PSTech Articles

Introduction When he was 17, Benjamin Franklin ran away from Boston to live in Philadelphia.  He would also become the British postmaster to the colonies and would establish the first national communications network. And even though he was a firefighter at heart, Ben would be very proud of the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) today - the department now has one of the largest public safety Geographic Information System (GIS) implementations in the country. Twenty four...

Introduction

Got Radios? Rhetorical question Farley!

You probably have radios coming out your ears. The little black boxes are more prolific than rabbits. They’re everywhere. Sometimes it seems like everyone in your department has one, maybe two, sometimes three of four. For the folks in the radio shop, keeping track of these nasty, noisy, nettlesome little buggers is a pressure packed job.

The new explorers - Redwood City CA PD

People used to think the world was flat. Maps showed the far uncharted regions as fearsome and mysterious places. Unexplored areas were labeled “Beyond this point there be dragons.” It took a few courageous people like Drake, Columbus, and Magellan to dispel the myths. Chief JR Gamez and the Redwood City CA Police Department have shown the courage and innovation these explorers would have been proud of.

In 1968, AT&T announced that it would establish the digits 9-1-1 as the emergency code throughout the United States. AT&T has been in the 9-1-1 business from the beginning and is in the forefront of the current shift to NG911.  I recently had the pleasure to interview Jodi Chapin - AT&T Director, State and Local Government Marketing and Pat Thetford - AT&T Sales Director, Public Safety Solutions about AT&T’s perspective on NG911 solutions and to also...

Saving lives is all about getting information. When someone calls 9-1-1, the only information a dispatcher gets is a phone number and an address. The dispatcher has to ask a lot of questions to get additional critical information. What if that information came up on a screen as the call came in?  That would save time - and if you can save time you can save lives. The smart way to do 911 is to have important information attached to the caller. This is what Smart911 from Rave Mobile Safety can do for you.

In the 1800’s, if you could jump a candlestick without putting out the flame then good fortune was coming your way. It was a form of fortune telling. The modern version of an old poem might go something like this:
 

• Jack be nimble
• Jack be quick
• Jack - jump over the technical, financial, and operational candlesticks so public safety agencies can achieve a new level of situational awareness right now.

Public safety software saves lives. Public safety agencies the world over depend on software to deliver services. Computer Aided Dispatch, Records Management, Jail Management, Courts Management, Human Resources, Resource Tracking, Common Operating Picture, Emergency Management, Communications, and other software applications help public safety agencies achieve their operational mission every day. Software applications form the building blocks to deliver services better, faster, and cheaper. Well, sometimes they do. The 2009 CHAOS study found that 68% of government...

If you are a first responder you are probably familiar with WISER which provides a broad range of information about hazardous materials. You may not be familiar with CHEMM-IST (Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management Intelligent Syndrome Tool) which is an online decision support tool to help you make rapid and competent medical treatment decisions in the field. The goals of this resource are to:

1. Enable first responders, first receivers, other healthcare providers, and planners to plan for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of mass-casualty incidents involving chemicals
2. Provide a comprehensive, user-friendly, web-based resource that is also downloadable in advance, so that it would be available during an event if the internet is not accessible

It was my pleasure to interview Laurie J. Van Leuven recently. Laurie is a DHS/FEMA CHDS Fellow and works in FEMA’s Protection and National Preparedness office in WEashigton D.C. She is very well versed in social media and public safety. Her Master’s thesis was about using social media to engage people during emergencies. She was kind enough to allow me to make it available to you. Click here to download Laurie’s thesis.We talked about social media...

Technology can do a lot to help keep firefighters and police officers safe. But sometimes public safety brain-trusts try to use technology to solve the wrong problem. The FDNY may have done just that.  They recently deployed a software based Mayday system. It’s called the Electronic Fireground Accountability System (EFAS).  A firefighter in trouble can press a button and the software notifies the incident commander. The FDNY thinks this will help reduce the number of line...

Have you ever read the sales or marketing information from a technology company and thought to yourself “what the heck does that mean?” You are not alone. There is a lot of  vague, cluttered, and meaningless language out there; too much pretentious, self-centered techno-babble.It seems every company delivers “a superior collaboration and rich media user experience with best in class ROI in a fully integrated, open and validated desktop virtualization solution” or something similar. I did...

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