The Mission-Critical Resource Center

New EOC Facility Improves PEMA’S Operational and Administrative Capabilities

In Summary:

• A Pennsylvania statewide EOC agency suffered from a lack of space at an aging facility that prevented them to introduce new technology and replace antiquated systems.

• MCP and its partner, SCHRADERGROUP, worked together to help PEMA build a new state-of-the-art facility and ancillary building that opened in July 2016.

• The new facility is considered a crown jewel that dramatically enhances PEMA's operational and administrative capabilities

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Overview and Agency Challenge

An Emergency Operations Center (EOC) facility located in Harrisburg, PA is home to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), a cabinet-level agency that is tasked with coordinating prevention, preparedness, response and recovery activities related to natural and man-made emergencies in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Lack of space and age prevented them from serving the needs of a statewide EOC and limited their ability to introduce new technology and replace aging systems.

Butler County, PA Maximizes the Value of its P25 Radio System While Boosting Coverage, Capacity and Interoperability

In Summary:

• Butler County, PA's existing public safety land mobile radio system was facing end-of-life and had begun to experience reduced reliability.

• They County worked with MCP to develop a road-map that would replace the system with one that would meet their future needs.

• MCP provided a detailed assessment and implementation support and eventually, helped Butler County realize 43 percent cost-savings and long-term maintenance savings.

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"MCP has played a key role in helping us meet our project goals by managing multiple vendors on our behalf—holding them accountable for meeting project milestones, managing project risks and ensuring that they meet schedule deadlines and requirements."

Steve Bicehouse, director, Butler County, Butler County

Overview and Agency Challenge

Located 20 miles north of Pittsburgh, PA, Butler County serves nearly 200,000 people across 800 square miles. Their existing radio system was facing the need for end-of-life support and had begun to experience reduced reliability. The ten-site, eight channel system operated in a frequency band that had be reallocated by the Federal Communications Commission as mandated within the Middle-Class Tax Relief Act of 2012.

Florida County Gains 911 Network Visibility with MCP's Co-Managed IT Platform

In Summary:

• Lee County, Florida 911 officials were not satisfied with the network maintenance they were received from their technology vendors
• MCP provides ongoing IT support for Lee County via an online dashboard that is intended to provide a real-time network diagram and information on active alarms and ticket status, as well as reporting capabilities.

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Overview and Agency Challenge

Maintaining network up time during large-scale disasters like Hurricane Irma and during normal operations was top of mind for Lee County, Florida officials. Despite several 911 vendors providing 911 network monitoring services, Lee County officials weren’t satisfied with the level of service they were receiving. They sought greater clarity on network activity, more customization (instead of an off-the-shelf solution), and a mechanism for identifying current and historic network activities.

10 Facts Every PSAP Should Know About Data Integration

The future of data integration: 10 facts every public safety answering point (PSAP) should know.

Critical data is springing up everywhere. This quick read discusses the ten most important elements about data integration every public safety agency should know, ranging from precise location information, smart and safe cities, social media data usage in the PSAP, data sources, supplemental data, as well as GIS data management. 

On-Demand Webinar: Navigating the Public Safety Technology Upgrade Process

With all of the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems and models available in today's market, how do you determine which solution will work best for your agency now, while also scaling to meet your future needs?

Public Safety Should Look Hard at Mission-Critical Push-to-Talk

In Summary:

• Push-to-talk over celluar (PTTOC) and mission-critical push-to-talk MCPTT services are provisioned over broadband wireless services and replicate the walkie-talkie functionality of traditional land mobile radio (LMR) portable radios.

• Through gateways, these services can be interfaced with LMR networks to allow audio to be transmitted from LMR channels to the broadband application, and vice versa.

• They offer a good alternative for personnel who have no need for a digital radio on a daily basis but need to be provided situational awareness and coordinated incident command.

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This whitepaper examines push-to-talk over celluar and mission-critical push-to-talk technology, explaining why they may be a better choice than LMR in some cases, and how they provide significantly more flexibility regarding application, device and network choices. The biggest benefit of MCPTT service is that it replicates the PTT functionality of traditional LMR systems on devices that are smaller, lighter and much less expensive than portable radios traditionally carried by first responders. Also examined are important factors to consider when deciding whether to implement the technology.

