Police in Texas say that a man who dialed 911 and talked to a Richland Hills police dispatcher for over 30 minutes did not have a gun, contrary to statements the man made to the dispatcher before he was shot and killed by officers. Jose Vieira, 21, dialed 911 while driving around about 5 a.m. and sounded suicidal. He initially told the unnamed dispatcher that he was unarmed, but later in the call said he had a .44-cal. revolver in the vehicle. Vieira said he’d been drinking beer since 3 p.m. the previous day, and said he’d hurt someone only if they tried to hurt him. The female dispatcher tried many times to get Vieira to pull over for following police. Finally, he did stop, and police fired their guns when he lunged inside the vehicle as if trying to reach a firearm. A search of the vehicle found no weapons. His family was stunned, saying he was about to become a father, had no mental illness and had never exhibited any suicidal behavior. Read more about the incident and listen to a snippet of the 911 call here.

A woman who had been sexually assaulted by an acquaintance dialed 911 on the pretext of talking to her sister, but instead dialed 911 and reached an alert Utah County (Utah) sheriff’s dispatcher who eventually guided officers to the woman’s location. The woman voluntarily went with the suspect, whom she met through a friend. But the encounter turned criminal as the man drove her into the desolate desert west of Utah Lake. An unnamed female dispatcher answered the 911 call and asked, “What’s the emergency?” The victim replied, “I, I can’t really…I don’t know.” At that point the dispatcher seemws to understand the situation and asked, “Are you in a vehicle?” The woman answered, “Yes,” and the dispatcher then asked, “Are you able to talk.” When the woman said, “No,” the dispatcher began an 18-minute exchange of information, aided by the Phase II location from the victim’s cellular phone. At one point the dispatcher instructed the woman to say a code phrase if she saw a passing police car—”I remember that.” The 911 call also includes police approaching the car and arresting the suspect. “Thank you so much,” the crying victim finally tells the dispatcher. Read more and listen to the 911 call here.

Today Motorola launched a coordinated and focused marketing campaign that promotes its wide range of products that can provide broadband communications for public safety. The endeavor is dubbed “The Next Generation of Public Safety,” and is being promoted by a press release, new Web pages and executive interviews with the press. The company said its solutions, “will maximize operational effectiveness by converging voice, image, data, and video communications from a multimedia, integrated command center and extend the reach of current mission critical communications networks.” In interviews, Motorola co-CEO Greg Brown said the company expects public safety sales to boost the company’s revenues. In fact, Motorola is in talks now with several large cities for broadband wireless networks, Brown said, and could have signed contracts by the end of this year. Brown believes cities will use commercial radio networks in the future, but in the short term many cities will build their own wireless networks. Surf Motorola’s Web page on NextGen public safety applications. read more

A group of 88 Los Angeles (Calif.) area public safety agencies has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to build and maintain what some believe will be the largest public safety radio network in the world, and which will allow individual agencies to purchase radio gear from any company. The Los Angeles Regional Interoperability Communications System (LA-RICS) expects the system to cost $600 million over five years, and a final contract could be awarded by December. The radio system bid will be awarded to a single vendor or group, but agency radios may be purchased from any qualified company. The open purchase plan is expected to reduce costs for participating agencies, since they won’t be locked in to a single radio vendor either immediately or over time. Download (.zip) the package of bid documents here, and read more about the potential cost savings here. Surf the LA-RICS Web site for more information.

Spotsylvania County (Virg.) dispatcher Domonique Curry handled the worse call of her life last February, she says, when she kept a woman on the phone for 20 minutes, slowly hearing her succumb to smoke while trapped by fire in her bedroom. Now called a hero by sheriff Howard Smith, Curry says it’s awkward to accept that praise, since the woman died. Even after the victim’s family called her on the phone to praise her, Curry recalls every word she told the victim, particularly that she told the woman she wouldn’t die. “I feel like I gave her a false promise,” Curry told a reporter. Firefighters rescued one other resident, but failed to find the victim who dialed 911, sparking an investigation that has recommended fireground changes. Read Curry’s account of the call, about the final tragedy and of Curry’s heroism here.

