by The Sage
Dear Sage,
I'm confused alot about how wireless 911 is going to come in to our county
comm center. I understand that we'll know the caller's location, but how
will it be displayed and who will pay for the equipment?
X-Y in Florida
Dear X-Y,
You're not the only one! The hype has preceded the implementation. Lots
of companies are working on the field portion of the FCC's requirements-capture
the location and transmit it to the PSAP. But not many companies have thought
about the other end, where the dispatcher sits. Companies like PEI and Positron
are in the best position, since you're likely looking at one of their ANI/ALI
screens already. The big challenge isn't displaying location information-anyone
can do that! It'll be making the information useful and integrating it with
all the other computer screens a typical dispatcher already has to scan.
Oh, who's going to pay for all this? Obviously, the taxpayer, either from
higher 911 surcharges or some other type of state-level tax.
Sage
Dear Sage,
Does your agency have a mandatory call-back policy?
Waiting By Phone
Dear Waiting,
I can't tell if you mean "routine" or "emergency," but
we do have policies on both. We could be contacted when there's an under-staffing
issue, or if there's a police-fire emergency, and we'd be ordered back on-duty.
If we refuse, the supervisor forwards a memo to the manager, who considers
if discipline is necessary. So far, we're fairly fat on staffing, and (thank
God!) we've not had a major call-back emergency. So the policy hasn't really
been tested for satisfaction, so to speak. I do remember one recall. The
dispatcher said, "I don't have my uniform. Do you still want me to
come in?" The supervisor's answer was, "As long as you have somewhere
to clip your headset cord, yes!"
Sage
Dear Sage,
Do you have any good vehicle stop stories?
Pulling Over
Dear Pulling,
We've had officers pull over two or even three cars in the same stop, and
fitting all those plates and descriptions into one CAD entry takes some
real typing! Then an officer gave the license plate as "four, union,
Sam, Charles, trailer hitch, two, one." Uh, I think I understand why.
Sage
Dear Sage,
I'd be interested in your views on comm center lighting. I work in a comm
center where not only are we subjected to glare from multiple computer screens,
but also fluorescent lighting from above. We have requested the lighting
be tone down to no avail. We do have individual lighting units at all positions.
We now have a new captain and your suggestion on how we may approach him
would be appreciated.
Wearing Sunglasses
Dear Wearing,
Lighting is a popular topic, and I started surfing the Web for some resources.
I found
www.phothera.com
www.ge.com
As for your captain, there are two approaches-"This would be nice
to have", and "We have potential injury/disability issues."
I'd take the second approach, possibly rolling it into a general ergonomic
discussion that includes equipment arrangement and adjustability. Good luck!
Sage
Talk about loyalty! After New York City's little power glitch that knocked out 911, a reporter for Newsday called up Michael Amarosa, former head of everything-technology at NYPD, and asked for comment. Amarosa, who's now luring in government business for TruePosition, "declined to discuss any aspect of it," even though the Metrotech center was planned, funded and built while he was there.
Dear Sage,
We are performing a major review of our EMS dispatching. When a medical
emergency is received, the request for an ambulance is made by phone to
(one of four) individual EMS agency's dispatch centers. On occasion (seldom),
in all of the confusion (usually at extremely high call volume time) a dispatcher
may request another dispatcher to make the call to the EMS agency. 911 dispatchers
have sometimes delayed (forgotten) to pass the call to the EMS agency. I
understand we should have a zero-tolerance policy regarding this, but at
what time do we say there is a problem with the system here and something
needs to be fixed? Is there a (and I use the word lightly) acceptable percentage?
Inquiring Mind
Dear Mind,
You should always be saying "There's a problem," as part of the
constant process of improving. In this case, I think you have a "procedure"
problem instead of a "people" problem. Is there something fundamental
you can change to reduce this "forgetfulness" to zero? Perhaps
a shift in duties, a new procedural step, policy change? I subscribe to
the notion that too many times we blame the people, when just one, small
procedural change would solve the issue.
Sage