MCP Insights

Meet Molly Falls: Public Safety Project Manager by Day, Triathlete by Night

After years of swimming competitively while earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ball State University, Molly Falls found her way into the public safety industry and then to Mission Critical Partners (MCP). Now a senior technology specialist who specializes in managing statewide 911 projects, Molly credits years of intense training and balancing the daily grind of athletics with academics as influential factors in her ability to multitask, manage tight deadlines, and remain focused as a project manager.

What Is Leadership?

Leadership has been defined by many people in many ways. A definition that I like goes like this: leadership is the ability to get people or organizations to do what they don’t naturally want to do, or to get them to do things that they don’t believe they can do.

At Mission Critical Partners, all of us are expected to “lead self,” i.e., to take ownership of one’s thoughts, actions and statements, while also having the discipline and drive necessary for meeting one’s responsibilities, both personally and professionally. But effective leaders understand that they can’t achieve their objectives by themselves. In other words, they need a team. And when leading a team, one’s mindset needs to shift from leading oneself to leading others. This is especially true for those working in the public safety sector.

Cybersecurity Threat Advisory: Heightened Attack Activity Involving Trickbot Variant 'Bazar Backdoor'

As part of our effort to inform our clients about potential and serious cybersecurity issues, MCP provides advisories about vulnerabilities and exploits that could threaten the operations of their mission-critical communications networks. Sign up to receive these advisories in your inbox as soon as they are released.

Is a Storm Brewing in Your Cloud?

The COVID-19 global pandemic has thrust cloud computing into the spotlight, with everything from primary education, to business meetings, to government operations moving “into the cloud.” We’ve highlighted how the benefits of cloud-based applications are clear: lower total cost of ownership, enhanced scalability and flexibility, and the ability to shift the maintenance responsibility to the service provider. Cloud-based applications are easy to update, are available anywhere network connectivity exists, and often are more secure and reliable than a premises-based solution.

What You Don't Know Will Hurt You With GIS Data Management

Statements become adages usually because they are rooted in truth—but not always. The statement, “what you don’t know won’t hurt you,” is a shining example. This statement couldn’t be more inaccurate. What you don’t know sooner or later will hurt you, especially in the public-safety community.

Cybersecurity Threat Advisory: Microsoft’s Patch Critical RCE Flaws

As part of our effort to inform our clients about potential and serious cybersecurity issues, MCP provides advisories about vulnerabilities and exploits that could threaten the operations of their critical communications networks. Sign up to receive these advisories in your inbox as soon as they are released.

This week, there is a new critical alert that requires the mission-critical community’s immediate attention.

Georgia Criminal Justice System Realizes Faster Case Processing and More Informed Decision-Making with Statewide CJEP Project

When the Georgia Governor's Office charged a team of criminal justice stakeholders with accessing the efficiencies that could be gained from electronic court filing, statewide criminal justice stakeholders set out to find ways in which documents and information could be seamlessly shared between systems. The State’s goal to improve criminal-history disposition match rates quickly expanded to the realization that real, sustainable statewide improvements would significantly improve the flow of justice information from the beginning to the end of the criminal case lifecycle. At that time, the administration was determined to improve the performance of the state’s criminal justice system to better protect public safety and control spending.

Cybersecurity Threat Advisory: Vector Multicast Routing Protocol

As part of our effort to inform our clients about potential and serious cybersecurity issues, MCP provides advisories about vulnerabilities and exploits that could threaten the operations of their mission-critical communications networks. Sign up to receive these advisories in your inbox as soon as they are released.

The Changing Operational Landscape of Emergency Medical Services

To the average person, emergency medical services (EMS) always have looked the same, operating in the same way they always have—a 911 call is placed, an ambulance arrives, paramedics or emergency medical technicians (EMTs) assess the situation and provide pre-transport medical care, and the patient is transported to the hospital. What people don’t see are the changes occurring behind the scenes that already have begun to transform EMS delivery.

Cybersecurity Threat Advisory: Major ‘Vishing’ Campaign

As part of our effort to inform our clients about potential and serious cybersecurity issues, MCP provides advisories about vulnerabilities and exploits that could threaten the operations of their mission-critical communications networks. Sign up to receive these advisories in your inbox as soon as they are released.

NG911 Strategic Plans Only Are Effective If They Can Be Operationalized Effectively

Many organizations have short- and long-term strategic plans.

Successful organizations have strategic plans that can be operationalized effectively. In June, during our inaugural Conference for Advancing Public Safety (CAPS), Curtis Sutton, executive director of the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board, and Karen Ziegler, public safety program manager, Arizona 911 Program, joined MCP subject-matter experts Jackie Mines and Molly Falls, in a panel discussion that was focused in part on best practices for operationalizing Next Generation 911 (NG911) strategic plans. You can watch the session in its entirety here.

An Effective Network Operations Center Does More Than Provide Alerts

A while back, one of Mission Critical Partners' (MCP's) long-standing clients, the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council (LRGVDC) in Texas, was growing increasingly frustrated with its third-party network operations center (NOC). It always is good for an emergency-response organization to enlist the services of a NOC to ensure the reliability of its mission-critical communications networks and systems and to perform network troubleshooting. But in this case, the NOC’s performance was insufficient, according to Hector Chapa, program supervisor II, who oversees the council’s communications systems and emergency communications center (ECC) ECC operations.