The Consumer Technology Association’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) wrapped up earlier this month in Las Vegas, and 911 and public safety communications should be paying attention now more than ever before.
Swatting, the practice of falsely reporting an emergency to elicit a response from a police department’s special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team, is not a new phenomenon for the 911 community.
What is new is that a death has occurred as a result of a swatting incident.
On December 28, 2017, a dispute between online gamers turned ugly. Media reports say that one group, seeking retribution for some perceived wrongdoing, contacted a known swatter in Los Angeles and convinced him to act on their behalf. The swatter placed a call, spoofing his telephone number, to an administrative line at city hall in Wichita, Kansas, and a security guard transferred the call to 911. The caller told the 911 telecommunicator that he had shot his father in the head, was holding his mother and sister at gunpoint, had doused the house with gasoline, and was contemplating setting the building ablaze.
The telecommunicator dispatched a police response to the address provided by the caller. When police arrived, a 27-year-old man answered the door, and immediately was told to raise his hands and walk toward the officers. Regrettably, he lowered his hands to his waist, and an officer found the action threatening enough to fire a single shot at the man, killing him.
When one stops to mull this for a moment, especially considering the type of response that is dispatched to such incidents, it seems amazing that a swatting death has not happened before.
As if this event wasn’t tragic enough, the man had nothing to do with the online gaming dispute. In fact, he reportedly wasn’t a gamer at all—the swatter had provided a wrong address for the actual swatting target.
Topics: Industry News, Operations, Technology
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.
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).
Topics: Industry News, Technology
In a previous post, we examined how social media had a profound effect on emergency response in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. This marked the first instance of social media being leveraged in this manner, when disaster victims rose up to play a role in their own rescue.
A network television show that debuted recently is centered on a crowd-sourcing platform that is used to solve all sorts of serious crimes, and in some cases, prevent them. While this may seem implausible, it actually is a case of art imitating life.
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:
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.
Topics: Technology, On-Demand Webinars
When it comes to emergency response, having reliable public safety radio coverage is imperative to keeping first responders safe and able to communicate when responding to incidents inside of buildings. As natural disasters intensify and terrorists become bolder, building codes and standards become stricter. While thicker walls and reinforced windows are great for the safety of a building’s inhabitants, they also make it more difficult for radio signals to penetrate.
Topics: Industry News
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.
“Let’s go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday.” – Steve Jobs
Our nation’s 911 centers, the nexus of citizens who need help and our dedicated first responders, are on the brink of a major evolution. Some would say that it is on a level similar to how the iPhone revolutionized mobile communications a decade ago.
The foundation currently is being laid for end-to-end Internet Protocol (IP) communications from the caller (or sensor) all the way through to the first responders in the field. Freed from the limitations of 512 characters (or less) of emergency caller data, the 911 sector will integrate systems and networks previously impeded by proprietary protocols and siloed networks.
The convergence of Next Generation 911 (NG911) and the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) will give 911 professionals and first responders alike a seamless emergency communications environment that enables sharing of critical multimedia data—between the public, 911 centers, and first responders. Gone will be the days of, “This network/system doesn’t talk to that one.” Or, “That data isn’t available.” Or, “There’s no way for me to send you that information.”
The flywheel of progress continues to turn and we all owe it to everyone who calls 911 in their greatest time of need to keep it moving in the right direction. Discussions are taking place on how and why Emergency Services IP Networks (ESInets)—which will transmit emergency calls and related data—and the NPSBN need to be interconnected to share critical information needed by 911 centers and first responders alike. There are many compelling use cases that speak to the need for a strong integration—all of which come back to the workflow of our emergency responders. Keeping our responders safe, leveraging the data to make better decisions, and ultimately improving outcomes for those who need help, are all reasons that NG911 systems and the NPSBN must work together.
For a while now, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) has been describing the nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN) that it is implementing in partnership with AT&T as a “mission-critical” communications network for public safety. And it is entirely possible that the network will live up to its promise. But that is not the type of thing that the public safety sector will accept on face value—it is going to need proof. That’s just the way it is in public safety, a sector where lives are on the line and seconds count, every day.
Topics: Land Mobile Radio, Wireless Communications
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.
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.
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