LifeLine 911
In the rapidly-shifting world for First Responders where it seems that everyday the rules and norms are changing, there is one voice you can count on to give you the latest in Emergency News: that is LifeLine.
The LifeLine911 podcast's mission is to discuss issues and stories related to Emergency response services, with specific emphasis on Emergency Communication.
LifeLine911 is hosted by Erica Roberts, a veteran of over twenty years in the Emergency Communications industry and instructor of training techniques in an ECOMM environment.
Our goal is for the podcast to be interesting to professionals within the field and welcoming to those who have an interest in it. To that end, we highly encourage those who have questions or if you would like to be a guest on the show to email us at LifeLine911Podcast@gmail.com with any questions you would like to have answered on the show.
Episodes
62 episodes
LifeLine Ep 62 - The Wife of a Cop
We all know that working in the field as a police officer, firefighter, or medic is an extremely challenging career that is entirely different than most other jobs; getting time off is hard, there are unexpected calls which force you to work pa...
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Season 2
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Episode 62
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55:39
LifeLine Ep 61 - Which Way the Wind Blows
Along the Gulf Coast, there is a county in Texas named Calhoun which recently went through a PSAP consolidation, joining the police department with the sheriff's office for 9-1-1 response. Patrick Schubert was tasked with heading-up these effor...
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Season 2
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Episode 61
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48:37
LifeLine Ep 60 - Swatting
In the last dozen years, law enforcement has had to contend with a new type of incident: Swatting. These types of calls involve someone making a false call to 9-1-1 in order to have police respond in force to fictitious events to either scare, ...
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Season 2
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Episode 60
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29:43
LifeLine Ep 59 - Peer Accountability
In all professions and aspects of life, there are rules which are unwritten in any manual but they are known to all. These are enforced by the collective unspoken agreements between coworkers on how many matters are to be handled: is there a lo...
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Season 2
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Episode 59
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33:12
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LifeLine Ep 58 - Quality Assurance in 911
A critical part of ensuring that your team of emergency operators is capable of succeeding no matter the event which occurs is to take the time to perform period quality assurance on them. The goal is not only to find the faults with the call t...
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Season 2
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Episode 58
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39:28
LifeLine Ep 57 - Citizen Complaints
Complaints on any job are commonplace across all industries, but they can be especially difficult to deal with in the world of emergency telecommunications. Oftentimes, those making the complaints can have suffered traumatic events which make t...
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Season 2
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Episode 57
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38:21
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LifeLine Ep 56 - CMCP Training
For emergency telecommunicators, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) offers a training called Center Management Certification Program (CMCP), which is designed for agency management. This training is a week long and involves lectur...
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Season 2
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Episode 56
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33:37
LifeLine Ep 55 - Remote Work
Working remotely, or out of the office and at home, has become a popular benefit offered by many industries in the 2020s, with almost a quarter of the U.S. workforce participating in it. This new option to stay home from an office, avoid the dr...
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Season 2
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Episode 55
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33:26
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LifeLine Ep 54 - Field Medic
The men and women who serve in the ambulances that rush to aid those in need of critical care have to deal with a plethora of split-second decisions which can mean the difference between life and death. Yet in some parts of the country, EMS per...
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Season 2
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Episode 54
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57:05
LifeLine Ep 53 - Mindbase
In the world of first responders, the most pernicious affliction is that of the slow build-up of trauma over the course of a career. There are many times where those in this profession not only don't get the help they need for it, but in many c...
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Season 2
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Episode 53
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51:43
LifeLine Ep 52 - T.E.R.T.
When a major disaster strikes it can put a terrible burden on Emergency Communication centers affected by it, especially if the employees and building are put offline. But never fear! There are groups of telecommunicators who are prepared to le...
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Season 2
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Episode 52
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48:02
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LifeLine Ep 51 - Jurisdiction Affliction
In the United States, law enforcement areas of responsibility are often layered upon one another, providing for the occasional issue when it comes to deciding who will deal with a particular case. There is the federal level, the state level, th...
