April is National 9-1-1 Education Month

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - March 11, 2016 - PRLog -- MEDIA ADVISORY

April is National 9-1-1 Education Month - An Opportunity to Educate Your Readers, Listeners and Viewers about Critical 9-1-1 Issues That Affect Us All

April is National 9-1-1 Education Month, and April 10-16 is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.  This presents an opportunity to help educate the public about important 9-1-1 issues, and to recognize the selfless work that 9-1-1 professionals perform for us.

The better educated your viewers are about 9-1-1, the more likely we all will be to receive rapid, effective emergency help in our hour of need.

Here are some story ideas:

LOCAL 9-1-1 HEROES: Practically every community has 9-1-1 call takers who have calmly and professionally saved the day in recent dangerous situations. These stories make for excellent "feel-good" features and provide a means of both educating the public about relevant issues and honoring these unsung heroes of public safety.

·       The Public Safety Smartbrief is a free news service with an extensive archive of such stories.

·       www.ThankYou911.org provides a vehicle for the public to say "thanks" to 9-1-1 professionals and contribute financially to education and wellness programs.

NEXT GENERATION 9-1-1 (NG911): In many communities, the 9-1-1 system is still geared to the era of copper wires and landline phones. NG911 is an emerging set of standards for an Internet-Protocol-based system enabling voice and multimedia communications between a 911 caller, the 911 center, and responders in the field.

·       Policy advocacy: The leading 9-1-1 groups in the nation recently launched a new effort to accelerate deployment of NG911 technology and phase out legacy systems by the end of 2020.

·       Among the hottest 911 tech topics are:

o   Texting to 9-1-1 (under development in many areas but not yet not available in most);

o   Issues related to multi-line telephone systems in hotels and large buildings

o   Cyber security; and

o   Wireless-phone location accuracy, which remains far short of the ideal.

CONSUMER TIPS:

·       Whenever possible, dial 9-1-1 from a landline phone; it may help responders find you faster.

·       If you call from a wireless phone, get ready to mention a specific address, landmark, or a highway mile marker.

·       Texting to 9-1-1 may be coming soon but it is not yet available in most areas.

WACKY 9-1-1 STORIES:  Another way to approach the issue is to talk about inappropriate 9-1-1 calls, such as a caller dialing 9-1-1 because her husband "wants her to hook up with his sisters"; a caller inquiring about the score of a basketball game; a woman calling to report people feeding ducks in the park; and many more. Your on-air talent could mention that such callers may cost others their lives or property by distracting time and resources from real emergencies.  Misuse of 9-1-1 is also considered a criminal offense in many states.

A DAY IN THE LIFE:  As you can imagine, the life of a 9-1-1 operator is filled with stress. A "day in the life" story can shed a lot of light on the system's challenges from a local, human perspective.

CONTACTS:

·       Breyana Franklin, breyana@dalecurtiscommunications.com, 202-263-3676

·       Chris Nussman, cnussman@nena.org, 973.479.3939

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