Vermont Task Force to Assess State Emergency Communications

Vermont’s Public Safety Communications Task Force announced that it has hired a provider to assess the state’s emergency communications across the board, including the capabilities of each of the 38 emergency communications centers (ECCs) statewide.

The task force will be working with Mission Critical Partners (MCP) to evaluate the potential for statewide public safety communications and to develop cost and governance models to achieve it. MCP and the task force will be collaborating on a multitude of assessments including:

• Performance of all systems within each ECC
• Testing coverage to find out where gaps exist
• Each center’s hiring, training and retention strategies and tactics, and how successful they are
• Evaluation of cybersecurity strategies
• Each center’s continuity of operations and disaster recovery plans

“The Public Safety Communications Task Force is pleased to be working with MCP,” Jennifer Morrison, task force co-chair and commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, said in a statement. “The firm’s integrity and quality of work speak for themselves.”

The assessments will be based on MCP’s Model for Advancing Public Safety proprietary methodology, which includes the expertise of more than 200 subject matter experts as well as industry standards and best practices.

“We applaud the state of Vermont for taking this important step toward ensuring that its ECCs are performing optimally, and we’re honored to be part of a project that will shape the future landscape for public safety communications,” MCP President and CEO Darrin Reilly said in a statement.