On Thursday, APCO held a webinar on Reclassifying Public Safety Telecommunicators as "Protective" Occupations. During the webinar, APCO provided information inviting participants to a Call to Action to tell federal officials in charge of the reclassification process that they disagree with the current classification of 9-1-1 professionals as Office and Administrative Support Occupations. APCO members and related professionals took quick action, with over 5,000 respondents sending emails within the first 18 hours.

Following this overwhelmingly positive response to the Call to Action, APCO had a productive meeting on Friday with the appropriate federal office to convey the importance of this issue and significant support for reclassification. From the meeting, APCO also gained insight into the type of information that will help officials understand the "protective" role of Public Safety Telecommunicators. Therefore, we have temporarily suspended the email distribution activity. APCO greatly appreciates the advocacy of its members and colleagues. As a next step, APCO will provide guidance by next Friday about how to file formal comments on this matter.

FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau announced that FEMA, in collaboration with the Commission, plans to conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on Sept. 28. A secondary test date has been set for Oct. 5, if necessary. The nationwide test will be the second such test ever conducted. All TV, radio, cable and satellite providers (EAS Participants) are required to participate in this nationwide test. The nationwide test will assess the reliability and effectiveness of the EAS, with a particular emphasis on testing FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), the gateway through which common alerting protocol-based (CAP-based) EAS alerts are disseminated to EAS participants. The test will provide an opportunity to evaluate this and other measures that the FCC has adopted to address issues identified in connection with the 2011 Nationwide EAS Test. The Bureau is advising EAS participants to take steps to be ready for the test, including updating state EAS plans, upgrading equipment and software, and synchronizing EAS equipment clocks. The FCC’s announcement of the test can be found here.

APCO International is seeking comments on four candidate American National Standards (ANS) released today. The public review and comment period is an important step in the standard development process.

John Daly has worked in public safety communications for 36 years and served as an APCO frequency advisor in Florida since 1991. John has been employed by Collier County since 1994 as the county’s telecommunications manager. John is responsible for operation and maintenance of the county’s 800 MHz public safety radio system.

The Countywide & Sun A settlement in the long-running dispute over 9-1-1 fees between the City of Shawnee and the county 9-1-1 trust authority is apparently on the horizon at last, 9-1-1 director Tommy Arnold told Pottawatomie County commissioners.

Las Vegas Review-Journal Life and death can be a matter of seconds, or silence. Henderson’s text-to-9-1-1 system offers a quiet, discreet way to alert police to danger.

FierceWirelessTech AT&T had indicated it would be an aggressive participant in the FirstNet bidding process, and CFO and Senior Executive Vice President John Stephens made it official during the company's second-quarter earnings call, saying AT&T has submitted a bid for the FirstNet business.

IWCE’s Urgent Communications It may have been the worst-kept secret in the public safety communications industry, but AT&T’s announcement that it is leading a FirstNet bidding team means that the RFP process has at least three competitors, which should be good news for public safety.

Wake Up West Texas Kristina Miller has been an emergency dispatcher for over a decade. And she goes above and beyond the call of duty to help those in need—all over the country.

Homeland Preparedness News The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) will hold its inaugural forum in the Southwest border region in August to engage with federal and regional public safety stakeholders about the communications challenges they face ahead of the deployment of a nationwide public safety broadband network.

Fox17 Kent County residents will be asked for a public safety dispatch surcharge increase to improve 9-1-1 technology.