In response to requests from 21 cities and counties, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted waivers to allow construction of radio networks in a slice of the 700 MHz band that has been, up to now, tied up by regulatory issues related to digital TV and a spectrum auction. The decision will allow Boston, New York City, Honolulu, Seattle, San Jose and several states to immediately begin building networks, subject to several conditions to insure compatibility with any future regulations or procedures the FCC may eventually devise to properly allocate the 700 MHz spectrum. The FCC has been working through many issues related to three blocks of spectrum, including the D Block that was destined for auction in 2008. Rather than wait for final decisions on all matters for the allocation, the cities and counties wanted immediate access to the frequencies. The FCC received scores of comment on the matter, including suggestions to impose stringent conditions on any waiver grants. In today’s decision, the commission decided that it could grant the waivers before making other decisions about allocating the spectrum, and imposed requirements on entities, including leasing the spectrum from the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) and certain LTE technical requirements. The FCC did not impose any proof of funding requirement on the waivers. Download (pdf) a copy of the FCC’s decision here.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) says that a single 911 call from a man who said he and his 7 year-old son were trapped in the wreckage of their car off I-17 was not enough to generate an air search for the car. But critics say there were plenty of clues to the location and enough reasons to launch a helicopter, including Phase II 911 service that was turned on just one week before the crash. The incident demonstrates the critical nature of multi-agency operations and the importance of incident “ownership.” The DPS says Conrad Hernandez dialed 911 mid-day Friday to say he and his son were injured after the crash, and he gave a general location. A ground search failed to find the two, and later that same day the man’s wife reported the two missing to Chandler PD. It wasn’t until Sunday that a sheriff’s dispatcher linked the 911 call and the missing person case, sparking a DPS air search that located the car. read more

Escalating drug-based crime on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border surrounding McAllen (Tex.) has brought together agencies from local, state and federal governments to create a radio network that would link officers in both countries. Over 40 Rio Grande Valley public safety agencies are already using an 800 MHz radio network to communicate among each other, but recent shootings and other incidents have frequently shown the need for U.S. law enforcement agencies to quickly talk to their counterparts in Mexico. Now the U.S. Department of State is working on a cross-border radio plan, which is supported by the state of Tamaulipas, Tex. Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Border Patrol. Read more about the radio cooperation here.

The new chief of the Oakland (Calif.) police department has taken six months to get a feel for the department, and is now moving forward with changes, including giving the comm center dispatchers more authority to determine incident priorities and deploy officers, and hiring vacant dispatcher positions. Chief Anthony Batts was sworn in last October to shake up the department, which works in one of the countries highest-crime cities. Now he’s revised the CAD priority assignments to include more types of Priority 1 incidents, and has authorized dispatchers to send officers Code 3 to those incidents. Batts says the previous response time to Priority 1 incidents was 15 minutes—in a city where you could traverse the high-crime district in less than 10 minutes driving 25 mph. Now, officers and dispatchers won’t have to wonder if Code 3 is appropriate. “It removes the gray area,” a lieutenant said. Batts also intends to fill 14 vacant positions despite a city hiring freeze. Read more about the changes and Batts’ firsts ride-along here.

A Gwinnett County (Geo.) dispatcher was docked one day of vacation for a mistake that ended with an officer shooting and killing two women at their home. Phil Raines was given a one-day suspension for his mistake in July 2009, and chose to give up one day of his vacation. According to county police officials, a woman dialed 911 to report her 51 year-old daughter was suicidal. When asked by Raines if the daughter had a gun, the mother replied, “I think she does. I don’t know.” But Raines then noted in the CAD entry, “No 69 in the house,” indicating there was no gun. Off. Lyndsey Perry was dispatched to the home, and entered without a back-up officer or taking other pre-cautions. As she entered, the mother warned her, “My daughter has a gun and she is going to shoot you. You have to shoot her,” police reports state. Moments later, the daughter came down the stairs and around the corner, pointing a gun at Perry. The officer fired at the daughter, fatally wounding her, but bullets also struck the mother, who also died. A police investigation found Perry fired in self-defense, and that Raines had erred in relaying information from the mother’s 911 call. The family of the victims say the light discipline is a “huge mistake.” Read more about the incident here.

