Home Legislation Makes Telecommunicator Training Available in Arkansas
Natasha Yetman on March 24, 2011
Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock
“9-1-1 dispatchers are the first link from citizens to authorities to report emergencies,” says Gary “Bud” Gray, RPL, deputy coordinator and operations manager for the city of North Little Rock’s Emergency Services, in a release from the APCO Arkansas Chapter. “We simply want to have training available for the dispatchers so when an event is reported, the dispatcher has the knowledge to properly handle the incident.”
On Wednesday, March 23, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe signed a bill into law that makes minimum training available for public safety telecommunicators across the state. The bill, HB 1741 — now Act 640 — which was filed on Feb. 28, passed through the state House and Senate with no opposition.
The training will be facilitated by the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy (ALETA) and will not be mandatory. Although the curriculum has yet to be established, it will be based on APCO International’s Minimum Training Standards for Telecommunicators and Project 33 (P33) standards. According to Gray, the course will have a train-the-trainer structure, allowing individuals who complete the course to take their knowledge back to their PSAP to share it with their colleagues.
Key players in getting the bill introduced and lobbying for the bill include Gray; Shannon McCuin, RPL, dispatch manager for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office; and Tammie Shipp, 9-1-1 administrator for Conway County 9-1-1. Supporters of the legislation include the Association of Arkansas Counties, the Municipal League, Fire Chief’s Association and the Sheriff’s Association.
The Process & Compromise
This bill became state law in six weeks, but the process really began two years ago as part of a course project. According to APCO Arkansas President Matt Garrity, “Bud and Shannon had [this legislation] as a project for their RPL class. Now they can officially graduate — even though they graduated last year. It’s a credit to them because they are the ones that made this happen.”
The work McCuin and Gray did in their RPL class (the APCO Institute’s Leadership Certificate Program — Registered Public-Safety Leader) served as the foundation for the final legislation.
Their resolve was reinforced and felt throughout the Arkansas public safety communications community in spring 2010. At the 2010 Arkansas state conference, Nate and Mark Lee from the Denise Amber Lee Foundation, which lobbied for the legislation passed in Florida last year, were keynote speakers at the banquet. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” says Garrity. “That’s what really got us fired up about this. Bud talked to them, and they are proud that we got something done.”
“When we started working on this in the fall, we found that everyone agreed that we needed some kind of effective training,” says McCuin. “We found universal support from everybody in the 9-1-1 community. There were only a couple of questions: what level of training and who would pay for it.”
Working with the Association of Arkansas Counties, county judges and representatives from police, sheriff, fire and EMS, the bill’s first draft was being fine-tuned by late 2010. The Denise Amber Lee Foundation also provided the group with advice throughout the process. In January 2011, an ad hoc committee of stakeholders was formed to resolve final issues.
To fund the training, a percentage of the 9-1-1 fees currently collected from wireless phone bills was reallocated to ALETA. But ALETA receives its funding through different channels than the 9-1-1 fee is collected, which meant a separate Senate appropriations bill to be filed to place this money in a special fund for ALETA was necessary.
Although the 9-1-1 officials working on the bill initially wanted mandatory training, it was made clear that a mandate would kill the bill and its support. “We did have to make compromises,” says McCuin. “With the committee, we were able to discuss issues they had and we had. We actually came out with a very good bill that meets everyone’s needs.”
McCuin continues, “They weren’t concerned about the funding as much as what type of training, something that would not be tailored to their needs. They had read Project 33 standards. [The training structure is] what your agency does. We decided to do some tiers to accommodate rural dispatch centers. That way, the training would reflect on what your agency did, not just a catchall for everybody. P33 does that as well.”
Garrity says, “We would have liked to have for it to be mandatory. But when you look back at ALETA, their training was available and recommended when they first started and now it’s mandatory. We are hoping to take that step later — as we get the curriculum in and people start seeing the value of this training. This is just minimum training and should help the smaller PSAPs [that] don’t get anything”
After the bill was filed on Feb. 28, Gray, McCuin and Shipp spent six weeks in Little Rock, meeting with state senators and representatives and gaining support for the legislation.
Next Steps
The work is not over yet. According to McCuin, the ad hoc committee will convene to determine the details of the curriculum. They intend to forward the training to APCO International, to ensure it complies with Project 33 standards. It will then go to the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training, which will credential the final training, to approve and certify the curriculum. ALETA will hire someone to teach the course and will provide regional training sites across Arkansas.
McCuin is determined not to lose her momentum. “In two years, when the legislative session convenes again, we might be able to go to them and say, ‘We’ve spent two years perfecting this program. Here’s where we want to go next.’ We need to have goals in mind.”
“I have been getting e-mails from dispatchers and people I don’t know to say ‘thank you,’” says McCuin. “It’s kind of humbling. We did this for the citizens of the state. Our goal is to be proactive instead of reactive, like they were in Florida. That is another important piece of this — even though we were behind, we were trying to be proactive before something bad happens.”
link:
http://psc.apcointl.org/2011/03/24/legislation-makes-telecommunicator-training-available-in-arkansas/
About the Author
Natasha Yetman is associate editor of APCO International’s Public Safety Communications magazine. Contact her via e-mail at yetmann@apcointl.org
Showing posts with label APCO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label APCO. Show all posts
Friday, March 25, 2011
Friday, October 1, 2010
APCO president: Training certification programs are a must
URGENT COMMUNICATIONS
Sep 14, 2010 6:01 PM
By Glenn Bischoff
A couple of weeks ago, Urgent Communications spoke with Dick Mirgon about his year as president of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials. This week we catch up with Bill Carrow, the communications section chief for the Delaware State Police, who last month began his term as APCO’s president. Carrow spoke extensively about one of his pet projects — training certification for 911 telecommunicators — and the progress that has been made to date.
Statewide training certification is sorely lacking nationwide. What is APCO doing about it?
The Professional Human Resources Taskforce (ProCHRT) was unveiled during National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week in 2009. The first step was to establish some very specific goals, first and foremost, to study what each state is doing, or what they’re mandating, in the way of training certification for telecommunicators. We knew that this was a nationwide problem. We knew that we had bits and pieces of training going on, some more elaborate than others — and that’s no way to run an airline, much less a public-safety answering point. You see in the media all the time stories about 911 calls that went awry.
The Denise Amber Lee tragedy has become the poster child for such events, has it not?
That’s what I was leading up to. You see these events on a weekly basis, but the Denise Amber Lee Foundation really hit home. We started studying the Denise Amber Lee case to understand what had happened. Two years prior to that event happening, APCO’s Florida chapter had been pushing for training certification across the state, but wasn’t successful.
What were the hurdles?
The hurdles basically were funding, number one, and, number two, getting the various entities down there — the sheriffs, the police and fire — to fully understand that this not only should be a requirement, but that it also is a necessity.
What has been accomplished so far regarding ProCHRT?
Where we really started gaining some ground is when we realized just how few states have any kind of mandated training. When you consider that the person who runs a tanning booth is required to have more training than our telecommunicators who are handling life-and-death decisions every day, that’s wrong. We now have an interim report that provides a report card for the country up to this point. It delineates the training that is going on state by state, and lists any agencies that are Project 33-compliant within a given state. There are 17 of those right now.
After reviewing this report card, what grade would you give in terms of the level of training certification across the country?
It would be a grade of “F.” There’s a lot of room for improvement.
What needs to be done? What’s the first step?
Basically, we wanted to gather information via ProCHRT that would let us create a tool kit that our members could use to go back to their home states and push for training certification. We never had this kind of information before. The next step is to use the success we’ve had in the state of Florida as a starting point for success in other states. Arkansas is one of those states — it has proposed legislation that was based on what they saw in Florida. I think this is going to be a groundswell. It’s not insurmountable anymore.
What else would you like to see accomplished in the coming year?
Right along those lines is promoting our Project 33, which has just been revised for 2010. It has been beefed up by adding the fire and EMS pieces to the dispatch function and by increasing the minimum requirements for all positions. My agency just went through it. That was one of the goals I set for myself — I wanted my agency not only Project 33–compliant, but also fully accredited.
Why was that so important to you?
