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Technology helps Oklahoma dispatchers track 911 hang-up calls: January 17, 2011 Oklahoma City, OK - Three days before Christmas, Oklahoma City police were dispatched to an apartment on S Douglas Avenue after a disconnected 911 call. They found a man whose hands were covered in blood, kneeling beside a battered and bloody woman who had been stabbed at least once. The man told police "you need to help her." More blood was found on the floors of the apartment. When police later interviewed the woman in her hospital bed, she told them the man had beaten her and choked her until she passed out. He also tried to keep her from calling for help, the woman told police, by yanking the phone...
Town eyes emergency communication system: January 19, 2011
West Newbury, MA - Selectman are considering investing in an emergency communication system to allow town officials to rapidly contact the community if necessary. Police Chief Lisa Holmes and fire Chief Raymond "Rock" Dower a recommending a program known as Code Red, developed by Emergency Communication Network Inc. In operation across the country since 1998, the Web-based service would allow officials to issue voice, e-mail, or text messages to all enrolled residents within minutes. It's being used locally in Amesbury. Resident Kevin Bowe, who has experience with the system where he works, said in the case of a true emergency...
E-911 mapping under way in Danville: January 19, 2011
Danville, NH - State workers are visiting local neighborhoods this week to help make sure emergency personnel know where to go if trouble strikes. The New Hampshire Bureau of Emergency Communications is working with local officials to update a map of the town for the Enhanced 911 emergency response system. That means a team of two state employees will travel throughout town for at least a few weeks, stopping off at each property to record the geographic coordinates. They began collecting their data Thursday. The coordinates will later be used for a townwide map that shows every address in Danville, according to Wanda Bowers, spokeswoman...
Summers Commission plans to revamp emergency services: January 19, 2011
Beckley, WV - The Summers County Commission met and continued an ongoing conversation regarding county-owned, emergency vehicles. Commission President Jerry Berry said they would require county-owned, emergency vehicles to be well-marked in accordance with new rules set down by the Internal Revenue Service. The rule change, he said, occurred after a 2010 state study on personal use of county-owned vehicles. "We want and need the emergency personnel to to be able to dispatch from where they are, clearly marked, without running home to change vehicles," he said. Steve Lipscomb, director of the office of emergency management, shared some of his department's future plans for upgrading the county's 911 core communication system. The county's...
Lawmakers Discuss Restricting 911 Recordings: January 20, 2011
Bismarck, ND - You may not realize that anyone can request the audio recording of a 911 call. But some lawmakers want to change that and make it more difficult for recordings to get in the hands of the public, except for law enforcement. They're offering a bill they say strikes the right balance between public access and protecting the privacy of victims. Others say this bill will unjustly keep the public in the dark. Sponsors of a bill to restrict access to 911audio recordings say victims shouldn't have to relive their experiences over and over again. "We aren't allowed to grab people's medical records, and yet we're allowed to grab their entire life in a brief moment of time and make them listen to it over and over...
Regional 911 dispatch center could be shared: January 22, 2011
Gardner, MA - A snowstorm delayed plans to create a regional 911 dispatch center, but a meeting postponed Tuesday has been rescheduled for Jan. 31. Mayor Mark P. Hawke said he and other Gardner officials will meet with officials from Winchendon and Athol to begin planning what he hopes will become a regional E911 dispatch center to serve the city, the two towns and other communities that want to participate. "We're looking to create a regional 911 service and possibly share a lockup with Winchendon," the mayor said. Mr. Hawke said it is the perfect time for the city to consider creating the center. It is looking at building a new police station, and could build...
Emergency notification system gets an upgrade in Hamilton: January 22, 2010
Hamilton, NJ - The township has upgraded its emergency notification system, allowing residents to supply cell phone numbers, work numbers and e-mail addresses so they can be contacted in case of an emergency. The old system was outdated, and could only reach land lines for homes and businesses in case of an emergency such as the water-quality issues that plagued the area after problems at the Trenton Water Works filtration plant in October. Contacting Hamilton's 30,000 residences and business locations took hours, according to Michael Angarone, the township's director of technology and economic development, and the township was billed for each call...
Officials lobby for 911 changes: January 23, 2011
Durham, NC - City police and 911 center officials want the state to give them more authority to withhold or alter the publicly released recordings of emergency calls to help preserve the anonymity of people who call in to report crimes. They've already secured backing for the idea from the Durham Crime Cabinet, and are hoping to enlist lobbying support from two statewide interest groups, the N.C. League of Municipalities and the N.C. Association of County Commissioners. The request comes after a television broadcast of a 911 call prompted a potential witness in one recent case to end cooperation with investigators, Deputy Police Chief for Operations...
