The 911 CARES crew is hard at work fulfilling orders for dispatcher-related merchandise…maybe they’re elves, maybe not! If you order by Dec. 1st they’ll guarantee delivery by Christmas day on all of their embroidered apparel. Also check out all the mugs, pens, water bottles, license plate frames and other gifts for yourself or to give others in your “Secret Santa” program at work. Find all their neat products here, or download (pdf) their catalog here.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has finished its proof of concept testing of a next-generation 911 (NG911) system at five comm centers, and has published a report that sets out the test results and establishes a baseline for future testing. The DOT is coordinating the very early stages of NG911 implementation, which could take decades to roll out nationwide. The agency said in the report that its study “answered many pressing questions,” but admitted that the scope of work was “limited by time and money.” One over-arching finding was, “how diverse and complex the 9-1-1 community is and how much work there is to still be done.” Among the test’s finding are: how SMS messages are handled, the process for handling lost, abandoned and dropped calls, integration of telmatics systems, flexibility to handle future data, network performance monitoring, and improved integration of geospatial information. Download (pdf) the full report here.

The Fulton County (Geo.) public safety comm center is in “complete chaos, plagued by high turnover, poor morale and inadequate performance, according to an investigation commissioned by the county, as as reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In a long article, the newspaper’s editorial staff said the county should convene a summit of stakeholders, “to restore confidence in the troubled EMS and 911 services,” and begin the process of building a consolidated, county-wide system. The newspaper says the county 911 center wrote up 1,100 infractions on its employees over a four-year period, ranging from being tardy, AWOL or mis-handling incidents. Read the long article here.

The village of Wellsville (NY) is considering a move of their police department’s dispatchers to Allegany County, creating some debate among residents, dispatchers and village trustees. The town was the fourth to implement 911 in New York state, Wellsville communications technician Christopher Eldridge points out in a newspaper commentary piece. Eldridge say that the local dispatchers provide superior service and that moving dispatching to the county would cost more. Read Eldridge’s extensive explanation here.

The Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), created to administer a block of 700 MHz spectrum that may eventually comprise a national public safety wireless network, marked its first anniversary with praise for all the “diverse interests” of the first-responder community that joined the group. In a press release, the PSST said that its board had, “worked collectively to make sure the interests of first responders…were represented in a new, nationwide network designed to meet their challenging communications needs.” The FCC’s first attempt to auction the so-called D Block of 700 MHz spectrum to a commercial entity did not attract a sufficiently high bid. The FCC is scheduled to consider new auction rules for the D Block, perhaps as early as mid-December, with a lower minimum bid requirement. Download (pdf) the PSST press release here.

The research and consulting firm Common Sense Advisory has posted a report on the use of translation services for hospital ER rooms, and author Nataly Kelly was recently featured on National Public Radio’s (NPR) “All Things Considered” about her experiences. Kelly recalls her work interpreting for hospital ER patients, and the challenges they present. Read Kelly’s full article here, and then listen to the NPR segment here.

Tonight the Fox Network “America’s Most Wanted” show profiled the murder of two Texas teenagers by their father earlier this year, and mentioned the cellular 911 that one victim made for help. Police don’t know which girl, Sarah or Amina Said, dialed 911, but the caller couldn’t provide a location, and police searched only around the receiving cellular tower. About an hour later, a nearby hotel employee called police after discovering the girls, both dead by the time police arrived. Read more and listen to the 911 call here.

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into what translation services are available when dialing 911 to reach the Franklin County (Ohio) Sheriff’s comm center, after a 4 year-old girl drowned in 2007 and her Spanish-speaking parents dialed 911 for help. The investigation was sparked by a recent complaint filed by the Ohio Hispanic Coalition. According to the coalition, an interpreter was used, but the father didn’t realize that EMS units were enroute, and drove the child to a hospital, where she later died. The coalition’s complaint also referred to a 2004 arson fire that claimed the lives of 10 Mexican workers as they slept in an apartment house, claiming dispatchers weren’t able to communicate with 911 callers in Spanish during the incident. Sheriff’s officials say a response to the recent drowning and the 2004 fire was immediate, and that it uses the Language Line interpretation service.

