Law Enforcement Technology

FEB 2014

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at dealing with these types of high profile events. What might be a once in a lifetime event for an area happens all the time." He explains that a president may go to a town once or twice in his presidency, but he will go to the airport every time. "Low fre- quency/high consequence events become higher frequency for non-traditions," he says. Due to this, many non-traditional are very involved in emergency operations centers. McCaughan explains her dispatchers are subject matter experts on their area and the public they serve. "We walk it," she explains of their jurisdiction. "It would be hard to walk the entire city of a traditional." A common mission It can be a struggle for some to accept that non-traditionals have the same needs as traditionals. "A lot of my peers have trouble convincing administrators that they need the same kind of train- ing and the same level of clearance," explains Phillips. "There is really this hope among university administrators that nothing bad will ever happen here." McCaughan agrees maintaining the skill set to handle high intensity events can be a challenge. "They are often small," says Wooten. "They may lack the abil- ity to get some outside training, and people don't look at them as primary PSAPs. Often people think that the 911 centers at an airport or a small university aren't primary, but that the calls go to a primary PSAP at the county and then get shuttled to that agency. That's not always the truth." Wooten believes this challenge can also lead to a strength because non-traditionals may not have the resources to send their people outside the agency for training. "I worked with dispatchers, airport police and fire to develop training pack- ages that could be used for all three," he explains. "So dis- patchers got exposure to other things that made them a better dispatcher…such as becoming more familiar with the campus or something unique on that campus." Likewise, Phillips finds 908.852.3700 www.imt-government.com n Central Command Post n Mobile Command Vehicles n Squad Cars n Handheld Receivers n Airborne Repeat Circle 54 on Reader Service Card "Not only do we handle law enforcement and 911 and emergency services, most non-traditional centers take pleasure in handling public works. We're the only ones here 24/7, 365. This is true for most hospitals and airports, too. The PSAP is the only place that answers the phone all the time." —Elizabeth Phillips, assistant director at the University of Kansas public safety offce LET_06-10SeaAirportCities0214.indd 9 1/24/14 12:36 PM

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