MCP Insights

When we launched MCP a little more than a decade ago, we established some pretty aggressive growth goals, especially for a firm that was operating out of a garage and had no clients at the very beginning. Nevertheless, each goal was met with room to spare. Our ability to do so hinged on a single, overarching, inflexible focus on delighting the client.

This year has brought a lot of change, and excitement, to the public safety industry. From the announcement of 911 grant funding for states and tribal nations to advance their efforts to implement next generation 911 (NG911) to an increased, industry-wide focus on cybersecurity and preventing cyberattack, the groundwork has been laid for continued improvement for emergency response in 2020 and beyond.

Today, more public safety agencies are taking a serious look at how they can mitigate the risk of cyberattacks due to the dramatic spike in ransomware attacks on state and local governments. Such attacks often result in hefty ransom demands, with reports of demands as high as $400,000. One of the most well-known ransomware attacks of 2019 impacted 22 municipalities in Texas, with hackers requesting more than two million dollars in ransom payment to unlock the data.

October 31 signified the end of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a topic of which the government sector has become more than just aware. Meanwhile, November 1 marked the start of Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month—an initiative being led by the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA). The call to action is for public agencies to encourage resilience through preparedness and exercises, and to promote smart, secure investment in resilient and national infrastructure.

MCP’s Model for Advancing Public Safety is Helping Agencies Build a Blueprint for Today and What They Can Become

Last year, the 911 Center that serves Harford County, Maryland, was having a hard time recruiting and retaining telecommunicators, a problem that is quite common in emergency communications centers (ECCs) across the country.