Announcements

APCO 2023 Call for Speakers is still open! Apply to speak during one of our professional development tracks:

• Communications Center Management
• Cutting Edge Developments
• Cybersecurity for Public Safety Communications
• Emergency Preparedness, Response & Situational Awareness
• FirstNet: Transforming the Future of Emergency Communications
• Frontline Telecommunicator
• Wellness in the Emergency Communications Center
• Leadership Development
• NG9-1-1 and Emerging Technologies
• Radio and Wireless Communications Technologies.

If selected, you'll receive one complimentary full conference registration.

The Daytona Beach office is closed Thursday, November 10, due to Hurricane Nicole. Both Daytona and Alexandria are closed Friday, November 11, for Veterans Day.

November 8 | 1:00 p.m. ET
Free for members | Worth 1 CDE
Join us to learn how Director of Nashville Department of Emergency Communications, Steve Martini, is leveraging technology to encourage and track supervisor and employee communications to reinforce positive feedback. He’ll share some of the problems he has encountered with disengaged supervisors and employees and how he has used the Guardian Tracking performance and early intervention tool to help engage his team.

November 2-3  |  Arlington, VA
Join us for sessions focused on real-life scenarios and a special session on remote 9-1-1. The event will demonstrate the art of the possible by bringing NG9-1-1 technologies to life. Attendees earn 6 CDEs.

This week's cyber tip of the week in honor of Cybersecurity Awareness Month is focused on cyber incident response plans. Check out the video and view additional resources on the APCO website.

In honor of October being cybersecurity awareness month, we have created short videos with cybersecurity tips and useful info. This week we talk about passwords.

In honor of October being #Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we have created short videos with cybersecurity tips and useful info. This week we talk about QR codes. 

November 8 | 1:00 p.m.
Free for members | Worth 1 CDE
Join us to learn how Director of Nashville Department of Emergency Communications, Steve Martini, is leveraging technology to encourage and track supervisor and employee communications to reinforce positive feedback. He’ll share some of the problems he has encountered with disengaged supervisors and employees and how he has used the Guardian Tracking performance and early intervention tool to help engage his team. Leslye Harrell, Vector Solutions Product Manager and former Supervisor at Hendricks County Communications in Indiana, will share what she learned while using Vector's training management system at Hendricks CC and how you can streamline and improve your training programs to create a high-performing and motivated “ECC Dream Team.”

October 11 | 1:00 p.m. ET
Free for members | Worth 1 CDE
Hiring and retaining dispatchers has become a major challenge for most emergency dispatch centers. Dispatcher workload and stress largely contribute to this, but how do you address these issues? Join Todd Tuttle as he shares his experience with automated dispatch alerting and how it can help reduce PST workloads and improve response times.

Our Daytona Beach headquarters office is will be closed the remainder of the week, due to hurricane Ian. We plan to reopen on Monday, October 3. Stay safe everyone.

October 19 | 1:00 p.m. ET
Free to members | Worth 1 CDE
Traditionally, discrepancies in technology, preparation, coordination between agencies, and school policies and procedures could slow down a notification to emergency responders. Even with all the advances in interoperable communications in public safety, schools’ typical main form of communication in an emergency is a 9-1-1 call. In this webinar, what is and is not true interoperability, the importance of incident command for school leadership, and examples of tools to help guide schools and districts’ learning to improve their response will be discussed. Key takeaways include the understanding of the relationship between public safety and schools and the impact that relationship has on the community, how to help improve communications between the two to provide a faster, more effective response, and how to integrate interoperability in your area.

September 20 | 1:00 p.m. ET
Worth 1 CDE | Free for members
When an emergency call comes in, lives are on the line. Your telecommunicators have to get it right every time. But with turnover at an all-time high, and tenure at an all-time low, keeping telecommunicators engaged, well-coached, trained, confident and happy, so they can perform their best, is more challenging than ever. How can you improve retention and catch struggling telecommunicators before they slide down a slippery slope? Hear about the many innovative things one 911 center is doing to address these challenges. In this webinar, we’ll be joined by Kari Morrissey, Assistant Director for the Anoka County Emergency Communications Center.

September 13 | 1 p.m. ET
Free for members | $59 for non-members
Worth 1 CDE
By enabling the transmission of voice, text, photos, videos and IoT data over an IP network, NG9‑1‑1 has the capability to transcend the limitations of traditional voice-based 9‑1‑1 systems and significantly improve public safety. But deploying NG9‑1‑1 comes with challenges and without a robust network foundation it will be hard to achieve success.

The APCO Institute is offering Cybersecurity Fundamentals for the ECC, a one-day course in the APCO Virtual Classroom on October 11, 2022. Led in real time by a cybersecurity expert, the course provides up-to-date information and training to address the challenges that today’s ECCs face with cyberattacks.