When you do those things, you’re showing people that you’re trying to meet the best-of-the-best standards. So, what we want to do is promote that to every chapter, to show the importance of getting individual training programs P33-compliant.
Ed: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law in June a bill that requires 911 telecommunicators in the state to become certified and compile 232 hours of training before handling an emergency call.
http://urgentcomm.com/policy_and_law/news/carrow-apco-QandA-20100914/
Sep 14, 2010 6:01 PM
By Glenn Bischoff
A couple of weeks ago, Urgent Communications spoke with Dick Mirgon about his year as president of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials. This week we catch up with Bill Carrow, the communications section chief for the Delaware State Police, who last month began his term as APCO’s president. Carrow spoke extensively about one of his pet projects — training certification for 911 telecommunicators — and the progress that has been made to date.
Statewide training certification is sorely lacking nationwide. What is APCO doing about it?
The Professional Human Resources Taskforce (ProCHRT) was unveiled during National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week in 2009. The first step was to establish some very specific goals, first and foremost, to study what each state is doing, or what they’re mandating, in the way of training certification for telecommunicators. We knew that this was a nationwide problem. We knew that we had bits and pieces of training going on, some more elaborate than others — and that’s no way to run an airline, much less a public-safety answering point. You see in the media all the time stories about 911 calls that went awry.
The Denise Amber Lee tragedy has become the poster child for such events, has it not?
That’s what I was leading up to. You see these events on a weekly basis, but the Denise Amber Lee Foundation really hit home. We started studying the Denise Amber Lee case to understand what had happened. Two years prior to that event happening, APCO’s Florida chapter had been pushing for training certification across the state, but wasn’t successful.
What were the hurdles?
The hurdles basically were funding, number one, and, number two, getting the various entities down there — the sheriffs, the police and fire — to fully understand that this not only should be a requirement, but that it also is a necessity.
What has been accomplished so far regarding ProCHRT?
Where we really started gaining some ground is when we realized just how few states have any kind of mandated training. When you consider that the person who runs a tanning booth is required to have more training than our telecommunicators who are handling life-and-death decisions every day, that’s wrong. We now have an interim report that provides a report card for the country up to this point. It delineates the training that is going on state by state, and lists any agencies that are Project 33-compliant within a given state. There are 17 of those right now.
After reviewing this report card, what grade would you give in terms of the level of training certification across the country?
It would be a grade of “F.” There’s a lot of room for improvement.
What needs to be done? What’s the first step?
Basically, we wanted to gather information via ProCHRT that would let us create a tool kit that our members could use to go back to their home states and push for training certification. We never had this kind of information before. The next step is to use the success we’ve had in the state of Florida as a starting point for success in other states. Arkansas is one of those states — it has proposed legislation that was based on what they saw in Florida. I think this is going to be a groundswell. It’s not insurmountable anymore.
What else would you like to see accomplished in the coming year?
Right along those lines is promoting our Project 33, which has just been revised for 2010. It has been beefed up by adding the fire and EMS pieces to the dispatch function and by increasing the minimum requirements for all positions. My agency just went through it. That was one of the goals I set for myself — I wanted my agency not only Project 33–compliant, but also fully accredited.
Why was that so important to you?
When you do those things, you’re showing people that you’re trying to meet the best-of-the-best standards. So, what we want to do is promote that to every chapter, to show the importance of getting individual training programs P33-compliant.
Ed: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law in June a bill that requires 911 telecommunicators in the state to become certified and compile 232 hours of training before handling an emergency call.
http://urgentcomm.com/policy_and_law/news/carrow-apco-QandA-20100914/
Friday, April 30, 2010
from Ugent Communications
911 training legislation is a labor of love
Apr 29, 2010 2:29 PM, By Glenn Bischoff
Would require Florida call-takers and dispatchers to become certified
The state of Florida House of Representatives yesterday unanimously approved a Senate bill that would require newly hired 911 call-takers and dispatchers to compile 232 hours of training before they are allowed to handle an emergency call. The requirement takes effect in October 2012. Personnel hired before then would be required to take a competency exam. Those who fail that exam would be required to undergo the training regimen. The bill also authorizes the use of funds generated by the state’s 911 tax for the training.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ken Roberson, said an investigation revealed that although the majority of 911 calls are handled properly by Florida’s telecommunicators, “hundreds of critical errors that endanger lives” occur every year. He was critical of Florida’s lack of uniform training standards and alleged that some telecommunicators in the state start processing 911 calls within a couple of days of being hired. “This situation is unacceptable and must be rectified,” he said.
The Denise Amber Lee Foundation was a driving force behind the passage of this legislation. The 21-year-old Lee, the mother of two young children, was abducted from her Florida home in January 2008 and murdered. Allegedly, 911 personnel made mistakes on the night of her abduction that hindered search efforts. She was found in a shallow grave two days after her abduction. Her assailant was convicted and received the death penalty.
Mark and Peggy Lee, the in-laws of Denise Amber Lee who are the driving force behind the foundation, said that they were pleased with the bill’s passage and that Gov. Charlie Crist has indicated that he will sign it into law. However, the Lee’s have some concerns. They wonder where the money will be found to conduct the training throughout the state. They say that the state’s 911 fees only cover about two-thirds of the costs associated with operating its public-safety answering points.
They also say that the state is going to have to find a way.
“The call-taker is the first link in the chain, and it’s a pretty important link. If they don’t get it right, you’re not going to get firefighters to fires, EMTs to medical emergencies, or police to an abducted woman who’s in the back of a moving car,” Peggy Lee said. “So, they might have to put off that new CAD system for a year. The best technology in the world is no good if the call-taker isn’t following protocol.”
Compliance is another area of concern. “How do we know that each PSAP is going to comply with the law? We don’t want to see 253 cowboys out there doing this on their own,” Mark Lee said. “We need a stronger state 911 office for oversight.”
The Lees hope that the Florida legislation is but a stepping stone to the foundation’s much bigger goal, which is federal legislation that would standardize training and require certification for 911 telecommunicators nationwide. They said that they have had productive discussions about such a bill with the leaders of the major public-safety communications associations. “There’s a lot more that needs to be done,” Mark Lee said.
Patrick Halley, government affairs director for the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), said that a joint effort with the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials should produce standards that address 911 telecommunicator training and quality assurance, which in turn could provide a framework for the federal legislation that the Lees seek. But he said that such a bill would be a tricky proposition.
“It’s a state-sovereignty issue,” Halley said. “It would be tough for the federal government to tell the states that they have to train, and in a specific way. If anything occurs on the national level, it’s going to have to be creatively done.”
But Halley agrees with the Lees that it needs to be done.“In Illinois, for example, you have to be certified to work in a tanning center or barber shop, but not in a 911 center,” he said. “That has to be resolved. A lot of states do a great job [regarding training], but only a handful of them are required by law to do so.”
The lobbying effort to achieve such legislation has taken a toll on the Lees. Not only have they devoted much time, they also have gone into their own pockets at times. They also have had to endure numerous arrows that have been tossed in their direction. “We’ve been called ‘media whores.’ We’ve been accused of using this as an excuse to take vacations,” Peggy Lee said.
“Believe me, telling this story over and over again hasn’t been fun. We’re spent.”
Despite this, both Mark and Peggy Lee were emphatic that the effort has been worthwhile and that they have plenty of fight still left in them to reach the ultimate goal. The motivation is as simple as it is pure.
“This keeps Denise from dying in vain,” Peggy Lee said. “We’ve often asked the question, ‘Why Denise.’ This is the only thing that we can think of. In doing this, we know that she’s saving lives.”
http://urgentcomm.com/policy_and_law/news/911-training-legislation-20100429/
Apr 29, 2010 2:29 PM, By Glenn Bischoff
Would require Florida call-takers and dispatchers to become certified
The state of Florida House of Representatives yesterday unanimously approved a Senate bill that would require newly hired 911 call-takers and dispatchers to compile 232 hours of training before they are allowed to handle an emergency call. The requirement takes effect in October 2012. Personnel hired before then would be required to take a competency exam. Those who fail that exam would be required to undergo the training regimen. The bill also authorizes the use of funds generated by the state’s 911 tax for the training.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ken Roberson, said an investigation revealed that although the majority of 911 calls are handled properly by Florida’s telecommunicators, “hundreds of critical errors that endanger lives” occur every year. He was critical of Florida’s lack of uniform training standards and alleged that some telecommunicators in the state start processing 911 calls within a couple of days of being hired. “This situation is unacceptable and must be rectified,” he said.
