APCO International is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Public Safety Communications Awards and Technology Leadership Awards. The winners will be recognized during the Opening General Session at APCO 2018, APCO’s Annual Conference & Expo taking place August 5-8 in Las Vegas, Nev. See this year's winners.

If you are a motivated and engaged Commercial member of APCO and would like to help make the association even better, we encourage you to become involved in the CAC. Nominations will be accepted through May 31, 2018. The nominations committee will review the background, industry segment and geographical area of the nominees and then recommend a slate of nominees to the CAC by July 1, 2018. For more information

With over 60 submissions and almost 2,000 votes we are excited to announce the APCO 2018 T-shirt design contest winner!

The winning design was submitted by Hollie Freeman, a volunteer from the Barren-Metcalfe Emergency Communications Center in Glasgow, KY. Congratulations, Hollie!

You can place your orders through the APCO online store. Conference attendees can save on shipping by entering the code APCO2018 in the shopping cart. You will pick up your orders at the registration booth at APCO 2018.

Thank you to everyone who participated. Order your T-shirt now!

Thank you to everyone who submitted stories to the NPSTW 2018 website. The following individuals have been randomly selected to win $20 gift cards.

Christine Borchers, Alachua County Sheriff's Office
Keith Endacott, Klamath 911 Emergency Communications District
Kyle Hayes, Bethany PD-Oklahoma
Annamaria Mastrocola Montgomery County Public Safety
Sylvia Villarreal, Trinity University Police

Debbie Gailbreath, RPL, began her career in public safety in Indianapolis, where she worked at the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and the Indianapolis Police Department. In 1981, she moved to Florida and began her career in communications at the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. She served as a call taker, dispatcher, training officer, supervisor and manager. She assisted with agency’s PSAP consolidation in 1996 and became the Communications Accreditation Manager in 2001. Debbie is a CALEA assessor and has a Master’s Degree in Adult Education/Curriculum Development. She is a past president of the Florida APCO chapter and is a past Gulf Coast Regional representative to the APCO board of directors. Since retiring in 2016, Debbie has worked with CALEA and APCO to create new online CALEA Accreditation Manager training. She has been an APCO Adjunct Instructor since 2009.

The Alliance for Telecommunication Industry Solutions (ATIS) Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC), in conjunction with the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA), and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) announced the first deliverable from a joint initiative to improve public safety answering point (PSAP) notification in the event of a service outage.

KPVI The stealth that text messaging a dispatcher provides can be imperative in an active shooter or hostage situation, but not every call center offers it.

KCCI Using Smart911, users can make it harder to be impersonated in a 9-1-1 call.

Alabama Local News Filling the shoes of the county animal control officer, 19-year-old dispatcher Kevin Krutchen captured a rattlesnake out of a local woman's backyard.

FierceWireless After implementing the FirstNet safety network, AT&T upgrades to 60 megahertz of fallow spectrum as part of their 5G Evolution.

Elko Daily Free Press Elko County, Nevada, seeks a $432,000 grant for three of their dispatch centers, hoping to upgrade to Next Generation 9-1-1.

Registration is now open for these APCO Institute courses just added to our training schedule.

Emergency Medical Dispatch 5.3, #50455 – Cambridge, MA – June 11-14, 2018
Active Shooter Incidents for Public Safety Communications, 2^nd Edition, #50456 – Cambridge, MA – June 15, 2018
Customer Service in Today’s Public Safety Communications, #50457 – Waterford, CT – June 20, 2018
Public Safety Telecommunicator 1, 7^th Edition, #50458 – Grand Forks, ND – August 20 – 24, 2018
Active Shooter Incidents for Public Safety Communications, 2^nd Edition, #50459 – Kittanning, PA – August 20, 2018
Bullying and Negativity in the Communications Center, #50460 – Reynoldsburg, OH – September 21, 2018

See the full schedule of all upcoming live courses.