A Look Back at 2017's Most Read Stories on MCP Insights

This past year, we launched an online repository of articles called MCP Insights. Our vision was to create a destination for public safety communications and government leaders to expand their knowledge, stay abreast of emerging trends within the industry and hear about new ideas that will help to advance the industry and ultimately, improve emergency response outcomes.

This article features the most shared posts among our readership this past year. Read on to learn more, and while you’re at it, subscribe to receive notifications when a new MCP Insight is released.

A Massive Outage that Affected PSAPs Across the US

In March 2017, an extensive outage impacted 911 service in a number of states. It revealed the need for increased communication among service providers during outages and similar incidents, but it also reminded us that PSAPs should take proactive steps to soften the impacts of unpredictable outages, beginning with an extensive refresh and review of their policies and procedures, as well as testing.

“Sunny-day” outages, like the one that occurred in March, is just another example of why the public safety communications sector needs to push forward with Next Generation 911 (NG911).

Data and How It Will Change the Public Safety Communications Landscape [WEBINAR]

Ready or not, data is taking over the world. So what does that mean for emergency communications?

The way in which public safety answering points (PSAPs) respond to both emergency, and non-emergency events, will change dramatically once public safety communications starts harnessing the the increasing availability of data in our communities. Here are some interesting stats:

• Internet-connected machines are expected to be more than 200 billion by 2020 according to research from Intel.
• Gartner predicts that the IoT market will eventually include 20.8 billion things.
• Technology giant Ericsson predicts that in 2018, there will be more IoT gadgets than mobile devices.

In today’s communications environment, PSAPs rely primarily on voice communications to provide an up-to-date picture of what’s happening at the emergency scene and communicate with other first responders. This is problematic when the communications infrastructure becomes disabled during natural disasters, or when a victim is unable to place a call for help.

PEMA Builds New High-Tech EOC Under Budget with MCP’s Help

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), a statewide agency tasked with coordinating prevention, response and recovery activities related to natural and manmade emergencies in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, wanted to introduce new technology and replace aging systems in its legacy Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

MCP is extremely proud to have played a role in helping PEMA construct and implement an innovative and modern EOC that dramatically improves their administrative and operational capabilities, both day-to-day and during emergencies. The new facility opened in July 2016 – and was completed under budget, despite the fact that the budget was established nearly a full decade before construction was completed.

Pennsylvania Emergency Operations Center Facility - Harrisburg, PA

Their original facility, located in a suburb near the state capital of Harrisburg, was not originally designed to be a coordination center during large, multijurisdictional events. Not only did this hamper the agency’s operations, it also had space constraints that prevented PEMA from introducing new technology and scaling its operations to meet the needs of today’s emergency response environment.

Embracing the Power of NG911 Content for Improving Emergency Response [Webinar]

Next Generation 911 (NG911) and the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) promise to be powerful platforms that will improve response times, create resource efficiencies and revolutionize how public safety operates. We believe that NG911 content, defined as value-added data inputs about a call, caller or the location of a call, will not only enable first responders in the migration towards NG911, but will also help drive NG911 adoption.

Life at MCP: Meet Nick Falgiatore

Nick Falgiatore is a senior technology specialist at Mission Critical Partners (MCP) who brings a decade of industry experience to the table. His prowess includes land mobile radio system assessment, design, procurement, and implementation support, FirstNet planning, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensing, propagation modeling, interoperability planning, and data gathering among others. He’s also one of the public safety communications sector’s rising stars – he was recently honored with an award as a leading professional charting a course in the industry in the years to come.

Team first mentality

Nick came to MCP in 2013 and was quickly entrenched in projects of all shapes and sizes implementing public safety communications systems. He has supported more than 50 clients with designing and deploying new radio and wireless broadband solutions such as Project 25 (P25) Phase I and Phase II systems. In the last two years, he’s been heavily engaged with the rollout of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network, being implemented by FirstNet, working shoulder-to-shoulder with several state and local clients as they build their strategy to build out their network.

PSAP Cyber Security Threats and How to Prepare Your Agency [Webinar]

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an alert indicating that government facilities are being targeted by hackers and cyber criminals, a trend that DHS expected would increase.

Not only were they spot on, the issue has since specifically impacted emergency communications systems on various scales and unprecedented levels several times since that alert. For example:

• Last October, a Twitter post containing a shortened link took over the phone and dialed 911 repeatedly was clicked more than 117,000 times by Apple phone users. 9-1-1 centers across the country were affected.
• In Washington D.C., 70 percent of storage devices that record data from D.C. police surveillance cameras were infected with ransomware eight days before President Trump’s inauguration.
• In Licking County, OH, a 911 center went without computers for a time because of a countywide network shutdown to prevent an attack from spreading.

How We Predict NG911 Will Play Out in the Public Safety Industry [Infographic]

From Next Generation 911 (NG911) to FirstNet, text-to-911 and all the emerging technoFrom Next Generation 911 (NG911) to FirstNet, text-to-911 and all the emerging technologies being implemented in the public safety industry, the way a 911 call is processed and dispatched is changing dramatically. The evolution represents a quantum leap forward in the level of service the nation’s public safety answering points (PSAPs) can provide to the public and first responders. But the migration is being slowed considerably by some of the same difficulties it’s faced before.

The public safety industry has always struggled with technology evolution: it takes significantly longer than it should and the process is far inefficient. Case in point – it took more than four decades to make 911 service available to the entire country.

CAD-to-CAD: Our Experts Weigh In

Is your 9-1-1 agency considering a CAD-to-CAD capability to increase information sharing and data interoperability between jurisdictions?

We recently asked two MCP subject-matter experts to weigh in on the topic of CAD-to-CAD. Last month, we hosted a webinar to discuss the benefits and technical considerations of a CAD-to-CAD approach, as well as where to begin from a technical standpoint if they decide to implement this solution (Watch the webinar on-demand here.)

In this post, we’ll investigate the benefits as well as the varying models available in today’s market. Be on the lookout for a future discussion on CAD-to-CAD guiding principles and how an agency should begin their journey.

Life at MCP: Meet Bonnie Maney

Bonnie Maney, vice president and director of facilities and operations services with Mission Critical Partners, has been working in public safety dispatch centers for more than twenty-five years. She’s always had a passion for making an impact on the first-responder mission since the early days of her career working in public safety answering points (PSAPs) in Florida.

Coming to the "other side"

Bonnie spent most of her career working in the public sector. In 2015, she decided to make a significant career switch by pursuing an opportunity in the private sector when a close colleague recommended she join Mission Critical Partners. “I started consulting in 2010 for a national non-profit consortium where I worked for federal, state and local clients on various levels. I always wanted to try consulting and after this experience, I knew I had found a new calling that added another layer to my already satisfying career.” said Maney.

Since then, she continues to work on project of many shapes and sizes.

One of the most rewarding aspects of her job is, “Every project is as equally important to every client regardless it's size. The work we’re doing plays a critical role helping them advance their mission, and that’s where I find the greatest satisfaction.”

Even early in her career when she worked her way up from a telecommunicator to a PSAP manager, Bonnie has always been passionate about making an impact on public safety—whether it be for technology initiatives or working one-on-one with the staff helping to improve operations and promote a positive work environment.