Ten-codes, officially known as ten signals, are brevity codes used to represent common phrases in voice communication, particularly by US public safety officials and in citizens band (CB) radio transmissions. The police version of ten-codes is officially known as the APCO Project 14 Aural Brevity Code.
The APCO phonetic alphabet, a.k.a. LAPD radio alphabet, is the term for an old competing spelling alphabet to the ICAO radiotelephony alphabet, defined by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International from 1941 to 1974, that is used by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and other local and state law enforcement agencies across the state of California and elsewhere in the United States. It is the "over the air" communication used for properly understanding a broadcast of letters in the form of easily understood words. Despite often being called a "phonetic alphabet", it is not a phonetic alphabet for transcribing phonetics.
Computer-aided dispatch (CAD), also called computer-assisted dispatch, is a method of dispatching taxicabs, couriers, field service technicians, mass transit vehicles or emergency services assisted by computer. It can either be used to send messages to the dispatchee via a mobile data terminal (MDT) and/or used to store and retrieve data. A dispatcher may announce the call details to field units over a two-way radio. Some systems communicate using a two-way radio system's selective calling features. CAD systems may send text messages with call-for-service details to alphanumeric pagers or wireless telephony text services like SMS. The central idea is that persons in a dispatch center are able to easily view and understand the status of all units being dispatched. CAD provides displays and tools so that the dispatcher has an opportunity to handle calls-for-service as efficiently as possible.
Project 25 is a suite of standards for interoperable digital two-way radio products. P25 was developed by public safety professionals in North America and has gained acceptance for public safety, security, public service, and commercial applications worldwide. P25 radios are a direct replacement for analog UHF radios, adding the ability to transfer data as well as voice for more natural implementations of encryption and text messaging. P25 radios are commonly implemented by dispatch organizations, such as police, fire, ambulance and emergency rescue service, using vehicle-mounted radios combined with repeaters and handheld walkie-talkie use.
A dispatcher is a communications worker who receives and transmits information to coordinate operations of other personnel and vehicles carrying out a service. Emergency organizations including police departments, fire departments, and emergency medical services departments as well as civilian organizations such as motorcycle couriers, taxicab providers, trucking companies, railroads, bus systems, and public utility companies, use dispatchers to relay information, direct personnel, and coordinate their operations.
The Alaska State Troopers, officially the Division of Alaska State Troopers (AST), is the state police agency of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is a division of the Alaska Department of Public Safety (DPS). The AST is a full-service law enforcement agency that handles both traffic and criminal law enforcement. The AST is also involved in apprehending fugitives as part of the Alaska Fugitive Task Force, an inter-agency collaborative of Alaska police departments that cooperates with police agencies throughout the United States and less commonly with Interpol in apprehending wanted men and women. Unlike many lower 48 states, the AST also serves as Alaska’s primary environmental law enforcement agency; troopers assigned to the AST’s Division of Alaska Wildlife Troopers are known as "Alaska Wildlife Troopers" and primarily serve as game wardens, although they retain the same powers as other Alaskan state troopers.
The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) is a credentialing authority (accreditation), based in the United States, whose primary mission is to accredit public safety agencies, namely law enforcement agencies, training academies, communications centers, and campus public safety agencies.
The California Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) is a department within the California Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. DCA's stated mission is to serve the interests of California's consumers by ensuring a standard of professionalism in key industries and promoting informed consumer practices. The DCA provides the public with information on safe consumer practices, in an effort to protect the public from unscrupulous or unqualified people who promote deceptive products or services.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) is a major state law enforcement agency of the government of Oklahoma. A division of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, the OHP has traffic enforcement jurisdiction throughout the state. OHP was legislatively created on July 1, 1937, due to the growing problem of motor vehicle collisions, the expansion of highway systems, and the increase in criminal activities.
Signed into effect on 12 June 2002, the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (PHSBPRA) was signed by the President, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Citizen Corps is a program under the Department of Homeland Security that provides training for the population of the United States to assist in the recovery after a disaster or terrorist attack. Each local Citizen Corps Council partners with organizations, volunteers and businesses to organize responders, volunteers and professional first responders for an efficient response so efforts are not wasted by being duplicated. By training in Incident Command, volunteers know whom to report to and how the incident is organized. This prevents sites from being inundated by untrained and unprepared personnel preventing operation. Citizen Corps also works in conjunction with the Corporation for National and Community Service in promoting national service opportunities for promoting homeland security needs.
