TiPS Today in Public Safety with Fletch

Completing the nationwide transition to Next Generation 911 will require an estimated $5.8 billion to $9.27 billion in additional investment over seven years. But NG911 is no longer funded like a traditional equipment replacement project.

In this episode, Fletch examines the shift from upfront capital purchases to recurring operating commitments involving software, cloud services, managed networks, cybersecurity, monitoring, location services, data storage, redundancy, and vendor support.

The transition period adds another challenge. Many jurisdictions must temporarily support legacy and next-generation systems at the same time while the new environment is tested and placed into service. That overlap is not waste—it protects emergency-service continuity.

The central questions are long-term ones: Can agencies afford to sustain NG911 after implementation? Who owns the continuing obligation? And how can smaller communities avoid becoming isolated from an interoperable national system?

NTIA's 2026 NG911 Cost Study:
https://www.ntia.gov/report/2026/next-generation-9-1-1-ng911-cost-study

Visit https://www.911tips.com for more TiPS Today in Public Safety.

#NG911 #911 #PublicSafety #EmergencyCommunications #Funding #PSAP #Leadership

  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

The first hour of a major incident reveals decisions an emergency communications center made months before the first call arrived.

In this episode of TiPS Today in Public Safety, I focus on readiness for storms, wildfire, flooding, evacuations, major crashes, and other extended critical events.

The readiness checklist starts with a few essential questions:

- Have backup connectivity, alternate routing, power, credentials, contact lists, and alternate locations actually been tested?
- Are GIS data, agency boundaries, resource information, and mutual-aid procedures current and usable?
- Can the right information reach the right person before the incident outruns the process?
- Are staffing, relief, food, transportation, communication, and recovery plans ready to support the people carrying the event?

Preparedness is not a binder on a shelf. It is the work already completed before the first call comes in.

Watch or listen to the episode posted below, and visit http://911TiPS.com for the complete archive of more than 200 episodes.

You can also read my blogs at http://fletch.tv and find my professional services and complete contact information at http://fletch911.com.

#PublicSafety #EmergencyPreparedness #EmergencyCommunications #911 #NG911 #Resilience #PSAP

TiPS Episode 26 0814 - You Don't Get to Practice the Storm During the Storm

  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

TRAINING IS THE FIRST DEPLOYMENT

Technology is not deployed when it is installed. It is deployed when the person working the console at three in the morning can use it with confidence, judgment, and purpose.

This episode of TiPS Today in Public Safety examines why training must be treated as an operational discipline—not a one-time event before go-live.

Key points include:

- Train the work, not just the screen. People need to understand why a tool matters during an actual call.
- Use quality assurance to uncover training needs and process gaps, not merely to assign scores after the fact.
- Let AI help organize calls, identify patterns, and support coaching—but keep human judgment responsible for the conclusion.
- Reinforce learning with scenarios, refreshers, real examples, and accessible supervisor coaching.

Training is not what happens before the work. Training is how the work becomes reliable.

Watch or listen to the episode posted below. A complete archive of more than 200 TiPS episodes is available at http://911TiPS.com.

Read my blogs at http://fletch.tv, and visit http://fletch911.com for professional services and all my contact information.

#PublicSafety #EmergencyCommunications #911 #Training #QualityAssurance #ArtificialIntelligence #PSAP

  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

A conference can spark an idea. It cannot do the implementation work for you.

In this episode of TiPS Today in Public Safety, I look at what needs to happen after the ballroom clears, the notes come home, and Monday morning brings everyone back to operational reality.

The practical takeaways:

- Choose one or two ideas with real operational value instead of trying to implement everything at once.
- Give every worthwhile change an owner, a first action, and a clear definition of success.
- Bring telecommunicators and supervisors into the process early—the console is the final test.
- Judge a solution by whether it improves decisions, reduces workload, or helps the right thing happen faster.

The conference may give you the idea. Operations is where you prove it was worth having.

 

Watch or listen to the episode posted below. You can also explore the complete archive of more than 200 TiPS episodes at http://911TiPS.com.

 

My public-safety and technology blogs are available at http://fletch.tv, and you can find my professional services and complete contact information at http://fletch911.com.

#PublicSafety #EmergencyCommunications #911 #PSAP #Leadership #Technology #Operations

  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

AI is not here to replace public safety telecommunicators. It is here to reveal whether leadership understands the difference between cutting work and creating capacity.

In this episode, Fletch examines where AI can genuinely help emergency communications: organizing information, reducing administrative drag, finding patterns, supporting quality review, identifying training opportunities, and helping supervisors see what needs attention.

The human still owns the emergency decision. The real return on investment is not simply eliminating a position. It is preventing errors, clarifying information, improving coaching, supporting wellness, and returning time to the people who serve the public.

AI also requires strong governance from the start. It touches personal information, emergency decisions, and public trust.

APCO's recent discussion on AI adoption reinforces the need for clear goals, accountability, and real operational value: https://www.apcointl.org/courses/excellence-in-9-1-1-what-ai-adoption-can-teach-us-webinar-80510/

Visit https://www.911tips.com for more TiPS Today in Public Safety.

#AI #911 #PublicSafety #EmergencyCommunications #PSAP #Leadership

  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

**THE CALL DOES NOT STOP AT THE JURISDICTION LINE | TiPS Today in Public Safety**

Water does not care where the county line is. Neither does a caller in distress. But our systems, policies, and data often still do.

This episode looks at the operational reality of cross-boundary emergencies. A marine incident, interstate crash, railroad event, wildland fire, missing-person case, or mutual-aid response may involve multiple jurisdictions, agencies, radio systems, and datasets. The caller sees one emergency.

Fletch explains why a transfer is a handoff of life-safety information, not an exit, and why information sharing has to become an operational discipline rather than an IT project.

The best transfer is not the fastest transfer. It is the transfer where the next person already understands what matters.

For timely context:
NENA announced its ANSI-approved standard for 9-1-1 notification and coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard in July 2026: https://www.nena.org/news/news.asp?id=731953

Visit https://www.911tips.com for more TiPS Today in Public Safety.

#NG911 #911 #PublicSafety #EmergencyCommunications #PSAP #Interoperability

  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

In #NG911, reliability is no longer just a question of whether a circuit is up. The network, location data, GIS, routing, call handling, cybersecurity, procedures, and people all have to work together when the public needs help.

In this episode, Fletch looks at why a successful emergency call is now a system-of-systems outcome, why information is part of the call itself, and why the trained human being in the center of the operation remains the reliability component that matters most.

The real question is not whether a circuit is available. It is whether the caller can reach the right person with usable information when seconds matter.

The FCC's June 2026 NG911 reliability action is a timely reminder that the move to all-IP emergency communications has to be matched by clear accountability and operational discipline: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-422582A3.pdf

 

Visit https://www.911tips.com for more TiPS Today in Public Safety.

#NG911 #911 #PublicSafety #EmergencyCommunications #PSAP #PublicSafetyTelecommunicators

  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

The 911 call arrives from a large commercial building. The caller reports smoke but does not know where it started, whether anyone is still inside or which entrance responders should use.

But the building knows.

Its fire panel knows which detector activated. Its access-control system knows which doors are locked. Its elevators know where they stopped. Its cameras may show where people are moving, and its environmental sensors may already be tracking heat and smoke.

The information exists. The network exists. But the information and the network have never been properly introduced.

Throughout this week, we explored how information becomes an operational decision and how confidence, provenance and independent verification determine whether that information should be trusted. In this episode, we bring those conversations together.

NG911 has given public safety a secure, resilient, IP-based pathway capable of carrying voice, text, images, video and contextual emergency information. Yet many incidents still arrive carrying little more than a voice, telephone number, location and whatever the caller can explain during one of the most stressful moments of their life.

Meanwhile, buildings, connected vehicles, schools, utilities, enterprise security centers and critical infrastructure are already generating valuable emergency context. Much of that information resides in private-sector systems, where new capabilities will continue to be developed and cultivated.

That makes standards work essential. Public safety cannot remain a spectator while someone else determines how emergency information will be formatted, authenticated, prioritized and delivered.

The objective is not to fill every screen or send every available sensor reading to the telecommunicator. It is to deliver the right information to the right person at the right moment—in a form they can understand and use.

Connectivity alone does not create trust. That requires standards, governance, security, privacy protections, provenance, authentication and continuing public-safety participation.

We built a beautiful network. Now we need to fill it with information that is useful, current, secure, verifiable and delivered as context—not noise.

#TiPS #TodayInPublicSafety #NG911 #NextGeneration911 #EmergencyCommunications #PublicSafety #911Technology #DataStandards #SituationalAwareness #Interoperability #Fletch911

  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