The Denise Amber Lee Foundation was a driving force behind the passage of this legislation. The 21-year-old Lee, the mother of two young children, was abducted from her Florida home in January 2008 and murdered. Allegedly, 911 personnel made mistakes on the night of her abduction that hindered search efforts. She was found in a shallow grave two days after her abduction. Her assailant was convicted and received the death penalty.
Mark and Peggy Lee, the in-laws of Denise Amber Lee who are the driving force behind the foundation, said that they were pleased with the bill’s passage and that Gov. Charlie Crist has indicated that he will sign it into law. However, the Lee’s have some concerns. They wonder where the money will be found to conduct the training throughout the state. They say that the state’s 911 fees only cover about two-thirds of the costs associated with operating its public-safety answering points.
They also say that the state is going to have to find a way.
“The call-taker is the first link in the chain, and it’s a pretty important link. If they don’t get it right, you’re not going to get firefighters to fires, EMTs to medical emergencies, or police to an abducted woman who’s in the back of a moving car,” Peggy Lee said. “So, they might have to put off that new CAD system for a year. The best technology in the world is no good if the call-taker isn’t following protocol.”
Compliance is another area of concern. “How do we know that each PSAP is going to comply with the law? We don’t want to see 253 cowboys out there doing this on their own,” Mark Lee said. “We need a stronger state 911 office for oversight.”
The Lees hope that the Florida legislation is but a stepping stone to the foundation’s much bigger goal, which is federal legislation that would standardize training and require certification for 911 telecommunicators nationwide. They said that they have had productive discussions about such a bill with the leaders of the major public-safety communications associations. “There’s a lot more that needs to be done,” Mark Lee said.
Patrick Halley, government affairs director for the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), said that a joint effort with the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials should produce standards that address 911 telecommunicator training and quality assurance, which in turn could provide a framework for the federal legislation that the Lees seek. But he said that such a bill would be a tricky proposition.
“It’s a state-sovereignty issue,” Halley said. “It would be tough for the federal government to tell the states that they have to train, and in a specific way. If anything occurs on the national level, it’s going to have to be creatively done.”
But Halley agrees with the Lees that it needs to be done.“In Illinois, for example, you have to be certified to work in a tanning center or barber shop, but not in a 911 center,” he said. “That has to be resolved. A lot of states do a great job [regarding training], but only a handful of them are required by law to do so.”
The lobbying effort to achieve such legislation has taken a toll on the Lees. Not only have they devoted much time, they also have gone into their own pockets at times. They also have had to endure numerous arrows that have been tossed in their direction. “We’ve been called ‘media whores.’ We’ve been accused of using this as an excuse to take vacations,” Peggy Lee said.
“Believe me, telling this story over and over again hasn’t been fun. We’re spent.”
Despite this, both Mark and Peggy Lee were emphatic that the effort has been worthwhile and that they have plenty of fight still left in them to reach the ultimate goal. The motivation is as simple as it is pure.
“This keeps Denise from dying in vain,” Peggy Lee said. “We’ve often asked the question, ‘Why Denise.’ This is the only thing that we can think of. In doing this, we know that she’s saving lives.”
http://urgentcomm.com/policy_and_law/news/911-training-legislation-20100429/
Sunday, March 7, 2010
I missed this in November 2009/Chaos Theory
but it is important and relevant to what is going on in Tallahassee. my opinion first:
my opinion: I would like to say to Rick Jones, that my family and other families who have suffered through 9-1-1 tragedies, know the cost of training. It cost my daughter-in-law her life. And you can spend all your monies on the best technologies in the world, but if you do not have people who know how to use them appropriately those technologies are worthless. My daughter in law's life was priceless.
Chaos Theory
Nov 1, 2009 12:00 PM
By Glenn Bischoff (glenn.bischoff@penton.com)
Protocols and intuitive managers are key to reducing dispatcher pressure in 911 call centers.
Nathan Lee returned to his Florida home in the middle of the afternoon on Jan. 17, 2008. When he arrived, he found his two sons — a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old — together in the younger boy's crib. His wife and the boys' mother, Denise Amber Lee, was nowhere to be found.
She was found two days later in a shallow grave after being brutally raped. In the first frenetic hours after her abduction, mistakes allegedly were made by a 911 call-taker and dispatchers that hampered the search effort. Today, her family and friends are wondering why no national training and certification program exists for 911 telecommunicators, which they believe would help professionals in the sector better keep their wits in an intrinsically high-stress environment that becomes a crucible when things hit the fan.
Not on Alert
The first 911 call on the day of Denise Lee's abduction was placed by Nathan Lee. The 911 center that took that call and two others promptly issued BOLO (“Be On the LookOut for”) signals that allegedly were missed by the 911 center in an adjacent county. At some point during the ordeal, the assailant drove through that county with Denise Lee in tow.
Later in the afternoon, a witness called 911 to report that a child in the back seat of a green Camaro was pounding on the window and screaming hysterically. The “child” was Denise Lee, according to Peggy Lee, the victim's mother in law. According to Lee's family, that call was received by the same 911 center that allegedly missed the BOLOs issued after Nathan Lee's 911 calls. Somehow, the family alleges, no BOLO ever was issued for the call from the eyewitness nor were police cruisers dispatched, even though the eyewitness provided cross streets at several junctures until the car carrying Denise Lee peeled off onto another road.
Peggy Lee today serves as the community relations director for the Denise Amber Lee Foundation, which is lobbying for training and procedural reforms in the 911 sector. She has heard the recording from the eyewitness call and said the call-taker became flustered during the nine minutes she was on the line with the eyewitness. “That call-taker didn't know what to do — you could hear the chaos,” she said.
Denise Lee's father works in that county as a police detective. He said in an interview on a network-television newsmagazine that a fellow officer told him that the officer was certain the vehicle drove “right by him” but did not pursue, because “he never received the information.”
Local media reported that the county's sheriff defended the performance of the 911 center's call-takers and dispatchers that night but acknowledged that mistakes were made. Reportedly, two dispatchers were suspended as a result of this incident.
During the ordeal, Denise Lee somehow managed to get her hands on the assailant's wireless phone without him knowing and placed her own 911 call. She cleverly gave the call-taker vital information, such as the type of car, by speaking in a way that made her assailant think she was talking to him. After seven minutes the assailant caught on and the call ended. “That call was handled superbly,” Peggy Lee said. (Since this was quoted we have come to find out that the call was not handled "superbly" but it was handled well. The call taker was new, on few short months on the job, and has since had to move out of state because Denise's call effected her so greatly.)
However, Denise Lee's location couldn't be identified by the 911 system because she used a pre-paid wireless phone to place the call.
Unanswered Questions
The television newsmagazine posed this question: Could Denise Lee have been saved if the call-taker and dispatchers had kept their cool? It's a question that haunts her family.
Consequently, the Denise Amber Lee Foundation is lobbying for the creation of a national certification program for 911 call-takers and dispatchers. “We want to ensure that no other family has to endure the pure hell our family has experienced,” said Nathan Lee during this year's National Emergency Number Association (NENA) conference in Fort Worth, Texas.
Craig Whittington, NENA's newly elected president, who spent six years on the organization's educational committee before joining its executive board in 2007, is in favor of such a program. “You have to be certified to operate a tanning booth, but for 911 — the most critical link in emergency response — there is no certification,” Whittington said.
While a good idea, a national program likely would be difficult to create and maintain, said Rick Jones, NENA's director of operations. Funding would be at the heart of that difficulty. “When you address the need for training and certification, you indeed are going to escalate their costs,” he said.
Protocols and intuitive managers are key to reducing dispatcher pressure in 911 call centers.
