishandled a 911 call reporting a kidnapping. The case highlights the need for very specific language if states wish to grant comm centers immunity from lawsuits. Sohayla Massachi was kidnapped in 2000 from a Seton Hall University parking lot by her estranged boyfriend. Newark dispatcher Debony Venable fielded the calls, but mis-identified the suspect’s vehicle and didn’t mention it had left the scene. Massachi’s family sued, but the trial court ruled that the city and Venable was immune from liability under state law. The family appealed, and in Nov. 2007 the NJ Superior Court overturned the immunity ruling, saying the city could be held liable. The lawsuit went to trial and a jury awarded the family $5.5 million. The city then appealed, saying it was immune under a second section of state law. Last week, the Superior Court again ruled the city was not immune from liability, interpreting the state’s 911 immunity law very strictly. The court studied the legislative intent of the law, and concluded, “None of the language…is remotely suggestive of a legislative intent to immunize a call taker…or a dispatcher…from the consequences of their mishandling of a 9-1-1 call.” Instead, the immunity was granted to communications providers and PSAPs for mechanical and electronic problems. The appeals court did find reversible error in the omission of certain jury instructions during the trial. Therefore, the court reversed the jury’s finding for the Massachi family, and ordered a re-trial of the case on the specific issue of how much of Massachi’s “injury” was caused by the city’s negligent handling of the 911 call, and how much was the result of what the court called her “pre-existing condition as an abductee.” (more…)

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) has given one of its dispatchers a verbal reprimand for an inappropriate remark made during a conversation with an allied agency dispatcher, and related to a DUI driver who later sideswiped another vehicle, killing the driver. The FHP gave no details about the female dispatcher who talked with a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office dispatcher last March, relaying information from a caller who was following the suspected DUI driver along I-295. The witness had called several times, prompting several calls between the two agencies. During one call, the FHP dispatcher remarked, “I wish that guy would go home.” It’s not clear if dispatcher was referring to the witness or the DUI suspect. Several minutes later the weaving vehicle crashed into another vehicle, sending it over the bridge guard rail and into the St. Johns River at about 10 p.m. Divers later found the vehicle in 45 feet of water and recovered the body of the 41 year-old female driver. Listen (mp3) to the inter-agency telephone call.

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The chief dispatcher for the Southampton Village (NY) police department will retire after 14 years of service, ending an investigation launched in April when pornographic images were found on his work computer. Wayne Petry will stay on the job to train two newly-hired dispatchers, but in September he will begin taking three months of accumulated leave before he retires in December, said mayor Mark Epley. Petry is making $101,395 a year, according to city records, and will receive his full retirement pension. Read more about the situation here.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has determined that Westchester County (NY) did not meet regulatory requirements in a request to use certain paging frequencies to complete a large public safety radio network established in 2004. But the FCC dug into its own rules and came up with another way to justify granting the county’s waiver request. In 2004 Westchester County  asked the FCC for permission to use frequency pairs in the 476/479 MHz range, saying at the time that, “no other spectrum allocated to public safety services is immediately available to satisfy the requested public safety service use.” The FCC granted that waiver request since the New York/New Jersey area spectrum was severely congested at the time. In its current request, the county said that frequency congestion situation had not improved since that time. But in its decision, the FCC noted that frequencies in the 700 MHz band have become available to public safety. Therefore, by regulation the FCC could not grant the waiver for one additional pair of 476/479 frequencies. But despite its finding, the FCC said it could grant the waiver under another catch-all section of the rules that allows FCC action to promote ”safety of life and property through the use of radio communication.” Download (pdf) the FCC’s decision here.

