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Randall Larson

Randall D. Larson retired after 20 years in public safety communications, serving as a shift supervisor, trainer and field communications supervisor for the San Jose (California) Fire Department. Larson was also the editor of 9-1-1 Magazine from 1995 to 2009 and its online version from 2009 to 2018. He currently resides among the northern California Redwoods writing in a number of fields of interest.

LATEST ARTICLES
Remote desktop units have enabled an ECC to maintain operations during large-scale emergencies even when employees are unable to report to the 911 center
The large-scale training exercise simulated a 7.7 magnitude earthquake centered along the southwest segment of the New Madrid Seismic Zone near Memphis, Tennessee, incorporating a number of response and recovery missions.
Increased bandwidth, low latencies enable advanced tech and better agency coordination with public safety communications in 5G, according to interviews with Telit.
Speakers from FirstNet Authority and FirstNET at AT&T presented how the national public safety broadband network works, who can use it and four key local agency operational takeaways at the recent California Mobile Command Center Expo.
Philip D. White, master fire service instructor, addressed planning effective first responder incident preparedness and recovery training sessions at the recent California Mobile Command Center Expo.
Mobile communications centers have and continue to evolve with technology and MCC design innovations.
California began to develop TERT -- dispatcher mutual aid -- in 2017 with its first deployments needed quickly. A total of 144 dispatchers -- from 30 outside agencies -- served as mutual aid resources during the 2018 Camp Fire.
The Telecommunicator Emergency Response Taskforce (TERT) Initiative is developing dispatcher mutual aid for disaster response. Practitioners urge thinking ahead on TERT to help public safety agencies get through large-scale disasters.
Operation Convergent Response 2018 put Verizon and other technologies in local hands through a series of lifelike emergency simulations, while testing tech vendors for readiness.