The Mission-Critical Resource Center

On-Demand Webinar: Moving to NIBRS: Preparing Your Agency for Compliance and Options to Consider

In January 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will stop collecting Uniform Crime Report (UCR) summary data and only collect data through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). There are many questions, both technical and operational, about how agencies can meet the compliance deadline, especially when it comes to the challenges of report validation, personnel training and developing new, effective workflows.

During this session, Mission Critical Partners discusses the following:

Episode 3: How 911 Can Thrive During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic; Protecting Future 911 Resilience

MCP's informational podcast series features the firm’s subject-matter experts and other industry leaders exploring a wide range of timely topics pertaining to mission-critical communications.

The MCP Podcast Network, created by Mission Critical Partners, recently launched a three-part series entitled, “How the 911 Community Can Thrive During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic.” This episode explores how an emergency communications center (ECC) leader's mindset and skillsets can protect future 911 resilience.

An edited transcript is available below.

Panelists include:

• Heather McGaffin, an MCP project manager. Prior to joining MCP, McGaffin was assistant chief of communications for Calvert County, Maryland, Department of Public Safety. 
• Jim Marshall, cofounder and director of the 911 Training Institute. Marshall is co-editor of The Resilient 9-1-1 Professional: A Comprehensive Guide to Surviving & Thriving Together in the 9-1-1 Center. 
• The episode is moderated by Glenn Bischoff, MCP content specialist and former editor of Urgent Communications and Fire Chief magazines.

The NIBRS Deadline Is Fast Approaching—Here's What You Should Be Doing

In Summary:

• Law-enforcement agencies nationwide are grappling with their migrations to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), an initiative to intended to improve the accuracy, timeliness and transparency of the nation's crime statistics, which could be used to help identify crime patterns and trends, and ultimately, prevent crime.
• Numerous challenges stand in the way of NIBRS compliance, and some agencies are at risk of not meeting the January 2021 deadline.
• This whitepaper identifies the benefits of the migration and explores tactics that could help them meet the deadline.

NIBRS is expected to foster greater consistency in the data that is being collected for each incident that occurs because it has defined standard ways of describing an incidentand collecting the data, so that apples-to-apples comparisons can be made at the national level. There are several challenges that exist for law enforcement agencies, including the need to retool their RMS to comply with the new rules that have been established, cost, and organizational change. This whitepaper discusses the following:

MCP Helps Region 13 Better Understand Its GIS Environment

In Summary:

• GIS-generated geospatial data will be used in the NG911 environment to ensure that emergency calls are routed to the appropriate emergency communications center (ECC) to dispatch the appropriate emergency response
• Today, Region 13 Task Force, a collaborative effort of 14 counties in southwestern Pennsylvania, plus the city of Pittsburgh, manages a emergency services Internet Protocol (IP) network (ESInet). To continue their efforts towards a regionwide approach, the task force wanted the ability to share data between the counties
• Having the ability to access data regionally will go a long way toward eliminating gaps and overlaps along jurisdictional boundaries that negatively impact the abilty to dispatch the appropriate response to an emergency incident, amongst other benefits

Why Body-Worn Cameras Should Be on the Radar Screen of Every Law Enforcement Agency

In Summary: 

• A concept that is gaining considerable traction in the law-enforcement community today is that of the "connected officer," which has at its core a plethora of mission-critical technology
• Citizens are demanding more in-depth investigations into how field personnel interact with the public and apply force.
• According to a study that involved officers on all shifts being issued body-worn cameras, 60 percent fewer incidents and 88 percent fewer citizen complaints about officer misconduct were reported
• This whitepaper provides a close examination of the body-worn camera implementation process, including the necessary steps for a successful deployment of this technology

The body-worn camera has become a critical tool for law-enforcement agencies. This whitepaper discusses the following:

MCP Gives Lower Rio Grande Development Council Peace of Mind About Its Communications Network

In Summary:

• The Lower Rio Grande Development Council, which is a voluntary association of local governments formed under Texas law as one of the state's 24 regional councils of governments (COGs), serves the region's counties by delivering 911 emergency calls to 18 emergency communications centers (ECCs).
• They operate a Internet Protocol (IP)-based network is generally more vulnerable to outages compared to legacy networks and systems.
• The Council turned to Mission Critical Partners in 2019 to help diminish the risk of network/system failures and keep the 911 network and its supporting systems operating optimally by providing network management and monitoring services.

Background: 

MCP Helps Carroll County Move Closer to NG911 by Supporting Its GIS Efforts

In Summary:

• A county in Maryland needed to develop a plan to create and maintain GIS data and continue the migration to Next Generation 911 after a key GIS professional retired.
• GIS plays an essential role in the transition from legacy 911 service to NG911 service, which will rely on GIS-generated geospatial data to locate callers, route calls correctly, and dispatch the appropriate emegency response.
• The county partnered with Mission Critical Partners to assume the duties of the PSAP's departed GIS professional and provide a Model for Advancing Public Safety (MAPS) assessment that would act as a roadmap for implementing NG911 service within its jurisdiction.

Panel Discussion: Developing, Operationalizing, and Maintaining Your NG911 Strategic Plan

In this on-demand session from Mission Critical Partners' virtual Conference for Advancing Public Safety, panelists the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board and the State of Arizona, join MCP's Jackie Mines and Molly Falls to discuss the critical elements of your next generation 911 (NG911) strategic plan and the best practices for bringing your plan to life. 

Vendor Roundtable: How Does the FCC’s 6 GHz Ruling Impact Public Safety Communications?

In this on-demand webinar from Mission Critical Partners' virtual Conference for Advancing Public Safety hosted in June, hear from members of the microwave vendor community as they share their thoughts on the future of public safety microwave systems in light of the FCC’s recent 6 GHz ruling.

Use the form below to download the on-demand webinar.

Current and Future State of Cybersecurity in Public Safety Panel Discussion

In this on-demand webinar from Mission Critical Partners' virtual Conference for Advancing Public Safety hosted in June, hear from government leaders who have lived through an attack, as well as from public safety agency leaders who are taking aggressive steps to prevent attacks during an engaging panel discussion moderated by Glenn Bischoff.

Use the form below to download the on-demand webinar.

Infographic: What's Next? Conducting an Incident Response Review

As states begin to reopen and communities slowly return to normalcy, organizations, including mission-critical agencies, must evaluate their responses to the COVID-19 public-health crisis and leverage their experiences to prepare for future crises. What do you need to know about conducting an incident response review?

White Paper: Pandemic Continuity-of-Operations Plans

Continuity-of-operations plans (COOP) represent significant time and resource investments, but also are essential to maintaining the ability of an organization to continue to deliver mission-critical services during, and immediately following, a crisis.