Alexandria, VA – The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International has filed a Project Initiation with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to create a standard on Information Quality, Validation and Actionable Criteria for Externally Generated Information used by Emergency Communications Centers (ECCs).
This standard will establish technology-neutral criteria for the growing amount of information coming into ECCs from a rapidly growing ecosystem of connected technologies, applications, monitoring services, sensors, telematics platforms, artificial intelligence-enabled systems and more. Developing standards around the quality of this information will promote the presentation of reliable and actionable information to public safety telecommunicators and reduce false, misleading, duplicative, incomplete, stale, non-uniform or non-actionable information that may unnecessarily increase ECC workload or adversely affect emergency response.
While existing and developing standards might address specific technologies, services, technical interfaces and data exchange mechanisms, this standard addresses the need for technology-neutral criteria focused specifically on the intrinsic quality and operational utility of externally generated information, including its reliability, validation, confidence, relevance, completeness, timeliness and actionability when presented for use in ECC decision-making.
“ECCs increasingly receive an overwhelming amount of information transmitted from a variety of technologies and platforms,” explained Mike O’Connor, president, APCO International. “While this information can be used to improve emergency response efforts, it‘s imperative to focus on the intrinsic quality, operational utility and integrity of the data itself to reduce the operational burden to ECCs.”
To apply, complete the online application. Participants in an APCO standards working group will earn points toward their Registered Public-Safety Leader (RPL) recertification and receive recognition for their contributions to the final published standard.
The deadline to sign up is November 16. Selections will be made within two weeks of the closing date, and all will be notified of their status via email. For more information contact [email protected] or visit our website.
APCO International® (www.apcointl.org)
APCO International is the world’s oldest and largest organization of public safety communications professionals and supports the largest U.S. membership base of any public safety association. It serves the needs of public safety communications practitioners worldwide – and the welfare of the general public as a whole – by providing complete expertise, professional development, technical assistance, advocacy and outreach.