Several years ago the technology of computers and radio advanced enough to begin work on smart radios using software-defined technology. Essentially, pressing the “XMIT” button on a “software-defined radio” (SDR) would turn over many frequency, transmission mode, bandwidth, power and other technical choices to the computer, which would be loaded with information about other users, location, terrain and other technical factors. Each transmission would use only the spectrum resources absolutely necessary to connect the two units at that time and place, thereby saving spectrum. SDR radios have been developed for several low-level applications, and the FCC is studying SDR to improve spectrum efficiency. As well, a collection of companies, groups and associations have created the SDR Forum, group devoted to further development, including public safety applications. Now the SDR forum has posted a collection of presentations at their 2007 conference, including one on the implications of SDR for public safety–download (pdf) it here.

The parents of a one year-old boy who strangled in a soccer net last year at their Murphy (Tex.) home are speaking out now about their 911 for help, and how police officers treated them in the midst of their tragedy. Michael and Ave Cantrell recalled the day their son Matthew wandered outside while Ave slept, and became tangled in a soccer net. When she discovered him, she dialed 911, but says the dispatcher didn’t give her any CPR instructions. The dispatcher eventually transferred her to an EMT, who she says also didn’t give her instructions. Police who arrived kept the parents away from the child and failed to perform CPR, the parents claim. Police also initially barred EMTs from treating the child, they say. Matthew was taken to a hospital, where he lived for three days. Read more about the incident here.

The attorneys for several Columbus (Ohio) police dispatchers have released information about the class-action lawsuit brought by their clients, including how current or former city dispatchers may join the lawsuit as plaintiffs. The lawsuit was filed earlier this year and claims the city has been violating federal medical privacy laws through a police department regulation that requires employees to submit a doctor’s statement when returning to work. The dispatchers claim the procedure discloses their private medical information to someone not authorized by federal laws. The city claims its procedures don’t violate any laws. The case is scheduled for discovery over the next three months, which could include requests for documents and depositions. If there’s no settlement, a trial is scheduled for Oct. 2009. Download (pdf) the class-action information sheet here, and find more information and links about the case at the attorneys’ Web site. Watch a TV interview with one of the dispatchers here.

The FCC has approved the two mergers of cellular carriers, but has conditioned their approval on all the carriers meeting county-level location accuracy requirements supported by NENA and APCO. The Commission approved the mergers of Verizon Wireless and Alltel, along with Sprint and Clearwire earlier this month. But as is usual, the FCC included many pages of conditions on the deals in order to protect the public interest, including public safety. One of those conditions focused on how cellular companies report the accuracy of their Phase II wireless systems, previously reported on a system-wide basis. More recently, NENA and APCO have asked for PSAP-level accuracy requirements, but have lately agreed to county-level reporting. In their merger approvals, the FCC said it imposed the conditions, “In light of the important public safety benefits to be derived from improved E911 location accuracy requirements and Verizon Wireless’s voluntary commitments in this proceeding.”

An Orangeburg (SC) woman is upset over how a Bamberg dispatcher handled her 911 call for help last month, after she had to pull over along a highway to deliver her daughter’s baby. According to Olivia Gentol, the dispatcher asked her 19 times for her location during the 11-minute call she made for her daughter Jennifer. The two were enroute to a hospital at 5:45 a.m. but had to pull over when the contractions became too intense. Gentol told a reporter that a dispatcher had been fired or quit over the incident. In a later interview with a reporter, Deputy county administrator John Smith said the handling of the call was an “anomaly,” and it wasn’t how most such calls are handled. He offered an explanation that included how cellular 911 calls are handled, confusion over Gentol’s hospital destination, and confusion over which highway Gentol was on. Read the original news story here, and then the county’s response here.

A man who suffered a heart attack near Dallas-Fort Worth airport last month didn’t receive a prompt EMS response because dispatchers didn’t know which agency should respond, the victim’s wife says. The man died later at a hospital after an ambulance took at least 14 minutes to arrive. The area of Highway 183 near the airport is alternatively the jurisdiction of the airport police-fire department or the city of Fort Worth. The family has logging tapes that show some confusion over the location of the incident, and is asking for an investigation. Read more and listen to the 911 calls here, and listen particularly to how the original calltaker obtains the 911 caller’s location, and to how dispatchers trade location information during later phone calls.

The state of Oregon commissioned a private company to map the service boundaries of the 911 public safety answering points (PSAP) and create a Google Earth data file, and it’s now posted on-line for download. Oregon law requires that each county have just a single PSAP, unless the county can justify more than one. So, the map file turns out to be pretty simple–county boundaries with one or two dots. However, it’s still an interesting datafile, since it includes PSAP names, telephone numbers and other information. Download the .kml format file here, then use Google Earth to open the file and display the map. (Do other states have similar files/maps?)