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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has just released its Responding to Drone Calls: Guidance for Emergency Communications Centers (ECCs).
As unmanned aircraft system (UAS), or drone, activity continues to increase in the United States, ECCs may experience an increase in drone related calls. To ensure an appropriate response, ECCs should understand the distinctions between safe and unsafe drone activity and collect the information needed to inform potential law enforcement action. This new guidance from CISA is consistent with the latest information from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on what drone operators are safely allowed and not allowed to do. It also provides a suggested script that ECCs may follow when receiving a drone-related call.
You can access CISA’s Responding to Drone Calls: Guidance for Emergency Communications Centers within its collection of resources on UAS and critical infrastructure.
This new guidance from CISA is timely, not only because it provides actionable information for the public safety community, but also because it’s release coincides with two drone-related outreach events from the FAA next week: the UAS Symposium, on September 14 and 15, and National Drone Safety Awareness Week, from September 13 to 19.
Public safety agencies may want to take advantage of the FAA’s public outreach events next week to get up to speed on regulatory changes and trends in public drone use. The latest regulatory changes from the FAA, called Operations Over People and Remote ID, went into effect in April 2021. While there are still many legal constraints in place for drone use, these two new regulations were designed to greatly facilitate safe recreational use of drones without the need for any special FAA waivers – even when flying drones over people and at night.
National Drone Safety Awareness Week is a public awareness campaign, and this year it is focusing on recreational flyers. The campaign will encourage fun, safe, recreational drone-flying activities throughout the week, while at the same time building public awareness around these significant regulatory changes the FAA has implemented over the past year.
The FAA UAS Symposium is a low-cost virtual event. It will provide opportunities to interact with FAA experts and peers during presentations, roundtables and virtual networking events to help shape the future of UAS integration into the U.S. National Airspace System.
(Source: CISA, FAA)
CISA, in partnership with SAFECOM and the National Council of Statewide Interoperability Coordinators (NCSWIC), recently released a suite of updated guidance entitled Funding and Sustaining Land Mobile Radio (LMR): Materials for Decision-Makers.
Although the federal government is allocating funding for FirstNet, it is important that elected officials and decision-makers understand that the public safety community will continue to rely on LMR as a primary means of communication, and will likely be integrating new or improved LMR capabilities, features, functions, and services for years to come. This updated guidance will assist public safety agencies in funding and maintaining critical and interoperable communications capabilities through these technology transitions.
The document suite includes a three-part series referred to as “the LMR Trio”, containing information on: 1) the basics of LMR system components for non-technical decision-maker audiences; 2) the impacts of emerging technologies on LMR systems, including how to maintain critical voice capability through the LMR-to-LTE transition; and 3) an overview of the P25 standard explaining its importance to public safety communications interoperability.
Along with the LMR Trio, the updated suite contains two additional documents:
- A Funding and Sustaining LMR Systems Brochure, serving as a tri-fold handout for state, local, tribal, and territorial government decision-makers and elected officials to explain the importance of funding and sustaining public safety radio systems.
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Promoting the Importance of Funding and Sustaining LMR Action Memorandum. This action memorandum from SAFECOM and NCSWIC urges decision-makers to support the funding and sustainment of LMR systems. To help decision-makers justify these purchases, the memorandum summarizes best practices from the LMR Trio and provides a list of resources for more information.
These documents have been revised to reflect advancements made in FirstNet technology, Project 25 standards, and guidance found within the Fiscal Year 2021 SAFECOM Guidance on Emergency Communications Grants.
(Source: CISA)
For EMS and 911 systems, telemedicine has enabled safer triaging of possible COVID patients, avoiding unnecessary and expensive visits to the emergency department, and getting patients the right care at the right time. But not every EMS agency or 911 emergency communications center is familiar with telemedicine.
To help address that gap, the Federal Interagency Committee on EMS collaborated with EMS leaders from across the country to create the Telemedicine Framework for EMS and 911 Organizations, a 45-page guide explaining how agencies can use telemedicine to deliver high-quality, cost-efficient care.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of EMS (NHTSA OEMS) is hosting a webinar on September 22 at 2:00 p.m. EST entitled Implementing Telemedicine in EMS and the 911 Communications Center. This webinar will be an opportunity to hear from people involved in the creation of the “Telemedicine Framework for EMS and 911 Organizations” and who have helped implement telemedicine in an EMS system. They’ll highlight some of the challenges faced by EMS and 911 organizations and how to use the Framework to help find solutions.
This webinar is part of the NHTSA OEMS’ series, EMS Focus, providing free learning opportunities for the EMS community to learn more about federal EMS efforts and programs.
You can learn more about this webinar and register here. Recordings of past webinars are available on the NHTSA OEMS website.
(Source: NHTSA OEMS)
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