LISTEN: Lifeline 911 Ep. 72: "Strikes in the City of Brotherly Love"
On July 1, 2025 at 12:01 am, the unionized city workers of the City of Philadelphia went on strike to protest for better wages and conditions. While the merits of units and strikes and general, and public sectors unions in particular, is its own discussion, what is relevant to us is that the 9-1-1 operators and police dispatchers also went on strike. That means that emergency calls for service in the City of Brotherly Love go unanswered to some extent. Is there an acceptable reason for emergency operators to strike?
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July 2025 Monthly Training Blast - Task Prioritization With "Bucket Lists"
In this month's Monthly Training Blast, AEP Instructor Erica Roberts explains a process she uses for teaching task prioritization to new hires in her dispatch center: the "bucket list". Far from just a 2007 American buddy comedy-drama film directed and produced by Rob Reiner, in this context the "buckets" refer to mental spaces where the new hire should sort incoming tasks in order to process them in the most effective order.
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Happy Fourth of July From AEP!
Wishing you a safe and joyful Independence Day filled with family, friends, and fun! Thank you for letting us be a part of your nationwide community.
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July Research & Development: What Do You Want To See?
July is a big “research and development” month for AEP, where we step back from traveling to focus on our education products to ensure they're the best they can possibly be. What would you like to see from us? This could be topics you’d like to hear about, or educational styles you’d like us to explore!
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June 2025 Monthly Training Blast - VPNs (Virtual Private Networks)
A VPN is a tool that encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a remote server of your choosing somewhere else in the world. A VPN can help protect your data from eavesdropping, especially when you're using public Wi-Fi networks, which are often not secure.
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LISTEN: Lifeline 911 Ep. 67: "Initial Moments of a 9-1-1 Call"
The first few moments of an emergency 9-1-1 call set the tone and success of the entire incident. Knowing how to control a call from the beginning to be able to ask questions and receive information quickly is critically important to obtaining a positive outcome to emergency calls. But how do the telecommunicators do that when there is so much riding on the line? Join your host Erica this week as we delve into that topic.
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AEP Welcomes Tatiana Rivera To Our Team
American Emergency Preparedness are proud to announce the addition of Tatiana Rivera to our growing team of public safety professionals! Tatiana joins AEP as both a curriculum development contributor and instructor, bringing with her over a decade of front line experience and leadership in emergency communications.
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READ: AEP's Paul Bourgeois, Ph.D Issues a "Call To Action" in the IAED Journal
AEP Director of Research Paul Bourgeois Ph.D. continued his partnership with the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED) this week, publishing an article in the IAED Journal of Emergency Dispatch titled “Call to Action“.
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Visit the AEP Booth at Navigator 2025!
Visit us at the American Emergency Preparedness booth 405 and 504 in the exhibit hall, where we will be talking with valued members of our profession about continued training, and how to continue working to create an open communication between everyone in our field.
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April 2025 Monthly Training Blast - Volume Normalization
Volume normalization is a feature in Spotify that automatically adjusts the volume of different songs to make them sound more consistent. The intention for this is to avoid jarring changes in volume when listening to songs in a playlist, When volume normalization is turned on, all songs are played at the same volume, regardless of how loud or soft they were originally recorded. But the setting has some major drawbacks, enough so that some would argue it does more harm than good and should be turned off as a default.
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Thank You, Minnesota Sheriff's Association!
We’d like to give our sincere thanks to the Minnesota Sheriff’s Association for having us to present at their annual conference! The conference was a rousing success, and we were so inspired by all the community leaders we met there!
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INTRODUCING: Overnight Webinars!
As a company of 911 dispatchers FOR 911 dispatchers, we understand that holding events only during the daytime hours may not work for everyone, especially those of us who work straight shifts during any particular time frame. In an industry that never sleeps, we want to be there for you, and that’s why we’ve begun scheduling webinars and other virtual events during the overnight hours.
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NEW WORKSHOP: "It's OK To Laugh!"; Virtual Workshop on March 10th
We’re proud to announce the launching of a new 4-hour workshop called “It’s OK To Laugh!“, premiering as a virtual workshop on March 10th in our Virtual Classroom. This workshop exposes the 911 professional to proven self-care techniques they will be able to utilize every day of their career, on and off the job.
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February 2025 Monthly Training Blast - Cutomer Service
We all know that dispatch centers are prone to "the regulars", members of the community who call daily for a variety of reasons. While it can be tempting to not treat these callers with the same urgency as other, more unique complaints, we must remember that as public servants, every call for service needs to be treated with the same level of respect.
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Join Us at Navigator 2025!
We’re excited to announce that we’ll be returning to the Navigator conference in 2025 from April 13th to the 17th in sunny Orlando, Florida! Visit us at the American Emergency Preparedness booth in the exhibit hall, where we will be talking with valued members of our profession about continued training, and how to continue working to create an open communication between everyone in our field.
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January 2025 Monthly Training Blast - Water/Ice Rescues
Just because the body of water in your city has frozen over, that doesn't mean it becomes any less of a potential site for a water rescue. Ted and Coilin talk about the context these types of calls exist in, as well as tips and reminders that can help ensure the safety of all involved.
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LISTEN: Lifeline 911 Ep. 39: "Leadership Expectations" Ft. AEP's Justin Prescott
On the latest episode of the Lifeline 911 Podcast, co-host Erica Roberts sits down with AEP Director of Operations Justin Prescott about how a person in a leadership position at an emergency telecommunications center should be expected to act, and the responsibilities they should be anticipating on a daily basis.
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READ: IAED Journal's "Mental Health Matters" by Paul Bourgeois, Ph.D.
AEP Director of Research Paul Bourgeois has teamed with the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED) for a new series in their Journal of Emergency Dispatch. In the series’ inaugural edition, Paul explores his most recent research study, titled “Knowledge and Training Regarding the Link Between Trauma and Health: A National Survey of Emergency Dispatchers.“
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WATCH: Erica Roberts Details Mental Shift While "Transitioning Into Leadership" in Live Webinar Clip
Here's a sneak peek at "Transitioning Into Leadership", a new webinar from Erica Roberts and American Emergency Preparedness. In this clip, Erica begins to describe the mental shift that has to occur when a line-level dispatcher is promoted to a supervisory position.
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December 2024 Monthly Training Blast - Bullying
For this month’s training blast, we’re unearthing a video from early in our company’s history - AEP’s Director of Education Ted Bourgeois and AEP Instructor Coilin Jones talk about bullying between coworkers in 911 centers.
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