Jones said that 911 call centers ideally would allocate 5% of their operating budgets for training but acknowledged that such a goal would be unrealistic for many, if not most, centers in the current economic environment. “Their training has been cut, and their practice time has been reduced for various reasons, [but] basically economic,” Jones said. “That starts to have a negative effect.”
The negative effect is three-fold. Rigorous ongoing training, core-competency standards and proficiency tests would increase the likelihood that call-takers and dispatchers act properly and — perhaps more important — instinctively. This, in turn, would make them more competent and confident, leading to reduced stress. And the less stressed that call-takers and dispatchers are, the less likely they are to lose their composure and make mistakes at crucial moments.
But such training, standards and testing largely are absent in the 911 world, a fact that Gordon Graham, the keynote speaker at NENA's conference, noted. Graham, a former California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer turned litigator and educator specializing in risk management, said, “Once you are hired, you will never have to take another test if you don't want to be promoted. The public deserves better.”
Grace Under Pressure
To illustrate the point, Graham spoke of US Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who landed his airplane in New York City's Hudson River in January after several birds flew into the craft's engines, rendering them inoperable. According to Graham, Sullenberger said in an interview shortly after his heroic actions saved the lives of everyone aboard Flight 1549 that he tried, throughout his flying career, to make small deposits each day into his memory bank, knowing that one day he would “have to make a massive withdrawal.”
It was a sound strategy, Graham said, because doing so enabled Sullenberger to make instantaneous, life-and-death decisions on that fateful day. It's a lesson especially adaptable to the public-safety sector, whose personnel make such decisions on a daily basis.
“You will run into the unthinkable event someday, and you will have to make instantaneous decisions,” Graham said. “Whether you are prepared to do so is up to you.”
To prepare, Jones recommended that 911 emergency call centers at least implement protocols that every telecommunicator follows for every call the center receives. He suggested that centers adopt the protocols already established by the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Institute or PowerPhone (a provider of crisis communications training), and resist the temptation to create their own.
“That's dangerous, because a local agency doesn't have the expertise,” said Jones, who further cautioned that centers also should resist altering the national protocols, because “sometimes they over-modify them.”
Emergency call center managers also can play an important role in reducing the stress encountered by 911 call-takers and dispatchers, according to Steve Wisely, director of APCO's Communications Center and 911 services department. He said managers should be trained to have a calming effect on telecommunicators. “It's important that the supervisory leadership has training that will allow them to act in a calm manner, even when high-profile incidents are underway,” Wisely said. “The supervisors set the tone for the workers that are reporting to them.”
It's also important that supervisors recognize when a call-taker or dispatcher needs to decompress or a shoulder to lean on for a few minutes, Wisely said. “A support system needs to be in place where a person can get out of their seat and go to a quiet place to contemplate [an incident] or talk to somebody, if they're troubled by it,” he said.
This article originally appeared in Urgent Communications, a FIRE CHIEF sister publication.
http://firechief.com/training/ar/reduce-911-dispatcher-pressure-200911/index.html
my opinion: I would like to say to Rick Jones, that my family and other families who have suffered through 9-1-1 tragedies, know the cost of training. It cost my daughter-in-law her life. And you can spend all your monies on the best technologies in the world, but if you do not have people who know how to use them appropriately those technologies are worthless. My daughter in law's life was priceless.
Chaos Theory
Nov 1, 2009 12:00 PM
By Glenn Bischoff (glenn.bischoff@penton.com)
Protocols and intuitive managers are key to reducing dispatcher pressure in 911 call centers.
Nathan Lee returned to his Florida home in the middle of the afternoon on Jan. 17, 2008. When he arrived, he found his two sons — a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old — together in the younger boy's crib. His wife and the boys' mother, Denise Amber Lee, was nowhere to be found.
She was found two days later in a shallow grave after being brutally raped. In the first frenetic hours after her abduction, mistakes allegedly were made by a 911 call-taker and dispatchers that hampered the search effort. Today, her family and friends are wondering why no national training and certification program exists for 911 telecommunicators, which they believe would help professionals in the sector better keep their wits in an intrinsically high-stress environment that becomes a crucible when things hit the fan.
Not on Alert
The first 911 call on the day of Denise Lee's abduction was placed by Nathan Lee. The 911 center that took that call and two others promptly issued BOLO (“Be On the LookOut for”) signals that allegedly were missed by the 911 center in an adjacent county. At some point during the ordeal, the assailant drove through that county with Denise Lee in tow.
Later in the afternoon, a witness called 911 to report that a child in the back seat of a green Camaro was pounding on the window and screaming hysterically. The “child” was Denise Lee, according to Peggy Lee, the victim's mother in law. According to Lee's family, that call was received by the same 911 center that allegedly missed the BOLOs issued after Nathan Lee's 911 calls. Somehow, the family alleges, no BOLO ever was issued for the call from the eyewitness nor were police cruisers dispatched, even though the eyewitness provided cross streets at several junctures until the car carrying Denise Lee peeled off onto another road.
Peggy Lee today serves as the community relations director for the Denise Amber Lee Foundation, which is lobbying for training and procedural reforms in the 911 sector. She has heard the recording from the eyewitness call and said the call-taker became flustered during the nine minutes she was on the line with the eyewitness. “That call-taker didn't know what to do — you could hear the chaos,” she said.
Denise Lee's father works in that county as a police detective. He said in an interview on a network-television newsmagazine that a fellow officer told him that the officer was certain the vehicle drove “right by him” but did not pursue, because “he never received the information.”
Local media reported that the county's sheriff defended the performance of the 911 center's call-takers and dispatchers that night but acknowledged that mistakes were made. Reportedly, two dispatchers were suspended as a result of this incident.
During the ordeal, Denise Lee somehow managed to get her hands on the assailant's wireless phone without him knowing and placed her own 911 call. She cleverly gave the call-taker vital information, such as the type of car, by speaking in a way that made her assailant think she was talking to him. After seven minutes the assailant caught on and the call ended. “That call was handled superbly,” Peggy Lee said. (Since this was quoted we have come to find out that the call was not handled "superbly" but it was handled well. The call taker was new, on few short months on the job, and has since had to move out of state because Denise's call effected her so greatly.)
However, Denise Lee's location couldn't be identified by the 911 system because she used a pre-paid wireless phone to place the call.
Unanswered Questions
The television newsmagazine posed this question: Could Denise Lee have been saved if the call-taker and dispatchers had kept their cool? It's a question that haunts her family.Consequently, the Denise Amber Lee Foundation is lobbying for the creation of a national certification program for 911 call-takers and dispatchers. “We want to ensure that no other family has to endure the pure hell our family has experienced,” said Nathan Lee during this year's National Emergency Number Association (NENA) conference in Fort Worth, Texas.
Craig Whittington, NENA's newly elected president, who spent six years on the organization's educational committee before joining its executive board in 2007, is in favor of such a program. “You have to be certified to operate a tanning booth, but for 911 — the most critical link in emergency response — there is no certification,” Whittington said.
While a good idea, a national program likely would be difficult to create and maintain, said Rick Jones, NENA's director of operations. Funding would be at the heart of that difficulty. “When you address the need for training and certification, you indeed are going to escalate their costs,” he said.
Protocols and intuitive managers are key to reducing dispatcher pressure in 911 call centers.
Jones said that 911 call centers ideally would allocate 5% of their operating budgets for training but acknowledged that such a goal would be unrealistic for many, if not most, centers in the current economic environment. “Their training has been cut, and their practice time has been reduced for various reasons, [but] basically economic,” Jones said. “That starts to have a negative effect.”
The negative effect is three-fold. Rigorous ongoing training, core-competency standards and proficiency tests would increase the likelihood that call-takers and dispatchers act properly and — perhaps more important — instinctively. This, in turn, would make them more competent and confident, leading to reduced stress. And the less stressed that call-takers and dispatchers are, the less likely they are to lose their composure and make mistakes at crucial moments.
But such training, standards and testing largely are absent in the 911 world, a fact that Gordon Graham, the keynote speaker at NENA's conference, noted. Graham, a former California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer turned litigator and educator specializing in risk management, said, “Once you are hired, you will never have to take another test if you don't want to be promoted. The public deserves better.”
