The Mission-Critical Resource Center

Infographic: You've Been Hacked

Are you ready to respond to a cyberattack?  They are likely to happen and your response plan will have direct bearing on your ability to mitigate such attacks, and on your cybersecurity posture as a whole.

Infographic: Cloud Factors to Consider

Benefits gained from a cloud-based solution are considerable compared with traditional implementations methods. Not only are more state and federal public safety agencies moving the cloud, but cloud-based solutions also are being leveraged by mission-critical entities such as the

Infographic: Introduction to Cloud Deployments for Public Safety and Justice Agencies

Cloud-based solutions offer some impressive benefits. Numerous innovations are being offered to enhance public safety and justice agency operations. Some agencies, however, may feel hesitant to adopt these due to a lack of familiarity. In this infographic, we introduce the varying types of cloud environments available today and explore the considerations associated with model.

What’s Wrong With Emergency Medical Services Today—and How To Fix It

In Summary

• Emergency medical service has come a long way since their inception, but numerous significant challenges still exist for the agencies that provide such services and their personnel. This whitepaper explores those challenges and presents solutions for mitigating them.
• Challenges consist of staffing, funding and billing, response and patient care
• The solutions: apply for grants, implement non-traditional staffing models, stronger recruiting, invest in billing-friendly technology and establish nurse triage or mental health capabilities

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Background

Prior to the late 1960s, emergency medical service (EMS) in the United States didn’t exist—at least not in the manner that it is provided today. Ambulances were used to transport patients to hospitals or other healthcare facilities—and not much else. In 1960, only six states had standard education programs for rescue personnel—paramedics and emergency medical technicians didn’t come into being until the early 1970s—and only four states regulated ambulance-design specifications. By 1965, the vast majority of emergency medical services from coast to coast largely were unregulated.

Whitepaper: ESInet Deployment: Unlocking the Power of the ESInet

In Summary: 

• This whitepaper examines the advantages and the disadvantages of three approaches to provisioning an emergency services Internet protocol network—which not only provides the foundation of a Next Generation 911 system, but also performs other important functions.
• Three ways exist to implement an ESInet: contract with a commercial entity or self-provision. A third model is a hybrid ESInet model.
• The path an agency uses can take two very different tasks, and each has its unique advantages and disadvantages. The path an agency chooses will depend heavily on its financial and IT resources, whether it can be coalesce regional support, and the level of commitment it can and is willing to lend to the project.

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Background 

Next Generation 911 (NG911) systems represent a quantum leap forward for the public-safety community and the citizens that it serves. Internet Protocol (IP)-based and broadband-enabled, such systems are capable of considerably more than legacy 911 systems—which is why many emergency communications centers (ECCs) from coast to coast are clamoring to implement them.

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.

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Background: 

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.

The Prescription for Thwarting Public Safety Cyberattacks

In Summary:

• The FBI advises that it is no longer a question of if, but rather when, any individual public safety communications network is going to be attacked.
• There is a lot that public safety agencies can do on their own to increase the difficulty of hacking their networks and lessening the effects of cyberattacks.
• This whitepaper outlines a six-step treatment regimen, and discusses continuity-of-operations and disaster recovery.

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A lot can go wrong with public safety communications networks from a cybersecurity perspective. 

A Blueprint to Help Public Safety Organizations Understand Their Environments

 In Summary:

• For public safety officials, the task of monitoring and assessing the myriad technological and operational factors that determine the center's success or failure is a big, complicated and time-consuming job.

• Leaders need help understanding where their centers stand regarding factors such as cybersecurity, IT and networks, next generation 911 (NG911), staffing, and more.

• MCP's Model for Advancing Public Safety^SM, also known as MAPS^SM, is a proprietary assessment program that helps assess a program against standards, best practices, and the collective knowledge of MCP's 115+ specialized public safety professionals.

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On-Demand Webinar: Mission-Critical Vendor Management 101

The average mission-critical agency oversees more than 30 different vendors responsible for various network systems and operations. Agencies are more dependent on vendors than ever before and, as result, their spend and risk continues to increase and their satisfaction continues to decrease. During this webinar, we discuss steps that can be taken to improve vendor performance and drive more value from your agency's vendor agreements.

Discussion topics include:

Infographic: Network Management: 10 Facts Every PSAP Should Know

Most public safety organizations are unaware of every network, system, component and device used by their agency, and most do not maintain up-to-date inventories of their network and system infrastructure. MCP can maintain applications and keep networks secure, stable and running efficiently.

How to Navigate the Complexities of Mission-Critical Vendor Management

In Summary:

• Today's average public safety agency has more than 30 vendor support agreements to manage.

• Vendor support agreements have become more difficult to understand given their size and complexity.

• Public safety organizations are looking for strategies to help navigate the complexities associated with today's increasingly complicated vendor environment.

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It used to be much easier for public safety agencies to manage their vendors compared to a decade ago. At that time they were simple and easy to understand and they generally only involved the radio, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and 911 call-handling system providers.