In the United States, emergency medical services (EMS) provide out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care for those in need. They are regulated at the most basic level by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets the minimum standards that all states' EMS providers must meet, and regulated more strictly by individual state governments, which often require higher standards from the services they oversee.
Cypress Creek Emergency Medical ServicesAssociation, also known as Cypress Creek EMS (CCEMS) was a private, non-profit emergency medical service provider for Harris County ESD 11 in North Harris County, within greater Houston, Texas. In 2021, CCEMS declared bankruptcy and operations ceased in mid 2022. In late 2022, the remaining assets, branding, and trademarks were bought by Viking Enterprises, DBA City Ambulance Service. All ambulances in use by CCEMS are Mobile Intensive Care Units (MICU), with at least one Paramedic, making all ambulances ALS units. Cypress Creek EMS provided 911 service in North Harris County, provided bicycle medic teams for special events, provided tactical EMS support for federal, state, and local law enforcement, and operated an accredited educational institution.
In the United States, the hospital incident command system (HICS) is an incident command system (ICS) designed for hospitals and intended for use in both emergency and non-emergency situations. It provides hospitals of all sizes with tools needed to advance their emergency preparedness and response capability—both individually and as members of the broader response community.
The National Rural Water Association (NRWA), with its affiliated state rural water associations, is the largest water and wastewater utility membership organization in the United States of America. The NRWA is a professional organization that supports rural and small water utilities throughout the nation. NRWA and its state affiliates are organized as a non-profit trade association, and represent more than 31,000 water and wastewater utility members.
An emergency medical dispatcher is a professional telecommunicator, tasked with the gathering of information related to medical emergencies, the provision of assistance and instructions by voice, prior to the arrival of emergency medical services (EMS), and the dispatching and support of EMS resources responding to an emergency call. The term "emergency medical dispatcher" is also a certification level and a professional designation, certified through the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO) and the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. Many dispatchers, whether certified or not, will dispatch using a standard emergency medical dispatch protocol.
Next Generation 9-1-1 refers to an initiative aimed at updating the 911 service infrastructure in the United States and Canada to improve public emergency communications services in a growing wireless mobile society. In addition to calling 9-1-1 from a phone, it intends to enable the public to transmit text, images, video and data to the 9-1-1 center. The initiative also envisions additional types of emergency communications and data transfer. This NG9-1-1 infrastructure is intended to replace the current services over time. The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) first identified the need for NG9-1-1 in 2000, and started development actions in 2003, and is nearing full definition and standards for NG9-1-1. Since 2006, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) in the United States and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in Canada have been leading their respective initiatives, which include research and development projects aimed at advancing NG9-1-1. On January 24, 2013, the CRTC announced the first step toward a Canadian implementation of NG9-1-1 and, in March 2016, began a consultation with the public to discuss what services should be offered, who will play a role in offering these services and how these services should be paid for. Several US states have implemented versions of NG9-1-1, as of October 2013.
Vaughan Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS) provides fire protection, technical rescue services, hazardous materials response, and first responder emergency medical assistance to the city of Vaughan, Ontario. It operates 10 fire stations and coordinates with other fire departments in York Region and the Greater Toronto Area. VFRS received a 100 per cent satisfaction rating in the City of Vaughan’s 2018 Citizen Survey.
A diver training standard is a document issued by a certification, registration regulation or quality assurance agency, that describes the prerequisites for participation, the aim of the training programme, the specific minimum competences that a candidate must display to be assessed as competent, and the minimum required experience that must be recorded before the candidate can be registered or certified at a specific grade by the agency. A standard is a description of the quality required of a product, or a way of doing something that has usually been derived from the experience of experts in a specific field. The purpose is to provide a reliable method for people to share a reasonably consistent expectation regarding the scope and quality of the product or service. Training standards allow objective comparison between the training provided by various agencies and the competence indicated by certification or registration to the specific standard, though in most cases, training and competence may exceed the minimum requirement much of the time, and variation between newly certified divers can be considerable, partly due to differences in the training, and partly due to qualities of the candidate. Training standards may narrowly prescribe the training, or may concentrate on assessment of exit level competence, and allow recognition of prior learning based on various forms of evidence. To be useful, a training standard must be sufficiently specific to allow agreement on the requirements by most readers reasonably competent in the field, including the instructors, assessors, and learners who must use it, the employers of persons trained, the potential customers, and any quality assurance personnel who may need to enforce it. A training standard may be linked to a code of practice referring to how the training should be carried out.