Grace Under Pressure
To illustrate the point, Graham spoke of US Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who landed his airplane in New York City's Hudson River in January after several birds flew into the craft's engines, rendering them inoperable. According to Graham, Sullenberger said in an interview shortly after his heroic actions saved the lives of everyone aboard Flight 1549 that he tried, throughout his flying career, to make small deposits each day into his memory bank, knowing that one day he would “have to make a massive withdrawal.”
It was a sound strategy, Graham said, because doing so enabled Sullenberger to make instantaneous, life-and-death decisions on that fateful day. It's a lesson especially adaptable to the public-safety sector, whose personnel make such decisions on a daily basis.
“You will run into the unthinkable event someday, and you will have to make instantaneous decisions,” Graham said. “Whether you are prepared to do so is up to you.”
To prepare, Jones recommended that 911 emergency call centers at least implement protocols that every telecommunicator follows for every call the center receives. He suggested that centers adopt the protocols already established by the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Institute or PowerPhone (a provider of crisis communications training), and resist the temptation to create their own.
“That's dangerous, because a local agency doesn't have the expertise,” said Jones, who further cautioned that centers also should resist altering the national protocols, because “sometimes they over-modify them.”
Emergency call center managers also can play an important role in reducing the stress encountered by 911 call-takers and dispatchers, according to Steve Wisely, director of APCO's Communications Center and 911 services department. He said managers should be trained to have a calming effect on telecommunicators. “It's important that the supervisory leadership has training that will allow them to act in a calm manner, even when high-profile incidents are underway,” Wisely said. “The supervisors set the tone for the workers that are reporting to them.”
It's also important that supervisors recognize when a call-taker or dispatcher needs to decompress or a shoulder to lean on for a few minutes, Wisely said. “A support system needs to be in place where a person can get out of their seat and go to a quiet place to contemplate [an incident] or talk to somebody, if they're troubled by it,” he said.
This article originally appeared in Urgent Communications, a FIRE CHIEF sister publication.
http://firechief.com/training/ar/reduce-911-dispatcher-pressure-200911/index.html
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
What Floridians can do to help The Denise Amber Lee Foundation
DID YOU KNOW????
That Florida has no mandatory training standard for their 9-1-1 call takers and dispatchers?
YET!
Florida requires barbers, nail technicians and landscapers to be trained and certified.
DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?
9-1-1 telecommunicators are our First Line of Defense in Public Safety and Homeland Security. They cannot be our weakest link!!!
NEEDED NOW!!!
Call, write or email your Florida State Representative and demand that all Florida 9-1-1 telecommunicators be trained and certified to a uniform standard.
Go to www.leg.state.fl.us to find your representatives.
For more information about our foundation visit www.DeniseAmberLee.org
Our foundation is supported by APCO International (Association of Public Safety Communications Officials), NENA (National Emergency Number Association), NAED (National Academies of Emergency Dispatch) and 911CARES.
That Florida has no mandatory training standard for their 9-1-1 call takers and dispatchers?
YET!
Florida requires barbers, nail technicians and landscapers to be trained and certified.
DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?
9-1-1 telecommunicators are our First Line of Defense in Public Safety and Homeland Security. They cannot be our weakest link!!!
NEEDED NOW!!!
Call, write or email your Florida State Representative and demand that all Florida 9-1-1 telecommunicators be trained and certified to a uniform standard.
Go to www.leg.state.fl.us to find your representatives.
For more information about our foundation visit www.DeniseAmberLee.org
Our foundation is supported by APCO International (Association of Public Safety Communications Officials), NENA (National Emergency Number Association), NAED (National Academies of Emergency Dispatch) and 911CARES.
Friday, October 2, 2009
October 2009, a crazy month and so emotional
October is crazy for us. But it's so emotional and so moving. I'm crying.
Mark and Nathan are in Michigan. Amber and Noah went with them. They are attending another 9-1-1 conference for APCO. Mark and Nate have just returned from the Missouri APCO and are off again in Michigan. It was Noah's first plane ride. I wish I was with them but I stayed home with Adam. Adam is such a cutie. It's been wonderful but I'm missing Mark and Nathan.
Next week Mark, Nathan and I will be going to Colorado for another conference in Longmont.
The following week Mark and Nathan go to Springfield, Illinois. Yes, another conference.
And then the last week of October to Wisconsin.
Nathan is speaking at all of them. The outpouring of support has been indescribable. So many 9-1-1 telecommunicators being touched by this story. I can't describe the letters and emails we receive.
Also this month we have a float in the Sun Fiesta Parade held in Venice, Florida just north of us. We'll also have a booth. And another booth at the Placida Seafood Festival.
Many still ask what our purpose is. Well, Nathan tells Denise's story. Then he goes into problems in the 9-1-1 industry that need addressing. That call takers and dispatchers, in many places, are underpaid, underappreciated and the first to be thrown under the bus when tragedies and/or cut backs occur. 9-1-1 telecommunicators are our "true" first responders and deserve respect where in many places there is none. Without them the firefighters would never get to the fire, the EMTs would never get to the medical emergency and the police cannot prevent certain crimes in progress. He explains why he thinks they needs standards and certification. How they DESERVE that. It's not fair that some counties and townships do not have the same technologies and training standards others do. Also not everyone is capable of doing the 9-1-1 telecommunicators job. Some people are just not cut out for the job! It takes a special person to be a 9-1-1 telecommunicator. A person who has compassion, can think outside the box, make quicker than quick decision, multi-task, and work with dilegence. To get these people and "retain" them they need to be recognized. That there should be quality assurance always. A CELL PHONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO BE LOCATED BY 9-1-1. Sadly, it takes a tragedy such as Denise's to bring this to light to the general public. The general public needs to be educated as to the proper use of 9-1-1. They need to know that consumer cell phone technology has advanced at such a rapid rate that the 9-1-1 centers cannot keep up unless they receive more funding. Oh, boy. I really ran away with that but as you know I could talk about 9-1-1 24/7.
All good things.
Then at the very end of the month is the Spencer Hearing. Ugh! Apparently Spencer Hearings are unique to Florida. The jury found King guilty and "recommended" to the judge he receive death. Now the prosecutors and the defense go before the judge without the jury and go over the mitigating and aggravating factors all over again. We all get to read our impact statements and we have to go through it all again. I could just scream.
So.... October is busy. It's good. Denise will not die in vain. Michael King cannot hurt anyone else. Noah took his first plane ride. Adam can count to ten and recite his ABCs. Adam refuses to let me read to him and insists reading to me even though he's just turned two. And life goes on. I think and pray Denise would be proud.
Mark and Nathan are in Michigan. Amber and Noah went with them. They are attending another 9-1-1 conference for APCO. Mark and Nate have just returned from the Missouri APCO and are off again in Michigan. It was Noah's first plane ride. I wish I was with them but I stayed home with Adam. Adam is such a cutie. It's been wonderful but I'm missing Mark and Nathan.
Next week Mark, Nathan and I will be going to Colorado for another conference in Longmont.
The following week Mark and Nathan go to Springfield, Illinois. Yes, another conference.
And then the last week of October to Wisconsin.
Nathan is speaking at all of them. The outpouring of support has been indescribable. So many 9-1-1 telecommunicators being touched by this story. I can't describe the letters and emails we receive.
Also this month we have a float in the Sun Fiesta Parade held in Venice, Florida just north of us. We'll also have a booth. And another booth at the Placida Seafood Festival.
Many still ask what our purpose is. Well, Nathan tells Denise's story. Then he goes into problems in the 9-1-1 industry that need addressing. That call takers and dispatchers, in many places, are underpaid, underappreciated and the first to be thrown under the bus when tragedies and/or cut backs occur. 9-1-1 telecommunicators are our "true" first responders and deserve respect where in many places there is none. Without them the firefighters would never get to the fire, the EMTs would never get to the medical emergency and the police cannot prevent certain crimes in progress. He explains why he thinks they needs standards and certification. How they DESERVE that. It's not fair that some counties and townships do not have the same technologies and training standards others do. Also not everyone is capable of doing the 9-1-1 telecommunicators job. Some people are just not cut out for the job! It takes a special person to be a 9-1-1 telecommunicator. A person who has compassion, can think outside the box, make quicker than quick decision, multi-task, and work with dilegence. To get these people and "retain" them they need to be recognized. That there should be quality assurance always. A CELL PHONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO BE LOCATED BY 9-1-1. Sadly, it takes a tragedy such as Denise's to bring this to light to the general public. The general public needs to be educated as to the proper use of 9-1-1. They need to know that consumer cell phone technology has advanced at such a rapid rate that the 9-1-1 centers cannot keep up unless they receive more funding. Oh, boy. I really ran away with that but as you know I could talk about 9-1-1 24/7.
