Whitepaper: Exploring the Many Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities of Land Mobile Radio Systems

In the wake of high-profile cyberattacks on public-safety agencies, it's crucial to understand the vulnerabilities of land mobile radio (LMR) systems. Our whitepaper explores these risks and offers actionable strategies to

Whitepaper: Organizational Change Management in the Public Sector

Public-sector leaders face many challenges in transforming their organizations, including limited resources. MCP has developed an approach to organizational change management that focuses on the people-oriented aspects of meaningful and sustainable

Catch the Funding Wave — Here’s How to Leverage Federal Broadband Infrastructure Grants

Bridging the digital divide, i.e., bringing broadband communications capabilities to Americans living in unserved/underserved areas of the country—typically in rural outposts—has been a top priority of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for many years.

Whitepaper: Workforce Complications and Ways to Improve

Public safety officials today are faced with the very real nationwide staffing shortage, and dated legacy equipment and technology. Recognizing this, Mission Critical Partners (MCP) has developed a strategy to update and streamline a dated and strenuous approach for recruiting and retention, where the focus should

Whitepaper: Cybersecurity for Public Safety and Justice

Tactics that the courts can employ to guard against cyber attacks, as well as best practices for mitigating them when they occur.

Cyberattackers constantly are on the lookout for ways to infiltrate an organization’s networks, systems, and even devices. Once inside, they will

Whitepaper: Proactively Managing Risks Using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework

The risks that come with cybersecurity are often overwhelming for many organizations, and building a robust mitigation program is a complex undertaking.

There are a number of cybersecurity standards and frameworks available that provide business leaders and IT professionals with a set of measures, best practices, and tactics to foster effective cyber

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.

How Licensees Can Protect Themselves When Unlicensed Users Enter the 6 GHz Band

In Summary: 

• Last year, the Federal Communications Commission issued an order that enables unlicensed devices to share 1,200 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum in the 6 gigahertz (GHz) band. This whitepaper explores the potential impacts on public safety agencies and strategies for mitigating them.
• “Interference is going to happen,” says Mark Gibson, director of business development and regulatory policy for Comsearch. “The question is, what is going to be done about it?”
• 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

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.

The Impact of Records Management System Technology Trends on Law Enforcement Agencies

In Summary:

• Records management systems (RMS) are the backbone of recordkeeping for law enforcement agencies
• They enable agencies to capture, store, retrieve, analyze, and leverage data and information to support operations from incident and crime data to personnel files and information
• RMS technology has evolved substantially over the last several years
• To meet the demands of law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve, RMS providers have implemented myriad new capabilities

The Lean ECC: A Way to Make ECCs Better at What They Do

In Summary:

• The emergency communications landscape is changing rapidly and emergency communications centers (ECCs) have adapted the way that they handle 911 calls and support emergency responders
• Today, technology and science play a much larger role in the way ECCs operate — resulting in new approaches that are not only effective, but repeatable and scalable
• One such approach, known as the lean ECC, focuses on removing extraneous steps in a center's workflows to help meet national standards 
• This does not mean reducing staff — rather, this approach leverages an ECCs existing resources more efficiently to enhance the quantity and quality of what is being accomplished

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.

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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: