TiPS Today in Public Safety with Fletch

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Episodes

Welcome to TiPS: Today in Public Safety!

Stay informed. Stay prepared. Stay connected.

TiPS: Today in Public Safety delivers the latest insights in Next Generation 911 (NG911) and public safety technology, helping you navigate the innovations transforming emergency response.

Hosted by Mark J. Fletcher, ENP (“Fletch”), a leading expert with 14 U.S. patents, each episode dives into real-world trends in NG911 implementation, interoperability, cybersecurity, and emergency communications strategy.

Published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8AM Eastern, the show brings you nearly 200 episodes of sharp, relevant, and forward-looking discussions designed for today’s public safety professionals.

Subscribe now at http://911TiPS.com for the updates that matter most in Public Safety communications.

(Ver.26-NOV25)

Episodes

2 days ago

TiPS Episode 26 0302 - NG911 and SD-WAN a Great Tool but Dangerous Assumptions

2 days ago

In this episode, Fletch zooms in on a fresh reminder that “the network” is not always just plumbing, it is the backbone of operations.

Cisco’s newly disclosed critical Catalyst SD-WAN vulnerability (CVE-2026-20127) is a worst-case example of what happens when the control plane becomes the target. The issue is an authentication bypass affecting Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller (vSmart) and SD-WAN Manager (vManage), and it has been flagged as actively exploited.

We break down, in plain English, what this kind of flaw can mean in the real world:

How an attacker can pivot from “one exposed management path” into fabric-wide policy and routing manipulation
Why SD-WAN is both a resiliency win and a blast-radius multiplier when misconfigured
What “cyber exposure” looks like when your WAN is carrying voice, CAD, radio backhaul, video, and interop traffic that public safety depends on

If you run SD-WAN in, near, or adjacent to public safety infrastructure, this is the moment to audit your management exposure, validate your hardening posture, and move patching from “schedule it” to “do it.”

#Cybersecurity #SDWAN #Cisco #PublicSafety #NG911 #CriticalInfrastructure

REMEMBER : NEW EPISODES are published each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning - usually around 8AM on"Fletch's LinkedIn page [ https://www.linkedin.com/in/fletch911/ ]

For Fletch's Blogs, see his Wordpress Site at [ http://Fletch.TV ]
and you can follow him on Social Media (such as X) @Fletch911

For NG911 Consulting Services - you can reach Fletch through Fletch 911, LLC at http://Fletch911.com

5 days ago

TiPS Episode 26 0227 Single Points of Faioure You Forgot You Had

5 days ago

Single points of failure are not always dramatic. Most of them are quiet, boring, and sitting right under your feet until the worst possible moment.

In this TiPS episode, Fletch takes on “Single Points of Failure You Forgot You Had” and walks through the hidden dependencies that can take a PSAP, CAD workflow, logging, mapping, or connectivity down with a single hit. Not a hurricane. Not a cyberattack. One breaker. One circuit. One “redundant” link that is not actually diverse. One firewall rule. One overlooked service. One person who is the only one who knows how to fix it.

This is a practical, operations-focused conversation about how to spot single points of failure before they become a headline, why “we have redundancy” is not a statement until you test it, and how to build resilience that actually survives real-world conditions.

If you have ever said “we should be fine” right before something went sideways, this episode is for you.

TiPS Archive: 911TiPS.com

X: x.com/@Fletch911

Blogs: Fletch.TV

7 days ago

TiPS Episode 26 0225 - Implementing ASAP Direct Connect w/ Bill Toth Mission Critical Partners

7 days ago

In this TiPS episode, Fletch sits down with Bill Toth from Mission Critical Partners for a practical, boots-on-the-ground conversation about deploying ASAP Direct Connect and what “implementation” actually looks like.

ASAP is not a buzzword, and it is not a theoretical discussion of standards. It is a proven way to move alarm events from the monitoring center to a 9-1-1 center as digital data, rather than by phone. That means fewer manual entry steps, fewer transcription errors, cleaner CAD records, and faster dispatch on the calls that truly matter.

Bill walks us through the real-world 0deployment path, including how agencies and alarm industry partners are using modern secure connectivity approaches. That includes integrating with AWS GovCloud, to support ASAP Direct Connect. We also get into the practical wins that leadership cares about: reduced call handling time, improved accuracy, better unit notifications, and less time spent doing “alarm call admin work” on the phone when your console is already busy.

If your center is looking for a realistic, step-by-step understanding of ASAP deployment, this episode is for you. Bill and I cover:

What ASAP is, and what it IS NOT
The difference between voice alarm calls and data-driven alarm delivery
Implementation milestones that matter, from planning to testing to go-live
Security, connectivity, and operational readiness considerations
The time savings and accuracy gains agencies are seeing in the field
How to set expectations with stakeholders, vendors, and leadership

Subscribe for more TiPS episodes on NG911, operations, staffing, and real-world public safety technology that survives contact with production.

TiPS Archive: 911TiPS.com

X: x.com/@Fletch911

Blogs: Fletch.TV

Monday Feb 23, 2026

TiPS Episode 26 0223 Staffing for the NG911 Console: More Data, Same Humans

Monday Feb 23, 2026

TiPS Episode 26 0223 goes live with a simple reality check: NG911 is not just a technology upgrade, it is a workload upgrade.

We keep talking about what the next console can ingest: video, photos, floorplans, sensor feeds, access logs, medical data, telemetry, even “AI insights.” Great. But the number of humans sitting at that console did not magically double. More inputs, same staffing model, same shift pressure, same 2:13 AM Saturday call volume.

In this episode, Fletch breaks down the myth that more data automatically makes calls easier, and explains why the NG911 console is quickly starting to look less like a phone position and more like air traffic control. The real issue is not headcount alone. It is role design, workflow design, and decision training. If everything gets dumped on the call taker, the outcomes are predictable: slower processing, missed cues, higher stress, lower retention, and worse performance on the worst days.

You will hear practical, real-world ways to make NG911 a force multiplier without burning out your people, including how to split the work, not the person, how to build a data triage function, and why training needs to move from “click here” to “when this arrives, what do you do first.”

Because if your operational plan is “the call taker can handle it,” that is not a plan. That is a wish.

TiPS Archive: 911TiPS.com

X: x.com/@Fletch911

Blogs: Fletch.TV

Friday Feb 20, 2026

TiPS Episode 26 0220 - The Location Drift Disaster

Friday Feb 20, 2026

In TiPS Episode 26 0220, “The Location Drift Disaster: Why Your Map Slowly Lies,” Fletch digs into one of the sneakiest NG911 problems: geospatial drift. Not a dramatic outage, but the slow misalignment that shows up as extra transfers, boundary arguments, and “why did that route here?” moments.

We break down how “small, reasonable” GIS edits to boundaries, road centerlines, and addressing can quietly turn into operational pain, and why NG911 raises the stakes because GIS is no longer JUST a map. It's the ROUTING ENGINE. You'll also get practical ways to catch drift early using governance, validation, and a simple border-address test set.

If you have ever heard “that’s not our district,” this episode is for you.

Full archive: http://911tips.com

Blog content: http://Fletch.tv | http://Fletch911.com

Wednesday Feb 18, 2026

TiPS Episode 26 0218 Digital Alarms to 911 Series: BEYOND Nlets

Wednesday Feb 18, 2026

In this next episode of this special series on Alarm Calls to 9-1-1 on TiPS: Today in Public Safety, Fletch digs into ASAP, the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol, and why it is quietly becoming one of the biggest workflow upgrades available to ECCs.

If you have ever taken an alarm call the “old way,” you already know the pain. A phone call from a monitoring center, a queue, a verbal read-off, a dispatcher typing it all into CAD, and the inevitable moment where someone asks, “Can you repeat the address?” ASAP flips that model on its head by sending actual alarm data digitally and securely straight into a PSAP’s CAD workflow. No phone call. No transcription step. No slow-motion obstacle course.

This episode walks through how ASAP came to be, why it originally leveraged NLETS as the backbone, and what the results looked like in early proof-of-concept deployments, including turnaround times of 15 seconds or less from alarm to dispatch. Then we break down what ASAP is at a practical level, including the ALQ and ALR message exchange model and how agencies can accept, reject, update, and clear alarm events digitally.

We also take on the uncomfortable reality behind alarm traffic. The numbers are blunt. Most alarm activations are not emergencies, and a huge percentage are tied to simple user errors like entering the wrong code or forgetting to disarm. ASAP helps cut the waste and the friction, and it lets cancellations and updates move as fast as the data can travel.

Finally, we look at how deployment is evolving beyond the traditional NLETS model, including newer options like cloud-based connectivity and lightweight approaches such as ASAP View for agencies that are not ready for full CAD integration.

Follow Fletch for more:

911TiPS.com

Fletch.TV

x.com/@Fletch911

Monday Feb 16, 2026

TiPS Episode 26 0216 - The MYTH of Five Nines in Your NG911 ESInet

Monday Feb 16, 2026

In this episode of TiPS: Today in Public Safety, Fletch takes a hard look at one of the most overused comfort blankets in network design: “five nines.” It sounds impressive on a slide deck. It sounds responsible in a contract. It even looks reassuring when someone puts it in a glossy brochure.

But in a real ESInet, “99.999%” is often just a number that describes one component, in one place, under one set of assumptions. And the public does not call 9-1-1 to test your component availability. They call because their worst day just started, and they need an end-to-end system that actually works.

This episode breaks down what “five nines” really means, why it gets misused, and how reliability claims can fall apart the moment you zoom out and look at the full path: origination network, call routing, NG911 core services, GIS dependencies, redundancy design, PSAP operations, and the handoffs between all of it. You will also hear why “sunny day outages” happen so often, and why partial failures and intermittent issues can be more dangerous than a total outage, because they hide in the cracks and quietly break workflows.

If you are responsible for NG911 planning, ESInet procurement, governance, cybersecurity, operations, or vendor oversight, this is the episode that helps you stop buying numbers and start buying outcomes.

Because the mission is not five nines. The mission is: the call and the data get through. Every time.

In this episode, we cover:

What “five nines” actually means in real downtime
Why component SLAs do not equal mission success
The end-to-end reality of ESInet dependencies
Hidden single points of failure you forgot you had
What to measure instead: outcomes, failover behavior, and operational continuity
The questions every PSAP, 911 authority, and state program should be asking

TiPS: Today in Public Safety is where we talk real-world 9-1-1, real-world NG911, and we translate buzzwords into operational reality.

Follow Fletch for more:

x.com/@Fletch911

Fletch.TV

911TiPS.com

Friday Feb 13, 2026

TiPS Episode 26 0213 – MLTS to NG911: Why “Dial 9” Is the Least of Your Problems

Friday Feb 13, 2026

If you have ever heard someone say, “We’re good. We put up a sticker that says Dial 9,” this episode is for you.

Because the truth is simple: “Dial 9” is not the problem. It is the symptom.

The real problem is what happens after 9-1-1 is dialed. Which network does the call ride? What location goes with it? Does it land at the right PSAP? Does it include dispatchable location that responders can actually use? And when your environment is a mix of legacy PBX, UCaaS, softphones, remote users, Wi-Fi, VPNs, and multi-building campuses, that simple call path can turn into a maze fast.

In this episode of TiPS: Today in Public Safety, Fletch breaks down the gap between traditional MLTS (Multi-Line Telephone Systems) and what NG911 expects, not in marketing terms, but in real operational reality. We talk about why legacy “E9-1-1 thinking” falls apart in modern enterprise environments, where the device is mobile, the user is not always at a desk, and location is no longer a static record in a database.

You’ll hear about:

Why “dialing 9” does not make a call compliant or reliable

How calls get misrouted when location and routing data are wrong

Why dispatchable location is the real lifesaver, not the phone system brand

What changes when NG911 brings IP networks, GIS routing, and richer data into the equation

The questions every enterprise, campus, hospital, and government facility should be asking before they “migrate”

This is a practical reality check for anyone responsible for enterprise telecom, public safety readiness, or NG911 planning. Because when the call goes wrong, the post-mortem will not care about your dial plan. It will care about what the responders knew, when they knew it, and whether they arrived fast enough.

#NG911 #911 #PublicSafety #EmergencyCommunications #MLTS #DispatchableLocation #KarisLaw #RAYBAUMSACT #PSAP #ECC