All good things.
Then at the very end of the month is the Spencer Hearing. Ugh! Apparently Spencer Hearings are unique to Florida. The jury found King guilty and "recommended" to the judge he receive death. Now the prosecutors and the defense go before the judge without the jury and go over the mitigating and aggravating factors all over again. We all get to read our impact statements and we have to go through it all again. I could just scream.
So.... October is busy. It's good. Denise will not die in vain. Michael King cannot hurt anyone else. Noah took his first plane ride. Adam can count to ten and recite his ABCs. Adam refuses to let me read to him and insists reading to me even though he's just turned two. And life goes on. I think and pray Denise would be proud.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Some 911 centers can’t keep tabs on cell phones
Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31786185/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/page/2/
Before you read the article on the MSNBC website, be prepared that if you click on the "green" links, you shouldn't expect to receive more information on 9-1-1, you'll get nothing but AT & T and Samsung adverstising. I like this quote “The more choices you have to reach 911 in an emergency, the better, and a corded land line phone should be one of those options,” said Brian Fontes, chief executive of NENA.
Brian Fontes is urging people to keep their corded land line phone while AT & T is advertising Blackberrys. Hah!
More of my opinion at the end of the article:
Aging systems can’t pinpoint some users when they need help the most
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
msnbc.com
updated 8:05 a.m. ET, Mon., July 13, 2009
Donnie and Sharon Leutjen and their 15-year-old granddaughter, Taron Leutjen, were found June 9. They had been shot to death, and their bodies had lain in their home in Cole Camp, Mo., for about two days.
Authorities know approximately when the Leutjens were shot because they got a 911 call on the night of June 7.
On the tape of the call — which investigators examined after the worried inquiries of someone who knew the family led to the bodies' discovery — “one of the male voices was directing Sharon Leutjen to sit down (and) put her arms behind her,” the sheriff’s office in Benton County, in central Missouri, said in court documents.
“At least two threats to shoot her and the other two victims” could be heard, the sheriff’s office said.
So why didn’t deputies rush to the scene as soon as they got the call?
They couldn’t. They didn’t know where it came from. Whoever made the call used a cell phone, and Benton County’s technology isn’t advanced enough to take advantage of location services that are standard features of nearly all cell phones sold today.
Benton County isn’t an isolated example. Cell phones may lure us with the promise of immediate help in an emergency, but depending on where you live, that promise can go unkept because of inadequate technology at one or both ends of a 911 call.
“Access to 911 from cell phones is very different from wired phones and also varies greatly around the country,” said the National Emergency Number Association, or NENA, the nonprofit industry group that works with governments to promote and institute 911 programs across North America.
In places that haven’t upgraded their 911 centers to the latest technology, “this presents life-threatening problems due to lost response time” if callers are unable to speak or don’t know where they are, the organization said.
That’s why emergency officials and wireless industry leaders say every household should have a centrally located, easily accessible land line for emergency calls. But increasingly, Americans are dropping their land lines and going wireless-only.
Some systems find only a cell tower
The problem is that, by definition, a mobile phone can be anywhere. It isn’t tied to an address, which automatically pops up on a 911 operator’s screen during a call from a land line.
As cell phones have morphed into all-in-one multimedia toolboxes, U.S. carriers have integrated technology to use Global Positioning System satellites or their own towers to triangulate a phone’s location. It’s called Enhanced 911, or E911, and under Federal Communications Commission regulations, such capability must be built in to at least 95 percent of the phones a carrier sells.
But that information is only as good as the 911 infrastructure.
A decade after the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act was enacted in 1999, requiring cell phone carriers to provide a caller’s location to 911, about 10 percent of the nation’s more than 6,000 call centers haven’t installed the equipment to use the information, NENA found in February. Those jurisdictions still offer only 1990s-vintage basic 911, which rely on callers’ knowing where they are and being able to communicate that.
“On cell phones, we do not have an exact location,” said Ken White, operations manager of the 911 center in Tulsa, Okla., which has asked for state help to pay for an E911 upgrade that will show a cell phone’s location and call-back number. Such information often isn’t now available, even though a little more than half of Tulsa’s 911 calls come in from cell phones, about the same proportion as they do nationwide.
E911 doesn’t solve all problems
Meanwhile, the 90 percent of systems that do relay a phone’s position don’t ensure that emergency crews will be able to find the caller.
For one thing, the accuracy of location data generally drops in rural areas, where older, less-advanced cell towers can be farther apart, the Congressional Research Service found in a background report for lawmakers late last year. And it can drop in densely populated cities, where a phone might show up as being at 1 Main St., with no indication of whether it’s on the seventh or the 77th floor.
Depending on the technology a carrier is using — GPS or tower triangulation — FCC regulations allow a margin of error of up to 300 meters for some E911-capable phones. That’s longer than three football fields.
The FCC also leaves it up to carriers to determine whether they’re complying with the E911 mandate. One way they can do that, it says, is “to prevent reactivation of older handsets” — in other words, when your contract runs out, the carrier can insist that you pay for a newer phone if you want to keep your service.
Analog system outdated in digital world
But the biggest obstacle is the underlying architecture of the 911 system itself.
The nonprofit 911 Industry Alliance found last year that most 911 systems still rely on older analog hardware. Even digital E911 operations are usually built — “or, perhaps more accurately, ‘jury-rigged’” — on analog platforms that reflect “the legacy telephone technology of the time the system was first designed,” it said.
That would be the late 1960s, when 911 service was optional and ran on circuits run by a single local land line provider. Today, call centers operate under scores of different local and state regulations that must accommodate not only land lines and traditional wireless phones, but also pre-paid mobile phones and Internet devices, all offered by dozens of deregulated carriers.
The result, the alliance said, is a fragmented system that leaves “many wireless callers without the benefits of location identification information when they call 911.”
That means a land line is still your best option in an emergency, NENA and AT&T said last week in launching a campaign urging Americans to keep some form of wired service for making emergency calls.
“The more choices you have to reach 911 in an emergency, the better, and a corded land line phone should be one of those options,” said Brian Fontes, chief executive of NENA.
More Americans dropping land lines
Americans, however, are increasingly disregarding that message.
Since 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked Americans about their cell phone service when it conducts its twice-yearly National Health Interview Survey. The number of U.S. households that have ditched their land lines completely has risen consistently.
For the first time, wireless-only households hit 20 percent during the second half of last year, the CDC said, compared with 3.5 percent in 2003. Those households include nearly 19 percent of all children in the United States, the CDC found.
And when one of those families has to call 911, “they are apt to be disappointed — and left in the lurch,” the 911 Industry Alliance concluded.
“Consumers are often unaware of the limitations of 911 service in various geographic areas or with respect to certain technologies,” the alliance said, something it said should be “a grave source of concern for policymakers and industry professionals.”
NBC stations KJRH of Tulsa, Okla., and KYTV of Springfield, Mo., contributed to this report.
More of my opinion
Are not the phone companies the ones cleaning up as far as profits and dollars?
1.) It's very confusing and I'm not sure any one is (if you know, and you're reading this please enlighten me) regulating how the fees are being spent that we pay on our cellular phone bills each month for 9-1-1 service. Where does that money go? We've been trying to figure that out. It doesn't seem to be going to the 9-1-1 centers. It's either going into fat boys and girls profits or into better cell phones. Maybe it should be going to 9-1-1 centers. Or maybe to newer towers or more towers in rural areas? Just a thought! Sorry to sound sarcastic but..... geesh! This is important!