Public Safety Telecommunicator 1, 7th Edition (PST1) - Canada

August 24 - September 20 (Online) or September 12 - 16 (APCO Virtual Classroom)
Worth 40 CDEs. Learn more

Fire Service Communications, 2nd Edition - Canada

September 14 - October 25 (Online)

Worth 32 CDEs. Learn more

Please anticipate a brief downtime between 11PM and 3AM ET while infrastructure maintenance is performed on PSConnect Friday, August 19. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate your patience.

At APCO 2022 in Anaheim, California, APCO announced its new executive committee: President Angela R. Batey, First Vice President Becky Neugent, Second Vice President Stephen Martini and Immediate Past President Jason Kern. Attendees heard about the state of the association as well as updates about federal legislative and regulatory actions that affect the public safety communications profession. Three inspiring keynotes, more than 120 educational sessions, numerous networking opportunities and the expo filled out the week. Read all the news from APCO 2022 and visit our APCO 2022 Flickr Gallery.

Tuesday, September 20 | 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET
Worth 1 CDE
Free for members; $59 for non-members

When an emergency call comes in, lives are on the line. Your telecommunicators have to get it right every time. But with turnover at an all-time high, and tenure at an all-time low, keeping telecommunicators engaged, well-coached, trained, confident and happy, so they can perform their best, is more challenging than ever. How can you improve retention and catch struggling telecommunicators before they slide down a slippery slope? Hear about the many innovative things one 9-1-1 center is doing to address these challenges. In this webinar, we’ll be joined by Kari Morrissey, Assistant Director for the Anoka County Emergency Communications Center.

We see it in the news, in discussions on PSConnect and in talking with members — emergency communications centers (ECCs) being short staffed is a growing issue in the industry. Watch the first webinar in our staffing series  “Improving Staffing for ECCs: How to Measure Your Staffing Needs” and view other resources that can help ECCs identify the causes of and address staffing shortages.

APCO's new Diversity, Inclusion, Civility and Equity (DICE) Workshop is an intensive, participatory three-day workshop designed to help emergency communications center staff create healthy workplaces in which employees feel valued as their true selves. The workshop brings together supervisors and others in an ECC to explore experiences and viewpoints specific to an agency’s staff and addresses how perceptions affect employee interaction and workplace satisfaction.

Voting is now open for APCO 1st Vice President and 2nd Vice President. Voting will close on Tuesday, August 9, at 2:15 p.m. PT, and the results will be announced at APCO 2022 during the second general business session, Tuesday, August 9, at 4:15 p.m. PT.

Only full or life members are eligible to vote.

Be sure to save on your APCO 2022 registration with the early bird rate ending July 8. We hope you can join us this August in Anaheim.

We're looking for volunteers to help us at this year's Annual Conference & Expo taking place Aug. 7-10 in Anaheim, CA. Benefits of volunteering include complimentary day passes, $100 toward your chapter, an official volunteer t-shirt and more!

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families of Uvalde. We are grateful for the telecommunicators and other heroes responding to Uvalde as well as the other recent tragedies.

This webinar has been postponed from May 24 to June 2.

Closing the Gap in Emergency Response Time
June 2 | 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET
Free for members; $59 non-members. Worth 1 CDE.
Sponsored by Everbridge

Learn how Everbridge 911 Connect, a RapidSOS Ready™ solution, provides public safety alerting authorities and ECC dispatchers with localized incident-specific information about the caller without the need for additional screens or hardware.

Closing the Gap in Emergency Response Time
May 24 | 1 p.m. ET | Worth 1 CDE | Free for members

Arming first responders with data can save lives but there are serious gaps in information and insight when a 9-1-1 call comes in. In this webinar, learn how Everbridge 911 Connect, a RapidSOS Ready™ solution, provides public safety alerting authorities and ECC dispatchers with localized incident-specific information about the caller without the need for additional screens or hardware.

May 16 | 1 p.m. ET | Free for all

During disasters and other outages impacting the ability of the public to reach 9-1-1, network resiliency is key to public safety. The industry’s voluntary Wireless Resiliency Cooperative Framework is one approach to promote greater coordination during an emergency. But how should it be improved to increase public safety? Emergency Communications Centers also need timely situational awareness of wireless network outages to take the steps necessary to manage emergencies and keep the public safe. Join us to hear about the role of the FCC in ensuring network resiliency and perspectives from state and local 9-1-1 leaders.

This webinar not eligible for CDE credit.

A Formula for Public Safety Success
Wednesday, May 4 | 1 - 2 p.m. ET
Sponsored by Hexagon

Closing the Gap in Emergency Response Time
Tuesday, May 24 | 1 - 2 p.m. ET
Sponsored by Everbridge

Calls Involving Missing Children on the Autism Spectrum
April 27 | 1 pm ET | Free for all | One CDE

Presented by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)

In this webinar participants will learn about NCMEC’s data, free resources, and recommendations related to missing children on the autism spectrum. In addition, participants will learn about FDLE’s training, promising practices, and the positive outcomes of its Missing Child Alert Program. 

