NICE, a competitor in the 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program, is excited to announce the recipients of its 2017 PSAPs’ Finest Awards, a recognition program for emergency communications professionals now in its 12th year.
Winners will receive their awards in a special ceremony which will take place in NICE’s booth today at the 2017 APCO International Annual Conference & Expo in Denver, Colorado.
Sponsored by NICE, a leading provider of public safety solutions for 9-1-1 centers, the PSAPs’ Finest awards recognize individual contributions to emergency communications.
This year, the judges bestowed the first-ever Innovator of the Year award to Anita Pitt, 9-1-1 Program Manager for the Brazos Valley Council of Governments (BVCOG).
The Innovator of the Year award was created to recognize a trailblazer who embodies change, progress, and new ideas, with the goal of advancing and improving emergency communications.
BVCOG was one of the early adopters of Text-to-911 and Pitt was instrumental in leading the effort.
She is a strong advocate for Text-to-911 and shares her knowledge and experience by giving talks and training sessions to other public safety agencies.
“Text-to-911 is such a new frontier with many challenges,” said Shirlene Skipper, Sumter County 9-1-1 Communications Director, who also served as a 2017 PSAPs’ Finest Judge.
“My hat goes off to Anita for having the courage and energy to tackle it. People who work in emergency communications seldom get the recognition they deserve.”
“They’re not out in the public safety vehicle with the flashing lights but at the end of the day, they truly are the first, first responders.”
Below is the full list of PSAPs’ Finest award recipients for 2017:
|
PSAP of the Year
 Office of Unified Communications
Washington, DC |
Director of the Year
 Gary Bates
911 Director Howard County Consolidated Communication Center Kokomo, Indiana |
Line Supervisor of the Year
 Heather Barker
Communications Supervisor Orange County Sheriff’s Office Winter Park, Florida |
|
Technician of the Year
 Brett Phipps
Public Safety Wireless Technician Weld County Regional Communications Center Greeley, Colorado |
Telecommunicator of the Year
 Elvita Lewandowski
Telecommunicator Ottawa County Central Dispatch Authority West Olive, Michigan |
Innovator of the Year
 Anita Pitt
9-1-1 Program Manager Brazos Valley Council of Governments (BVCOG) Bryan, Texas |
|
Trainer of the Year (two-way tie)
 Christina Schade
Public Safety Telecommunicator Communications Training Assistant St. Petersburg Police Department St. Petersburg, Florida |
Trainer of the Year (two-way tie)
 Jessica Powers
Communications Specialist Weld County Regional Communications Center Greeley, Colorado |
“On behalf of NICE, I’d like to congratulate this year’s line-up of impressive winners,” said Christopher Wooten, Executive Vice President, NICE.
“The volume and caliber of nominations are a testament to the hard work and dedication of thousands of emergency communications professionals whose tireless efforts and dedication save lives every day.”
Since its inception in 2006, the PSAPs’ Finest Awards program has recognized dozens of outstanding emergency communications professionals.
Winners are selected by an independent panel of judges from the 9-1-1 community, who evaluate nominees based on their accomplishments, skills and service to community.
NICE Public Safety in 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program
NICE Inform Elite is a NENA i3-compliant, cloud-ready solution designed to support a 911 center’s complete multimedia recording needs, which includes:
- Telephony
- P25 radio
- Screen recording
- SMS texts
- Next Generation 911/112/999/000 audio and text
- NG911 Enhanced Data EIDD
- FirstNet and ESN LTE broadband audio, and more.
NICE Inform captures, manages, and synchronizes multi-channel interactions between citizens, 911 centers and first responders to provide a complete, true record of incidents.
NICE Inform assembles telephony and radio communications into an authentic incident timeline along with SMS 911 texts, GIS, screen recordings, video and other multimedia, for comprehensive insight into the ‘who, what, when, where and why’ of incidents.
This is critical for incident reconstructions and investigations, and also for compliance and quality assurance.
The 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program, organized to recognize the most distinguished vendors of Physical, IT, Port Security, Law Enforcement, First Responders, (Fire, EMT, Military, Support Services Vets, SBA, Medical Tech) as well as the Federal, State, County and Municipal Government Agencies – to acknowledge their outstanding efforts to ‘Keep our Nation Secure, One City at a Time.’
As an ‘ASTORS’ competitor, NICE Inform Elite will be competing against the industries leading providers of 911 Recording and Analytics.
American Security Today will be holding the 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon at 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m, Wednesday, November 15th at ISC East, in the Jacob Javits Exhibition Center in New York City.
Good luck to NICE on becoming a Winner of the 2017 American Security Today’s Homeland Security Awards Program!
To learn more about NICE for Public Safety visit http://www.nice.com/protecting/what-we-do and http://www.nice.com/protecting/public-safety/nice-inform