Neither a veteran Germantown (Tenn.) public safety dispatcher or her supervising lieutenant followed up on a 911 call where at least 10 gunshots were audible because they had no way to look up the latitude and longitude of the call, and both believed—mistakenly—that department policy did not require them to dispatch an officer to a call with no location and no person’s name. The 911 call received by dispatcher Claudia Woods on July 19th was later linked to the murder of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright, whose body was found a week later about a mile and one-half from the coordinates displayed on Woods’ ANI/ALI screen. In transcripts of interviews with Woods, Lt. Donald Taylor, and dispatchers Richard Frederick Jr. and Chris Rowlson, the comm center personnel told investigators they followed departmental policy, and believe they did everything they could given their training and the availability of computer systems. Woods was interviewed by Germantown police Insp. Danny Payne as part of an internal investigation, and said the location of the cellular phone wasn’t plotted on her computer mapping screen. Sources say she heard gunfire, but that detail was redacted from the transcript. Woods said the call ended and she dialed the number back and heard only a generic voicemail greeting. The latitude and longitude of the call was displayed, but Woods told Payne, “We didn’t have the equipment to plot it.” Even though she heard gunfire and a latitude and longitude was displayed, no officers investigated the call. It was forgotten until 10 days later when investigators linked the call and Wright’s disappearance. Police reportedly used the cell phone signal to find Wright’s body in a field 10 days after the 911 call. (more…)

A research study of emergency medical incidents in San Francisco found that dispatchers using emergency medical dispatching (EMD) instructions devised by Priority Dispatch Corp. sent out emergency units to seven reports of cardiac arrests for every one incident that turned out to be a true cardiac event. The study covered over 100,000 patients during an 18-month period starting in 2008, and was intended to determine how finely-tuned the EMD protocols were for identifying cardiac incidents. If a questioning protocol is too narrow, it might miss real cardiac events, while a broad protocol would waste valuable EMS resources by sending units to non-cardiac events. According to lead researcher Nicholas J. Johnson, previous studies have found that medical priority dispatch systems (MPDS), “identify most but not all urgent calls with a considerable degree of overtriage.” Johnson cited previous studies of MPDS accuracy, one reporting 36 percent accuracy in identifying a cardiac incident during dispatch, and another reporting 99 percent accuracy. (more…)

A Lexington (Ken.) dispatcher’s project to rename a city street for fallen officer Bryan Durman failed to gather any votes at a recent city addressing board meeting, but now the mayor has supported the the idea, putting new life in the proposal. Amy Ross, a dispatcher at the Lexington-Fayette Division of Enhanced 911 center, suggested naming Goodwin Drive for Durman after he was struck down April 29th by a speeding car driven by a suspected DUI driver. The proposed street is near one of the police department’s sector roll-call buildings. However, fearing merchant and resident opposition, 911 director David Lucas suggested nearby Hiro Street, which is short and has no addressed properties. That proposal went to the addressing board on July 23rd, but received a cold reception from its members, including Lucas. Oddly, even after suggeseting the street himself, Lucas told a reporter, “I feel naming a street that small isn’t very honorary.” He proposed renaming a new street for Durman. He also noted that streets had not ever been renamed for other fallen police officers and firefighters. City street-naming guidelines say a personal renaming should be made 20 years or more after a person’s death. Ross hopes the mayor’s support will now push her project forward. Read more about Ross’ project here, and check a map of the street after the break. Update: In mid-August 2010 the addressing board approved the renaming request, but the Urban County Council must still approve it. Read more here.

Simply put, retiring Dudley (Mass.) police dispatcher Leona LaFountain joined the department before chief Steven Wojner was even born. Now, after 43 years of dedicated service, she’s retiring. She worked under six police chiefs and in three different buildings during her career. During a ceremony today, she recalled when she started in 1967, a year before 911 was first implemented in the United States. She’s now a grandmother and looks forward to spending time with her grandchildren and other family members. Watch a video about LaFountain here.