On-Demand Webinar: Making the Case for 5G in Public Safety Communications

Fifth-generation (5G) wireless communications has the ability to accommodate the fast-growing demand for bandwidth required for the delivery of multimedia content, including video, images and social media, to PSAPs. During this webinar, MCP subject-matter experts discusses how 5G can help improve emergency response and what it means for communities and public safety organizations alike.

Discussion topics during this session include:

• Why 5G is critical to evolving emergency response
• The types of platforms and data 5G will support
• How implementation of 5G will impact municipalities
• Steps you can take to prepare your public safety organization

On-demand webinar length: 45 minutes 

Infographic: The Possibilities of a Converged FirstNet and NG911 Public Safety System

See the possibilities of a converged FirstNet and NG911 public safety system with this infographic from Mission Critical Partners.

911 Call-Handling System Procurement and Implementation Support in San Francisco

In Summary:

• The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management sought a robust, modern call-handling solution and needed guidance defining requirements, as well as during the procurement and implementation process.

• In 2017, they hired Mission Critical Partners to help them build requirements, and to support the agency's implementation efforts.

• The new call-handling solution has played a role helping 911 call-answering times improve.

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"MCP's guidance during the procurement stage was invaluable. Their familiarity working with 911 call-handling system vendors and their knowledge of the newest technology and vendors available played an essential role helping us feel more comfortable with the requirements-gathering and RFP process."

Jun Chen, PMO Manager, City and County of San Francisco

Overview and Agency Challenge

The city of San Franscisco Department of Emergency Management (DEM) sought a robust, modern call-handling system that would support its 42 call-taking positions. A second requirement was a path to a National Emergency Number Association (NENA) i3-compliant system and meeting public safety standards for performance and reliability. They looked for a partner that could provide guidance defining requirements, as well as during the procurement and implementation process.

MCP Helps the Imperial Valley Pursue PSAP Regionalization

In Summary:

• Imperial County, CA is served by four public safety answering points (PSAPs) that provide call-taking and dispatching services for the Imperial Valley.
• In 2017, they hired Mission Critical Partners to help them determine if physical regionalization made sense.
• MCP provided a comprehensive feasibility study that made a recommendation to transition its four PSAPs into two mutually supporting PSAPs.

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"With MCP's help, we've identified the issues and challenges that stand between us and a successful regionalization effort. Now that we know it could work for us, we need to determine how to make it a reality and execute on that plan."

Mark Schmidt, Emergency Communications Project Coordinator, Imperial County Communication Authority, Imperial County, California

Overview and Agency Challenge

Imperial Valley, California, is served by four public safety answering points (PSAPs) that provide call-taking and dispatching services for the Imperial Valley. The Imperial Valley Communications Authority (IVECA), in conjunction with the San Diego County Regional Communications System , provides public safety voice and data communications to more than 200 local, state and federal agencies in San Diego and Imperial counties.

The County’s PSAPs were already sharing technology resources, but wanted to figure out if sharing services also made sense in terms of staffing and maintenance costs.

Next Generation 911: A New World for PSAP Network Maintenance

 In Summary:

• Next Generation 911 will improve emergency response dramatically, but will bring challenges that require new approaches and skill sets.

• Network and systems management will become considerably more complicated after an NG911 system has been implemented.

• Many PSAPs lack the IT expertise to adequately monitor and protect and NG911 system.

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On-Demand Webinar: FirstNet and NG911 Convergence: The New Public Safety Communications Platform

Over the next 5-10 years, FirstNet will deploy the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN). As a parallel process, emergency services IP networks will be built to provide interconnectivity between PSAPs to allow for deployment and utilization of Next Generation 911 (NG911) technologies by PSAPs across the nation. In this session, MCP examines the major issues involved with the transition to this new platform for public safety communications and provide a glimpse into what the emergency communications environment could look like in the next 10-20 years.