2.) Lucky phone companies. If people are "stuck" keeping their landlines then the phone companies get to continue to send TWO bills each month. We're pretty much blackmailed into keeping our landlines if we want 9-1-1 service. Call me a conspiracy theorist but I wonder why should the phone companies step up and come up with a solution? Because it's the right thing to do and because it will save lives? If that were the case, they would have found a way by now IMNSHO.
3.) As the economy worsens and I can't imagine it getting any worse, but still it is.... people have to start cutting back where they can as far as expenditures. Mark and I got rid of landline months ago. Why? Because we simply can't afford it and we pray to God (that is at the times we believe s/he exists) that if we ever have to call 9-1-1 we're capable of telling the call taker where we are. If we can't! Well. I guess we're going to be S O L.
I do like this part:
Cell Phones and 911
Industry groups offer this guidance for cell phone users who find themselves needing emergency assistance:
Know your device
911 can be contacted from nearly every device that can make phone calls, but callback and location information can vary drastically among technologies and between regions. It is your job to know the benefits and limitations of various technologies. Contact your service provider for more information.
Memorize important information
Being able to tell the 911 operator your address (your parents’ names if you are a child) and your phone number will get help faster. If you aren’t at home and don’t know the address where you are, look around for a street sign or a building with a name on it.
911 isn’t as cool as you are
You can’t yet text or IM “9-1-1” to reach emergency services. That technology is in the testing phase, but for now you have to make an old-fashioned phone call if you want to talk to 911.
Adapted from “Making 911 Work for You,” a publication of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, CTIA/The Wireless Foundation and the National Emergency Number Association.
Sorry for ranting. But I just can't help myself sometimes! I wish I didn't sound so angry and frustrated. I wish people could see what's going on and what needs to be done. I know there are many people out there doing their best to see what can be done. But, to me, it seems to be taking forever and I'm so worried more people are going to die because we can't seem to find an answer with the phone companies. It's terribly terribly sad.
I apologize. Just know if you're calling 9-1-1 from a cell phone, please, be able to tell them your location.
Aside to Kevin: I love you. You definitely "get it". That is so appreciated:o)
Before you read the article on the MSNBC website, be prepared that if you click on the "green" links, you shouldn't expect to receive more information on 9-1-1, you'll get nothing but AT & T and Samsung adverstising. I like this quote “The more choices you have to reach 911 in an emergency, the better, and a corded land line phone should be one of those options,” said Brian Fontes, chief executive of NENA.
Brian Fontes is urging people to keep their corded land line phone while AT & T is advertising Blackberrys. Hah!
More of my opinion at the end of the article:
Aging systems can’t pinpoint some users when they need help the most
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
msnbc.com
updated 8:05 a.m. ET, Mon., July 13, 2009
Donnie and Sharon Leutjen and their 15-year-old granddaughter, Taron Leutjen, were found June 9. They had been shot to death, and their bodies had lain in their home in Cole Camp, Mo., for about two days.
Authorities know approximately when the Leutjens were shot because they got a 911 call on the night of June 7.
On the tape of the call — which investigators examined after the worried inquiries of someone who knew the family led to the bodies' discovery — “one of the male voices was directing Sharon Leutjen to sit down (and) put her arms behind her,” the sheriff’s office in Benton County, in central Missouri, said in court documents.
“At least two threats to shoot her and the other two victims” could be heard, the sheriff’s office said.
So why didn’t deputies rush to the scene as soon as they got the call?
They couldn’t. They didn’t know where it came from. Whoever made the call used a cell phone, and Benton County’s technology isn’t advanced enough to take advantage of location services that are standard features of nearly all cell phones sold today.
Benton County isn’t an isolated example. Cell phones may lure us with the promise of immediate help in an emergency, but depending on where you live, that promise can go unkept because of inadequate technology at one or both ends of a 911 call.
“Access to 911 from cell phones is very different from wired phones and also varies greatly around the country,” said the National Emergency Number Association, or NENA, the nonprofit industry group that works with governments to promote and institute 911 programs across North America.
In places that haven’t upgraded their 911 centers to the latest technology, “this presents life-threatening problems due to lost response time” if callers are unable to speak or don’t know where they are, the organization said.
That’s why emergency officials and wireless industry leaders say every household should have a centrally located, easily accessible land line for emergency calls. But increasingly, Americans are dropping their land lines and going wireless-only.
Some systems find only a cell tower
The problem is that, by definition, a mobile phone can be anywhere. It isn’t tied to an address, which automatically pops up on a 911 operator’s screen during a call from a land line.
As cell phones have morphed into all-in-one multimedia toolboxes, U.S. carriers have integrated technology to use Global Positioning System satellites or their own towers to triangulate a phone’s location. It’s called Enhanced 911, or E911, and under Federal Communications Commission regulations, such capability must be built in to at least 95 percent of the phones a carrier sells.
But that information is only as good as the 911 infrastructure.
A decade after the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act was enacted in 1999, requiring cell phone carriers to provide a caller’s location to 911, about 10 percent of the nation’s more than 6,000 call centers haven’t installed the equipment to use the information, NENA found in February. Those jurisdictions still offer only 1990s-vintage basic 911, which rely on callers’ knowing where they are and being able to communicate that.
“On cell phones, we do not have an exact location,” said Ken White, operations manager of the 911 center in Tulsa, Okla., which has asked for state help to pay for an E911 upgrade that will show a cell phone’s location and call-back number. Such information often isn’t now available, even though a little more than half of Tulsa’s 911 calls come in from cell phones, about the same proportion as they do nationwide.
E911 doesn’t solve all problems
Meanwhile, the 90 percent of systems that do relay a phone’s position don’t ensure that emergency crews will be able to find the caller.
For one thing, the accuracy of location data generally drops in rural areas, where older, less-advanced cell towers can be farther apart, the Congressional Research Service found in a background report for lawmakers late last year. And it can drop in densely populated cities, where a phone might show up as being at 1 Main St., with no indication of whether it’s on the seventh or the 77th floor.
Depending on the technology a carrier is using — GPS or tower triangulation — FCC regulations allow a margin of error of up to 300 meters for some E911-capable phones. That’s longer than three football fields.
The FCC also leaves it up to carriers to determine whether they’re complying with the E911 mandate. One way they can do that, it says, is “to prevent reactivation of older handsets” — in other words, when your contract runs out, the carrier can insist that you pay for a newer phone if you want to keep your service.
Analog system outdated in digital world
But the biggest obstacle is the underlying architecture of the 911 system itself.
The nonprofit 911 Industry Alliance found last year that most 911 systems still rely on older analog hardware. Even digital E911 operations are usually built — “or, perhaps more accurately, ‘jury-rigged’” — on analog platforms that reflect “the legacy telephone technology of the time the system was first designed,” it said.
That would be the late 1960s, when 911 service was optional and ran on circuits run by a single local land line provider. Today, call centers operate under scores of different local and state regulations that must accommodate not only land lines and traditional wireless phones, but also pre-paid mobile phones and Internet devices, all offered by dozens of deregulated carriers.
The result, the alliance said, is a fragmented system that leaves “many wireless callers without the benefits of location identification information when they call 911.”
That means a land line is still your best option in an emergency, NENA and AT&T said last week in launching a campaign urging Americans to keep some form of wired service for making emergency calls.
“The more choices you have to reach 911 in an emergency, the better, and a corded land line phone should be one of those options,” said Brian Fontes, chief executive of NENA.
More Americans dropping land lines
Americans, however, are increasingly disregarding that message.
Since 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked Americans about their cell phone service when it conducts its twice-yearly National Health Interview Survey. The number of U.S. households that have ditched their land lines completely has risen consistently.
For the first time, wireless-only households hit 20 percent during the second half of last year, the CDC said, compared with 3.5 percent in 2003. Those households include nearly 19 percent of all children in the United States, the CDC found.
And when one of those families has to call 911, “they are apt to be disappointed — and left in the lurch,” the 911 Industry Alliance concluded.
“Consumers are often unaware of the limitations of 911 service in various geographic areas or with respect to certain technologies,” the alliance said, something it said should be “a grave source of concern for policymakers and industry professionals.”
