EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES

ECS specializes in 'expert witness' and analytical services relating to the operational, business process and technologies involved in "Emergency Communications Dispatching" to a wide range of clients including local governments, 9-1-1 authority boards, technology entrepreneurs, trial attorneys and the news media.

TYPICALLY, ECS IS RETAINED TO:
Reconstruct what happened, where, when, why, and how it happened when a call to 9-1-1 results in a less than desirable, questioned or challenged outcome.
Provide objective examination of the issues relating to the potential of merging 9-1-1 dispatch centers operated by different cities, counties, agencies or public safety services, and whether or not such a merger is advisable and politically and/or economically viable.
Provide reality-based advice on the viability and applicability of proposed technology to the highly varied, widely dispersed and loosely organized public safety dispatching community and emergency communications industry.

Our Principal Consultant is Paul D. Linnée who is among the first persons in the U.S.A. to have been awarded the prestigious "ENP" (Emergency Number Professional) certification (in 1997) by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), an international 9-1-1 service professional association.

Linnée's career in emergency communications dates back to 1970 with service as a 9-1-1 dispatcher, police officer and supervisor, firefighter and supervisor, 9-1-1 dispatch supervisor, medium and large 9-1-1 dispatch center (PSAP) manager, private sector department director, corporate officer and co-owner of 9-1-1 technology and service companies, independent 9-1-1 system consultant, 9-1-1 "expert witness", author and frequent contributor to professional journals.

Linnée has also specialized in work with states and units of local government (usually counties, but sometimes cities or 9-1-1 "Joint Powers Boards") on the technical feasibility of and political (with a small 'p') consensus building necessary for the implementation of area-wide, interoperable, shared public safety radio systems. He has been retained by jurisdictions such as Cook County, IL (Chicago's county), MARC (Kansas City metro regional planning agency), Bi-State Regional Authority ("Quad Cities" Illinois/Iowa metro area) and St. Louis County, MO to provide planning guidance on the implementation of interoperable radio systems.

Linnée maintains specific expertise in the following areas:

9-1-1 dispatch center (PSAP) operations and management

Staffing and deployment, task analysis, training & supervision

9-1-1 dispatch center consolidation issues analysis

Workloads, equipment costs and savings, facility costs and savings, staff merging and its myriad issues, governance, budgeting, funding and political consensus building.

What about the concept of a "virtually consolidated PSAP" as a starting point?

PSAPs stay separate but are all integrated into one networked CAD, E9-1-1 and radio system, so as to operate as if they were physically consolidated.

9-1-1 call processing review, including:

Wireless 9-1-1 implementation status and effectiveness

Decisions regarding routing calls to certain PSAPs
Decisions regarding use of caller location data (if used at all)

Caller interrogation effectiveness/appropriateness
Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) event entry/management
Dispatch priority decisions and resulting actions.

Area-wide, shared radio system conceptual planning

Should it be done?
How large an area is practical?
Does it affect, or is it affected by the number of PSAPs?
What about issues such as "Project 25" compliance?
Digital or analog?
Microwave, leased phone line or fiber connectivity?
Trunked or conventional?
'Simulcast' or 'multi-cast'?
Who owns and governs the system?

Consideration of public/private partnerships.

Through his extensive professional career, Linnée has also developed alliances with similarly experienced professionals whom he can call in for consultation in their specific areas of expertise, such as CAD and E9-1-1 system design and technologies, to include NG 9-1-1 (Next Generation) and all of the permutations of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and its impact on 9-1-1.

One hour free consultation:

For free e-mail advice, send your questions, comments or ideas to paull911@aol.com. (Or you can click on "CONTACT US" on this site) For issues that are of particular interest to the community, we may publish (with your permission) your questions along with our answers on this web site.

NEWS MEDIA NOTE: If you are researching an incident in which "the 911 system" is alleged to have been at fault or is being questioned, call us for a discussion and to provide you with the context needed to better direct your reporting. A newspaper reporter whom we assisted in this manner recently wrote:

"We've interviewed a lot of 911 experts on this case, and I've found your responses to be the most balanced."

Click here to view Paul Linnee's web entry at the "Expert Witness" site Jurispro.com, where there are links to his resume, and an article dealing with "9-1-1 Liability Issues"

Paul Linnee, ENP

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