This article, which originally appeared in Police Chief Magazine Tech Talk, was authored by Mission Critical Partners' Bonnie Maney, Enterprise Client Manager. The full article is accessible here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way many organizations operate, and the public safety emergency communications centers (ECCs) have not been immune to its impact. After all, emergencies do not stop because a crisis exists. While agencies may have basic evacuation or continuity-of-operations plans (COOPs) in place, it is unlikely that they cover a public health crisis as unprecedented and serious as what is occurring. So, in the essential business of emergency response, how does an agency protect its staff members while continuing to serve and protect its field responders and community effectively?

An article recently posted by Government Technology,  discusses how a group of local governments and search engine giant Google have partnered up to create National 311 Day.

Mission Critical Partners Announces Acquisition of URL Integration, Expanding its Data-Integration Capabilities

STATE COLLEGE, PA (January 15, 2020) — Mission Critical Partners (MCP), a leading public safety consulting and information technology (IT) support services firm, today announced the acquisition of URL Integration, an IT consulting company specializing in the planning and implementation of complex data-exchange points for the criminal justice and public safety sectors.

Addition strengthens MCP’s capabilities to modernize critical infrastructure networks through increased IT support services and wireless communications systems

STATE COLLEGE, PA (January 7, 2020) — Mission Critical Partners (MCP), a leading public safety consulting and information technology (IT) support services firm, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Black & Veatch’s Public Safety (BVPS) consulting division. With BVPS—a unit of Black & Veatch’s Connected Communities business—MCP strengthens its capabilities to design and deploy reliable, advanced radio and wireless broadband systems targeting the public safety sector.

Four counties in Western Pennsylvania set out to do something that hadn't been done before, and in the process, dramatically improved emergency response regionwide

The counties of Venango, Lawrence, Butler and Mercer, all located within Southwestern PA, all had computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems that had reached end of life and needed replacement. In spite of three of the counties sharing a CAD system vendor, all four counties had standalone systems and were unable to forward essential CAD data when they transferred calls to each other.