Utica close to 911 consolidation with Oneida County: January 23, 2011
Utica, NY - "911, what's your emergency? Please hold while we transfer you." Callers in Utica who need help from emergency responders were told more than 17,000 times in 2010 to wait while county dispatchers transferred their cell-phone calls to the city's dispatch center. After more than a decade of dealing and debating, officials on both sides of the talks believe consolidating the city and county's dispatch centers will happen this year. Consolidation will create a uniform procedure for dispatchers eliminating wait times while callers are transferred from one entity's dispatch center to the next. "That's 17,000 chances to make a mistake," said Kevin...
Dyer County ready to switch over to new 911 system: January 26, 2011
Dyersburg, TN - Emergency Operations Director Mark Grant announced on Tuesday the Dyer County 911 system is almost ready to switch over to the new Next-Gen 911 system. "They are doing the final installs now," said Grant. The system will be up and running for the Emergency Operations Center, Dyer County dispatch and Newbern dispatch. "With any switchover we expect about a week learning curve and bugs that will have to be worked out with the new equipment," said Grant. "We are going to try to keep the old equipment up and running for about two to three days in case we have some major issues and have to go back to it." Integrated Communications is installing the system and was awarded the contract last year after submitting...
Holland begins evaluating future of its emergency services: January 26, 2011
Holland, MI - When a person in the city of Holland requires medical attention in the future, it could come from different personnel. It might or might not be an EMT. It might be a firefighter driving an ambulance to the scene. It could be a police officer. City officials have decided to study the options when it comes to Emergency Medical Services. "This is going to be a major, major decision and the next step of what we do in this public safety area," City Manager Soren Wolff told the Holland City Council during a Wednesday study session. Holland could keep its current arrangement. It could also upgrade EMS services and provide ambulance service, work with the existing ambulance...
Missouri public safety personnel unite for 9-1-1 Day at the Capitol: January 28, 2011
Kansas City, MO - More than 70 public safety personnel from across the state met with Missouri legislators on Tuesday for 9-1-1 Day at the Capitol. This event was a collaborative effort by the Missouri National Emergency Number Association (MONENA), the Missouri Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (MOAPCO) and the Missouri 9-1-1 Directors Association to unite 9-1-1 professionals from across the state to speak with one voice in Jefferson City. Public safety personnel from the MARC region spoke with legislators about important issues related to 9-1-1. Missouri's emergency call centers, also known as...
It's never too early to learn '911': January 28, 2011
Carson City, NV - When a 911 call comes in to the Douglas County Communications Center, the dispatcher who answers must be ready to respond to whomever is on the other end of the line. On Jan. 11, it was 3-year-old Gracie Goss who called to report an emergency for her mother, Catherine Goss. Dispatcher Tammy Adamson answered the call and was able to elicit information from the little girl which aided in dispatching rescue personnel. "It was the last call of the day," Adamson said. "You never know what the next call is going to be. You have to be ready." The story of Gracie illustrates two points for 911 manager Ron Sagen: The importance of education and teamwork. "I am confident anyone on our staff would have done...
Palo Alto dispatch center receives 566 phantom 911 calls in five hours: January 28, 2011
Palo Alto, CA - The unusual calls to the Palo Alto emergency communications center started two weeks ago Thursday. Around 8:30 p.m., a dispatcher picked up the line to find no one on the other end. Twenty seconds later, the center fielded another phantom 911 call. It was just the beginning. The pattern repeated over the next five hours -- between Jan. 13 and 14 -- with the dispatch center receiving a total of 566 calls from an unsubscribed number, Charles Cullen, a technical services director of the Palo Alto Police Department, told The Daily News in an interview Thursday. "It's a fairly high volume of calls during what we call swing shift, and usually the calls during that time period are more urgent, I would say, overall," Cullen said. Four dispatchers...
Keizer boy, 3, makes lifesaving call: January 29, 2011
Keizer, OR - AJ Hayes, 3, was munching on a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats on Friday morning while sitting at the kitchen table in his parents' Keizer house. A few feet away, his dad, Aaron Hayes picked up a long rectangular piece of wood and a chisel from the kitchen counter. It was homework from his first woodcarving class Thursday, Hayes said. Hayes held the light-grain wood in his left hand and the chisel in his right and started to work. In an instant, the blade cut through the wood and plunged into Hayes' left wrist, spilling blood everywhere, Hayes said. AJ's dad told him to call 911. "It wasn't scary because I was brave," AJ said later Friday, sticking his tongue out for media cameras during an interview. AJ, who has blond hair big blue eyes and light-up...
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