The Mission-Critical Resource Center

 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.

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.

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.

In Summary:

• Emergency communications centers are not much different from what they were when they first appeared on the scene a half century ago.

• PSAPs need to jettison the legacy analog call-handling equipment that has existed for the last 50 years, and replace it with new equipment capable of processing calls and data that originates from digital devices.

• The evolution of the emergency communications ecosystem will result in PSAPs and telecommunicators that will look and behave very differently than they do today. 

The public safety sector and emergency communications has reached an inflection point. Technology has evolved dramatically, and the needs and expectations of the public served by PSAPs have evolved as well. Data has overtaken voice in terms of importance. As a result, PSAPs need systems that are capable of leveraging the enormous amount of data is that already available, yet inaccessible today. Legacy call-handling equipment equipment that has existed for the last 50 years needs to be replaced with new equipment capable of processing calls and data originating from digital, Internet-Protocol (IP)-based devices.

In Summary:

• Staffing struggles have plagued public safety communications for years, and the situation is worsening because of favorable economic conditions that bring an abundance of less-stressful, better paying jobs.

• Workforce optimization is the concept of taking a more holistic approach to staffing that places equal emphasis on recruitment, hiring, training, and retention.

• The profile of the ideal telecommunicator is evolving. The next generation telecommunicator will process different skills than they do today.

Several years ago, the National 911 Program released the Recommended Minimum Training Guidelines for the 911 Telecommunicator. The document was intended to ensure that a more consistent standard of care was provided by 911 call-takers and dispatchers to callers requesting emergency services, regardless of their location at the time of the call. A corollary benefit of the guidelines is that they might help reduce the amount of personnel churn that emergency communications centers (ECCs) experience.

In Summary: 

• Staffing and hiring struggles have plagued public safety agencies for years and the situation is worsening

• High personnel churn and attrition rates contribute to the shortage

• Workforce optimization is the right approach for 911 officials looking to resolving 911 staffing struggles instead of simply focusing on recruitment

Staffing 911 centers has become a huge concern in the public safety communications community. In this report, we explore the concept of workforce optimization, of which training is one of four key pillars, with recruitment, hiring and retention being the others.