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In 2014, tension over police-community relations in Boston, Chicago and New York made headlines. Riots and protests erupted after a series of high-profile police-involved shootings came to light, mostly captured through amateur cellphone videos. And while these videos stirred public sentiment, persistent issues with the admissibility, authenticity, and interpretation of this digital evidence mitigated their […]

Emergency systems must be resilient, flexible and prepared for any eventuality – especially considering that there’s so much on the line, namely, citizens’ lives. Unfortunately, the aging infrastructure underlying many PSAPs (Public Safety Answering Points) exposes them to otherwise preventable risks. Implementing cloud-based PSAPs remedies these risks improves security, and greatly expands the system’s present […]

“ The most important information in a 911 call – by far – is the accurate location. With location and only location, I can send someone to you to check-in and make sure you are OK. With all the other information about your incident except location, all I can do as a public safety telecommunicator […]

“In an emergency, call 9-1-1” is one of the very first things we teach our children. “The 9-1-1 operator will send help.” This is taken as a given, a blessing that we take for granted. Over half-a-million calls are made to 9-1-1 every day. Whenever citizens need police, fire or medical assistance in a hurry, […]

In 2018, the United States commemorated the 50th anniversary of 911 emergency communications, which has saved countless lives since the first call was placed in Haleyville, Alabama. But while the world has seen the profound technological change in the past half-century in almost every field of human endeavor, emergency services have been slower to adapt […]

When a disaster such as a hurricane, flood or terror attack hits with such impact that the infrastructure needed to support emergency services and first responders gets compromised, what can be done? Since most every Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) has call-taking, dispatch and other equipment on premise, there is a single point of failure […]

THE EVENT On January 2nd, 2019 at 2:00 PM, in a remote village in Mexico, a pregnant young lady goes into labor with no medical assistance around. Her family, understanding the situation, calls their local 911 line, asking for immediate help. The call-taker, realizing the delicate situation and sense of emergency, initiated a Carbyne session […]

Technology is enabling better management of risks and crises: With nearly 10,000 people killed and more than 95 million affected, 2017 sadly marked a record-breaking year for natural disasters worldwide, ranging from Hurricane Harvey and the massive earthquake in Mexico to Hurricane Irma and the mudslides in Colombia. Unfortunately, 2018 is turning out to be […]

“Homicides, suicides, domestic violence, car crashes. For most people, it’s the stuff of nightmares. For busy 9-1-1 emergency dispatchers, it’s all in a day’s work.” That’s how Northern Illinois University described the challenges facing our nation’s emergency call handlers, who labor day in and day out to keep U.S. residents healthy and safe in the […]