PSAP Mutual Aid – How Technology Can Help

Disasters can take many forms, both man-made and natural occurrences.  Weather-related disasters such as hurricanes can be predicted but not deterred. The earliest recorded devastation wrought by a hurricane occurred in 1935 courtesy of the Labor Day category 5 Hurricane with sustained winds of 185 mph and a fatality toll of 485 (storms were named first with female names in 1953, and in the United States using female and male names in 1978). Other category 5 storms in U.S. history include Camille, in 1969 with winds at 175 mph and a fatality toll of 104 plus additional missing, Andrew 1992 winds at 165 mph and a fatality toll of 65, and Michael in 2018 winds at 160 mph, with a fatality toll of 59.

Terrible devastation occurred during each of these storms but it was Katrina, a category 3 storm when she hit the New Orleans area in 2005, that prompted a change in mutual aid for the country’s PSAPs. Katrina’s fatalities at 1,392 far outnumbered any of the category 5 hurricanes that have made land in the United States. The massive devastation brought mutual aid from all over the country to help EMS, Rescue, Fire, and Law enforcement, but there were no mechanisms in place for mutual aid in a PSAP.

Mutual Aid is a common term in public safety.   In a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources, mutual aid agreements establish a variety of terms where one party (or agency) provides resources upon request to another.  Resources can include personnel, teams, facilities, equipment, and supplies.

The practice of organized strategy and the mutual concept was popularized in the late 1800s by philosopher Peter Kropotkin but embraced over 100 years prior by fire departments (1711), when the Mutual Fire Societies was formed.  It is based on the idea and practice of direct action.   Mutual Aid is NOT a charity, but a system where people give what they can, and others get what they need.  Fire Departments, EMS, and law enforcement have used the mutual aid system for decades.  What of the 9-1-1 profession?

The Telecommunicator Emergency Response Taskforce (TERT) is the first answer to mutual aid within the 9-1-1 profession.  Developed in November 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) and Hurricane Rita (September 2005, TERT was embraced by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  By 2007 the first APCO/NENA American National Standards (ANS) document was finalized providing the requirements for the National mutual aid program.

The standard was last updated in 2015, taking into account the advancements in technology, training, and operational practices.  TERT, although created at a national level, is embraced and managed at a state level by many states throughout the US. FEMA provides a basic TERT course for PSAP personnel as a basic course along with several other essential requirements and skills (https://cdn.ymaws.com/sites/www.nena.org/resource/resmgr/Standards/APCO-NENA_ANS_1_105_2-2015_T.pdf.).

TERT was the answer and continues to be for the many States who have chosen to implement it.  However, the 2020 Pandemic introduced a whole new look at challenges.  As the pandemic swept through the public safety world, staffing shortages due to quarantine for sick family members and quarantine for sick personnel as well as the need to social distance, created a situation where TERT could not easily assist.

Enter new technology!  The introduction of the remote workforce in 9-1-1 took hold while Emergency Communication Center (ECC) directors struggled to keep PSAP operations up. Through the technology associated with FirstNet (Hunt, 2022), agencies enabled 9-1-1 telecommunicators and dispatchers to take calls and handle CAD operations from their homes or other remote locations (allowing for social distancing requirements).

In Palm Beach County, go-bags were created complete with 9-1-1 call handling equipment, a headset, and a FirstNet modem.  The go-bags enabled remote call-taking and dispatching from the employee’s homes or other designated locations.  The same technology was used in Alexandria, Virginia, Arlington County, Virginia, Hamilton County, Ohio, and six counties across Maryland.  The great success of these implementations can complement a TERT deployment with easier accessed mutual aid. Remote dispatching can also be quickly implemented for a PSAP evacuation (due to fire as an example).

Mr. Alexander Graham Bell certainly never imagined the progress of the telephone when he made that first call in 1875.  Mr. Don Hings could never have imagined how far his 1937 invention of a portable two-way radio would go.  Our world of technology is expanding, some would say exploding (but that sounds rather negative!), and finding ways to embrace those changes and use the technology to benefit our world of public safety will open bold (and perhaps seemingly strange) new worlds for us to explore.

~ Cherie Bartram

References

Hunt, J. (2022, August 25). Remote Work Opens New Possibilities for 9-1-1: The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how dispatchers work from home. First Responder Network Authority. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://www.firstnet.gov/newsroom/blog/remote-work-opens-new-possibilities-9-1-1-covid-19-pandemic-demonstrated-how