The “Non-Traditional Roundtable: 10 + 1 Year Anniversary” session on Monday brought together public safety communications professionals from universities, health care, capital police and airports.
Participants in the discussion noted the special responsibilities placed on non-traditional public safety communications operations – also including tribal authorities – that often place multi-tasking at a higher premium than in larger emergency communications centers.
Elizabeth M. “Liz” Phillips, assistant director, Kansas University Public Safety Officer, showed the results of a survey indicating responsibilities not typically required in traditional ECCs. The survey was compiled in a bid to develop training standards tailored to non-traditional public safety communications.
Phillips said the survey indicated that nearly all non-traditional centers are responsible for the tasks in traditional ECCs. In addition, non-traditional ECCs monitor or administer:
- Fire alarms
- Panic/duress alarms
- Emergency notifications
- Lost and found
- Public access
“These are some things on this training plan that set us apart,” Phillips said.
Karen Anderson, Division of Capitol Police, Richmond, Virginia, said the traditional public safety telecommunicators are often unaware of the range of skills required in the non-traditional setting.
“I hired a 9-1-1 veteran … and she can barely do the job. She said, ‘I don’t understand how you do all this stuff,’” Anderson said.
Anderson and Lindsay Cline, director, University of Cincinnati, Public Safety Communications, advocated for new APCO training that is geared toward non-traditional public safety communications.
Erica Walsh, Columbus Regional Airport Authority, added: “It’s also important that we (non-traditional public safety communicators) get involved with our state chapters and let the state chapters know what we do and how we do it.’’
Phillips noted that non-traditional members of the public safety communications industry can offer traditional members meeting spaces such as residence halls or auditoriums and locations for training exercises such as old runways or empty parking lots.
“We bring those kind of facilities, and that’s one of the things that I suggest people do, is when people go out and make friends with their primary PSAP – say ‘Hi, we are here and this is what we can bring you.’”
Phillips said the session is called 10+1 because it has been held in the last 11 APCO conferences in a row interrupted in 2020 by the pandemic.
Robert M. Bloom developed the session 12 years ago along with Phillips and Renee Gordon, director, Alexandria (Virginia) Department of Emergency and Customer Communications. Bloom, who was public safety systems administrator for the City of Alexandria Department of Emergency and Customer Communications (DECC), died in a car crash on July 20, 2020. Phillips showed a video memorial to Bloom at the close of the session.