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Season 2
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Episode 51
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30:43
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LifeLine Ep 50 - You Know Me, I'm Down with SOPs
Standard Operating Procedures, SOPs, for a police department are generally established, or at least blessed off on, by the agency's upper echelon of command. They operate as the rules for all of the employees to follow, but sometimes there can ...
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Season 2
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Episode 50
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33:44
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LifeLine Ep 49 - Rebuilding After Covid
The Covid-19 pandemic which struck the world in 2020 was a devastating blow to people around the world on so many levels. Lives were upended, norms were modified everyday on the fly, and the workforce for every industry was thrown into chaos. T...
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Season 2
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Episode 49
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38:03
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LifeLine Ep 48 - Snowmageddon
In February of 2021, Winter Storm Uri descended upon the state of Texas, unleashing bitter cold in the subzero range as well as heavy amounts of snowfall. These issues brought the infrastructure of the state to the breaking point, leaving milli...
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Season 2
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Episode 48
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40:56
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LifeLine Ep 47 - "Friendly" Conversations
Conversations around friends and family can often be joyful and filled with laughter, but there are usually topics which are avoided most times to help keep the peace; politics, religion, and sometimes even law enforcement. But, when you work a...
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Season 2
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Episode 47
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29:52
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LifeLine Ep 46 - Four Agencies: One Center - NTECC
They say in life that no one can serve two masters, but at the North Texas Emergency Communications Center (NTECC), they support four separate agencies, each with their own wants and needs, policies and protocols. How can you survive when pulle...
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Season 1
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Episode 46
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39:44
LifeLine Ep 45 - Have Skills - Will Travel
Oftentimes in life, people will pick up and move to other cities; this could be for a myriad of reasons that range from the profound to the miniscule. When an emergency telecommunicator does this, and they wish to stay within the profession, ho...
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Season 1
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Episode 45
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49:31
LifeLine Ep 44 - From Console to Car
Many of those in the emergency telecommunications profession choose to make that their life-long career, spending decades serving the public by answering the call and dispatching units to the scene. But, for a large percentage of those who don ...
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Season 1
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Episode 44
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55:04
LifeLine Ep 43 - After Action Reviews & Debriefs
After critical and complicated incidents are completed, there are usually very many things which worked well, some things which didn't work so well, and a few things that flat-out failed miserably. After Action Reviews and Debriefs are a tool t...
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Season 1
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Episode 43
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33:02
LifeLine Ep 42 - FOIA For You & FOIA For Me
The Freedom of Information Act, FOIA for short, is an act passed by the United States Congress with many states having passed similar laws. This allows citizens to petition their government for information on any number of topics, from salaries...
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Season 1
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Episode 42
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26:49
LifeLine Ep 41 - 10-Codes
One of the most iconic parts of the first responder profession, especially that of law enforcement, is the use of 10-codes. These are numbers which take the place of other words, phrases, or situations that can be used in lieu of the "plain lan...
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Season 1
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Episode 41
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33:24
LifeLine Ep 40 - A COG in the Machine
Navigating any bureaucracy is tricky and complicated, but finding consensus while your working with dozens of them can be downright maddening. In the state of Texas, local governments are often grouped together in entities known as COGs, or Cou...
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Season 1
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Episode 40
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54:49
LifeLine Ep 39 - Leadership Expectations
Regardless of what kind of industry that you work in, there are going to be people who have positions of leadership within the organization to help ensure the success of the group and of the individuals. It is very important for these leaders t...
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Season 1
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Episode 39
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42:29
LifeLine Ep 38 - Many Hats
In different agencies around the country emergency operators are tasked with various jobs. Some agencies have their workforce clearly demarcated between "call takers" (those who process the incoming 9-1-1 calls) and "dispatchers" (those who sen...
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Season 1
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Episode 38
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46:10