The governor of Illinois has signed legislation that reclassifies the existing law against false 911 calls, making it a felony instead of a misdemeanor, which substantially increases the possible penalty. Gov. Pat Quinn said in a press release, “By making the penalty harsher, this new law will help deter people from placing false 911 calls.” The bill becomes effective on January 1, 2011 and makes false 911 calls a Class 4 felony, the lowest ranking among felonies. If convicted, a defendant could serve from one to three years in state prison, and be fined up to $25,000. According to the existing law, it’s illegal to dial 911, “for the purpose of making or transmitting a false alarm or complaint and reporting information when, at the time the call or transmission is made, the person knows there is no reasonable ground for making the call or transmission and further knows that the call or transmission could result in the emergency response of any public safety agency.” A companion section prohibiting false reports of emergencies not made via 911 is still a Class A misdemeanor, the highest-ranked misdemeanor. The offense carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and/or up to $2,500 in fines. Download (pdf) a copy of the amended law here, and read some police chief reaction here.

By next year public safety agencies 10 counties surrounding San Francisco and San Jose will be connected by a 700 MHz LTE radio network, built using D Block spectrum that is otherwise tied up by legal and legislative restrictions. Yesterday Motorola announced it has signed a contract to build the radio network that will overlay on existing system, covering 7,200 square-miles and over 100 cities and towns. The value of the contract wasn’t announced. The IP-based, Project 25-compliant radio network will use 700 MHz frequencies in a 10 MHz block that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had originally assigned to a public safety trust for a nationwide broadband network. Last year the FCC granted waivers to 20 agencies and groups to build systems, including the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System (BayRICS) who just signed the contract with. It’s generally believed that Motorola is cooperating with BayRICS to build the system as a way of demonstrating LTE technology and to gain a foothold in the market for future D Block network construction. Read the Motorola press release here.

Police who located a body in a Memphis (Tenn.) field on Wednesday say it is former pro basketball player Lorenzen Wright, and that he was killed by a gunshot. Police also revealed that was possibly Wright who dialed 911 on July 19th, the day he disappeared, and that the cellular call was answered by a Germantown dispatcher. Sources told reporters that during the call, a male voice uttered an expletive, and then at least 10 gunshots could be heard. The calltaker called the number back, the souces said, but there was no answer. It’s not clear who owned the cellular phone, although police say Wright was using it, and it’s also not clear what information was displayed to the calltaker when the call was answered. Germantown police chief Richard Hall said an investigation is underway to determine exactly how the call was handled. Wright’s family reported him missing four days after the 911 call. However, three jurisdictions were involved in the incident—Wright was visiting in Collierville, the call was answered by Germantown, and Wright’s body was found in Memphis—and information may not have been shared among the jurisdictions. Read more about the incident here. Update: The incident has re-prompted discussions about a consolidate public safety comm center for the county, and questions why agencies are opposed to such a move.

Two new medical studies found that bystanders of a stranger’s cardiac arrest incident are more likely to perform CPR if it’s compressions-only, and doesn’t include rescue breathing. But the years-long U.S. and Sweden studies also concluded that there’s very little difference in the survival rates between the two emergency procedures. Even so, the American Hearth Association (AHA) reports that any CPR provided by bystander can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival, and says it trains 12 million people a year in CPR. The studies were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, and were based on carefully-crafted study procedures that were performed by dispatchers at the London (UK) Ambulance Service, in Thurston and King Counties (Wash.), and at 18 comm centers in Sweden. (more…)

Cities and towns in North Carolina have a new source of funding for public safety comm centers after state legislators tweaked the 911 funding law to broaden the types of equipment that can be purchased with 911 surcharge money. Like many states, the previous law rather narrowly restricted cities to using 911 funds only for non-payroll expenses related to handling 911 calls. Anything radio-related could not be purchased with the funds, which come from monthly surcharges on wired and wireless telephones. The new law expands the use of funds slightly, allowing the purchase of “dispatch equipment” at a public safety answering point (PSAP), but still excluding radio transmitters, microwave links and antenna gear. Local officials welcomed the change, since that wording and other changes will now include consoles and dispatcher furniture. The new law also makes several changes in the the definition of “call taking,” the make-up of the state’s 911 Board, how funds are distributed and the percentage forumula, and the establishment of a state-wide 911 project fund. The new law also requires a legislative committee to study whether secondary PSAPs should become eligible to receive state 911 funds. Download (pdf) a copy of the new law here.