A Clark County (Ohio) sheriff’s dispatcher working the night shift picked up a 911 call to hear his own wife ask for help—she’d just been stabbed by a man in the backyard as she was bringing in the dogs. Sheriff’s deputies arrived quickly but the suspect had fled and is still being sought. The names of the dispatcher and his wife are being withheld, but the sheriff says the woman will survive. The couple’s three children were inside the house during the attack, and are now being cared for by relatives. On the logging tape, the dispatcher becomes aware of the terrible nature of the call in stages. “Where you at?” he asks, apparently recognizing his wife’s voice. But then when his wife says, “I’ve been attacked,” he asks, “Who’s this?” His wife answers, “It’s your wife. It’s Angie. I need help,” as she gasps for air. On the logging tape the dispatcher relays the information to a co-worker as his wife cries and says, “Help me!” Listen to the amazing call. [audio:http://mp3.911dispatch.com.s3.amazonaws.com/clarkcounty_stabbing_911.mp3]

The record flooding across several midwest states has turned personal for the region’s dispatchers. At least three Nashville Metro 911 dispatchers have lost their homes and belongings, and many more are unable to safely return home because of the high water. The 911CARES organization has just issued an activation to assist the affected dispatchers, and is asking for assistance from comm centers across the country. “One dispatcher was rescued by boat just before her home flooded,” says Kevin Willett of 911CARES. “Many other dispatchers have had the contents of their homes flooded or destroyed.” 911CARES is asking for monetary donations and for supplies. Check the group’s plan and other information after the break. read more

A team of Riverside County (Calif.) radio technicians and police used radio direction-finding equipment to locate and arrest a woman who is charged with making threats and interrupting radio transmissions on public safety frequencies over a two-day period. Irene Levy, 29, was tracked to her mobile home in Hemet, police say, and then arrested just seconds after her last transmission. Police say she is a licensed Amateur radio operator, and that they seized 11 radios, seven scanners, computer gear and her FCC license during the arrest. Levy allegedly transmitted bomb threats, referred to the deaths of officers and firefighters, and interrupted several major incidents, including a mutual aid vehicle accident and vegetation fire. She transmitted on local CalFire and Hemet PD channels, both in the 154/155 MHz band. Police did not say where she obtained the transmitters or how she broadcast on the public safety frequencies. Read more about the arrest here.

In the aftermath of its acquisition of radio manufacturer Tyco International’s wireless systems unit, Harris Corp. reported increased revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2010, and improved profits. However, the quarterly financial report shows that the company’s Public Safety and Professional Communications (PSPC) business unit contributes a tiny portion of the overall profit and revenue for the company, which is focused mostly on defense contracts. The PSPC unit is under the RF Communications division, and reported orders during the quarter of $168 million. At the end of the quarter, the company says the unit’s order backlog as $489 million. Overall, PSPC revenue for the quarter totaled $122 million, or less than 10 percent. In contrast, the tactical radio products unit posted orders of $656 million during the quarter, with a backlog of $1.1 billion. The tactical unit posted revenues of $438 million, or about four times that of PSPC. In a press release, the company noted public safety orders from Miami-Dade County for a $100 million upgrade, and for 1,100 radios from the New York State Police. Harris Corp. bought Tyco’s wireless unit in May 2009 for $615 million. Read the entire press release here. read more

The Canadian telecom regulation agency has accepted a report from one of its sub-committees, noting that various forms of text messaging are “not viable solutions” for contacting 911 by people with hearing or speech disabilities, and accepting the group’s proposal to conduct a field trial of so-called SMS T911 to determine its effectiveness. Right now, only a handful of comm centers in the U.S. accept text messaging directly from customers, but those messages are usually limited to specific carriers within a region, and have notable limitations on transmission reliability and transmitting the caller’s location. A future NG911 network might better accommodate text messaging devices. The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that its Interconnection Steering Committee had found text messaging impractical for reaching public safety answering points (PSAP)—the text message networks don’t support intelligent routing to the correct PSAP, and they don’t provide subscriber identification data such as the telephone number. The committee also noted the upcoming development of next-generation 911 networks, which would make current technologies obsolete. So the committee proposed testing a hybrid technology: SMT T911 via silent wireles voice call. Under that technique, a person with a hearing or speech disability would dial 911 on a voice cellular phone, and their pre-registered personal information would appear indicating their disability. The caller’s location would be displayed by the normal cellular network methods. The 911 calltaker would respond back to the caller using SMS messages. The CRTC acknowledged that this method would “required PSAPs to change their call handling procedures.” The trial could last 12 to 18 months, the agency noted. Read about the CRTC decision to approve the committee’s report here, and download (pdf) a copy of the committee report on text messaging 911 here.