We received more than 100 entries to our contest on npstw.org where we asked you to share your superpower as a telecommunicator. We posted videos from Senators Kaine (VA), Klobuchar (MN), and Representatives Torres (CA) and Doyle (PA) in celebration of NPSTW. And staff got to visit several ECCs during the week to thank our members and recognize the amazing superheroes that you truly are. Thank you for celebrating with us!

Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN) recorded a message for our members recognizing National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week.

You are a hero behind the headset. Regardless of your tenure in this industry, you’ve made a difference in someone’s life. Every time you look in the mirror, please reflect and remember that.

We look forward to honoring you all week during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week! Check out npstw.org and download our social media badges to let everyone know about your telecommunicator superpower. https://www.npstw.org/resources/

APCO's Annual Conference & Expo is taking place August 7-10 in Anaheim, CA, offering four days of education, networking and an exhibit hall. You do not want to miss out on the event for public safety communications. Register by July 8 to get the early bird rate.

Register today for APCO 2022 and save $100. This offer is for one day only so don't miss out!

Cybersecurity Fundamentals for the ECC is a one-day course for training emergency communications professionals on the issues and challenges today’s ECCs face with cyberattacks. Training will address the anatomy of a cyberattack, signs of an ongoing cyberattack, mitigation techniques and more. Available as an in-person pre-conference course at APCO 2022 on August 6, or in the APCO Virtual Classroom on June 16 or October 11.

May 4 | 1 p.m. ET | 1 CDE | Free for members

Public safety agencies are undergoing a process of modernization, needing to radically rethink workflows by leveraging next-generation technologies. Organizations are challenged to digitally transform, build more trust and engagement with the communities they serve and retain and increase their skilled workforces – all while dealing with new pressures and increasing calls for service. So how do you do it?

Breaking Through: My Journey to Becoming the First Female NFL Official

Sarah Thomas is a woman of many firsts – she was the first female official to ever work a major college football game, the first woman to officiate a bowl game and the first to officiate in a Big Ten stadium. And as of February 7, 2021, she is the first female to officiate a Super Bowl. 

April 27 | 1 p.m. ET | 1 CDE | Free for Members

When every second counts, having accurate location data is a must. Attend this webinar to learn how you can improve GIS data, enhance your 9-1-1 workflow and save valuable time with highly accurate location data.

NPSTW is coming up April 10-16. To celebrate, we want to know what superpowers you think public safety telecommunicators already have … or what superpowers would make the lifesaving work they do easier. Vote for your favorite entries and submit your own for a chance to win $100 for your ECC!

April 27 | 1 p.m. ET | Free for Everyone | 1 CEU
Time is of the essence in finding and safely recovering a missing child on the autism spectrum. Based on the data, NCMEC has developed a wide range of free resources to support those responding to missing children on the autism spectrum. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) has recently launched a new course for public safety telecommunicators to assist in the safe recovery of missing children with autism. This includes the need for timely alerts to authorities and communities that a child is missing and endangered.

Brent Gleeson will keynote the opening general session at #APCO2022, taking place August 7-10 in Anaheim. Registration opens April 4 – be sure to sign up to check out Brent’s presentation.

Please anticipate a brief downtime between 11PM and 3AM ET while infrastructure maintenance is performed on PSConnect Friday, February 18. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate your patience.

Mark your calendars! Save up to $300 on your #APCO2022 registration for one day only. 

Nominate a hero in your life for an Emergency Communications Center Award or a Technology Leadership Award and they could win one full conference registration for APCO 2022.

We are looking for work group members to participate in two standards. One standard addresses alternate responder recommendations such as social workers, psychiatrists or other locally designated alternatives for non-violent situations. The other standard, which is a revision, provides public safety agencies with tools to assist them in planning and preparing a request for proposal (RFP) to accurately meeting the needs of their center. Deadline to sign up is February 24.

The Health & Wellness Committee started the year off with a 30 day yoga challenge from Yoga With Adriene. Every day in January we have been posting a new challenge to APCO's Facebook page, and if you haven't been following along, it's not too late to start! We encourage you and your co-workers to participate and promote wellness in your ECC.

The deadline to join the working group for the upcoming Multi-Functional, Multi-Discipline Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) Minimum Functional Requirements standard has been extended to January 15. All interested persons should complete the online application.

We want you to join the lineup of speakers at APCO 2022, taking place August 7-10 in Anaheim, CA. So if you think you have hands-on experience to share or you can present a unique perspective, we invite you to submit a proposal for consideration as a conference speaker. Speakers receive a complimentary registration.