NBC stations KJRH of Tulsa, Okla., and KYTV of Springfield, Mo., contributed to this report.
More of my opinion
Are not the phone companies the ones cleaning up as far as profits and dollars?
1.) It's very confusing and I'm not sure any one is (if you know, and you're reading this please enlighten me) regulating how the fees are being spent that we pay on our cellular phone bills each month for 9-1-1 service. Where does that money go? We've been trying to figure that out. It doesn't seem to be going to the 9-1-1 centers. It's either going into fat boys and girls profits or into better cell phones. Maybe it should be going to 9-1-1 centers. Or maybe to newer towers or more towers in rural areas? Just a thought! Sorry to sound sarcastic but..... geesh! This is important!
2.) Lucky phone companies. If people are "stuck" keeping their landlines then the phone companies get to continue to send TWO bills each month. We're pretty much blackmailed into keeping our landlines if we want 9-1-1 service. Call me a conspiracy theorist but I wonder why should the phone companies step up and come up with a solution? Because it's the right thing to do and because it will save lives? If that were the case, they would have found a way by now IMNSHO.
3.) As the economy worsens and I can't imagine it getting any worse, but still it is.... people have to start cutting back where they can as far as expenditures. Mark and I got rid of landline months ago. Why? Because we simply can't afford it and we pray to God (that is at the times we believe s/he exists) that if we ever have to call 9-1-1 we're capable of telling the call taker where we are. If we can't! Well. I guess we're going to be S O L.
I do like this part:
Cell Phones and 911
Industry groups offer this guidance for cell phone users who find themselves needing emergency assistance:
Know your device
911 can be contacted from nearly every device that can make phone calls, but callback and location information can vary drastically among technologies and between regions. It is your job to know the benefits and limitations of various technologies. Contact your service provider for more information.
Memorize important information
Being able to tell the 911 operator your address (your parents’ names if you are a child) and your phone number will get help faster. If you aren’t at home and don’t know the address where you are, look around for a street sign or a building with a name on it.
911 isn’t as cool as you are
You can’t yet text or IM “9-1-1” to reach emergency services. That technology is in the testing phase, but for now you have to make an old-fashioned phone call if you want to talk to 911.
Adapted from “Making 911 Work for You,” a publication of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, CTIA/The Wireless Foundation and the National Emergency Number Association.
Sorry for ranting. But I just can't help myself sometimes! I wish I didn't sound so angry and frustrated. I wish people could see what's going on and what needs to be done. I know there are many people out there doing their best to see what can be done. But, to me, it seems to be taking forever and I'm so worried more people are going to die because we can't seem to find an answer with the phone companies. It's terribly terribly sad.
I apologize. Just know if you're calling 9-1-1 from a cell phone, please, be able to tell them your location.
Aside to Kevin: I love you. You definitely "get it". That is so appreciated:o)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The Denise Amber Lee Foundation in Fort Worth
So far so good. It's been a little difficult because emotions, IMO, are running high. We had the 5K run on Saturday. Mark, Nathan and Amber were all up extremely early on Saturday. And then, of course, we were all up very early Sunday. People, especially moi, get cranky when they are tired. Amber has been a trooper throughout putting up with all the various emotional meltdowns. David Garofalo has the battle of not only dealing with our emotional meltdowns but has the important job of networking. I don't know what we would do without either of them. Dave have his family here too. How wonderful is that? I was hoping to spend more time with his wife and son. I don't really know them as well as I'd like. I want to tell her how wonderful Dave has been to us. He's an important cog in the wheel for so many reasons.
Thank you David and Amber. We miss you, Dave Dignam.
Working the booth can be difficult. Constantly having to repeat the story to educate the people who are not familiar with our story and cause can be emotionally draining but well worth it in the end. Once they understand what we're all about and that we just want to drive change for improvements you can almost see relief on their faces. Most are truly appalled at what happened in the comm center that night. But it seems all understand how it may have happened. If the industry can learn from the mistakes made in Denise's case then...... again, telling our story is worth it. Many are now going to take Denise's story back to their dispatch centers and they are going to ask their dispatchers and call takers "how would you have handled this", "what went wrong", "where did the procedures start to break down" and "what can we do better"?
That's very very cool to us.
All the national industry experts are meeting with our foundation this morning. Many important 9-1-1 experts will be in the meeting. People from NENA (National Emergency Number Association), NAED (National Academies of Emergency Dispatch), 9-1-1 CARES, The E911 Institute and APCO (The Association of Public Safety). There are probably others who I am forgetting.
We'll see what happens. NENA, NAED and 9-1-1 CARES have been especially supportive and continue to encourage us. I feel their genuine support and concern. The others? Eh, I'm not so sure but we'll see.
I couldn't imagine why they wouldn't support our cause. Afterall, it's about public safety not politics.
We have a new mission statement:
"To promote and support public safety through uniform training, standardized protocols, defined measurable outcomes and technological advances in the 9-1-1 system."
We'll see. I won't be in the meeting. I think I was voted out because I talk too much! LOL! That's probably true and I do tend to be emotional.
Tomorrow we meet Michael Cantrell and hopefully the rest of his family. I'm especially looking forward to that. Why? It'll just be so nice to meet someone that REALLY TRULY understands our resolve, drive and determination. Bittersweet. Bitter because if it wasn't for the loss of their little boy and our loss of Denise, we would never even have known each other. sigh. I only hope we can all garner strength from each other.
Nathan's speech is tomorrow.
OH! And Nathan received an award from 911 CARES for all the work he's been doing!! That was pretty darn cool.
Better go. Lots to do. Another busy day. Who knows what it will bring!
Thank you David and Amber. We miss you, Dave Dignam.
Working the booth can be difficult. Constantly having to repeat the story to educate the people who are not familiar with our story and cause can be emotionally draining but well worth it in the end. Once they understand what we're all about and that we just want to drive change for improvements you can almost see relief on their faces. Most are truly appalled at what happened in the comm center that night. But it seems all understand how it may have happened. If the industry can learn from the mistakes made in Denise's case then...... again, telling our story is worth it. Many are now going to take Denise's story back to their dispatch centers and they are going to ask their dispatchers and call takers "how would you have handled this", "what went wrong", "where did the procedures start to break down" and "what can we do better"?
That's very very cool to us.
All the national industry experts are meeting with our foundation this morning. Many important 9-1-1 experts will be in the meeting. People from NENA (National Emergency Number Association), NAED (National Academies of Emergency Dispatch), 9-1-1 CARES, The E911 Institute and APCO (The Association of Public Safety). There are probably others who I am forgetting.
We'll see what happens. NENA, NAED and 9-1-1 CARES have been especially supportive and continue to encourage us. I feel their genuine support and concern. The others? Eh, I'm not so sure but we'll see.
I couldn't imagine why they wouldn't support our cause. Afterall, it's about public safety not politics.
We have a new mission statement:
"To promote and support public safety through uniform training, standardized protocols, defined measurable outcomes and technological advances in the 9-1-1 system."
We'll see. I won't be in the meeting. I think I was voted out because I talk too much! LOL! That's probably true and I do tend to be emotional.
Tomorrow we meet Michael Cantrell and hopefully the rest of his family. I'm especially looking forward to that. Why? It'll just be so nice to meet someone that REALLY TRULY understands our resolve, drive and determination. Bittersweet. Bitter because if it wasn't for the loss of their little boy and our loss of Denise, we would never even have known each other. sigh. I only hope we can all garner strength from each other.
Nathan's speech is tomorrow.
OH! And Nathan received an award from 911 CARES for all the work he's been doing!! That was pretty darn cool.
Better go. Lots to do. Another busy day. Who knows what it will bring!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The Denise Amber Lee Foundation and APCO
FWIW I'm feeling better about them. I'm still not quite sure what to think because I was not at the meeting today. But I can say that it was a positive meeting according to Mark and Nathan. APCO seems to know now where we (the DeniseAmber Lee Foundation) are going and what our intentions are. We have nothing to hide.
They seem to want the same thing. And that would be a good thing.
They have offered us help and that's a VERY good thing.
They seem to want the same thing. And that would be a good thing.
They have offered us help and that's a VERY good thing.
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