The following appeared on the NENA web site:

To Whom It May Concern,

On Thursday, January 7, NBC’s Today show ran a segment entitled, “911 [sic] Emergency: Are Operators Ready for Your Call?” Like anyone who saw this report, my heart goes out to Ms. Cantrell and her family. The loss of a child, especially one as young as Matthew, is every parent’s worst nightmare. Mr. Rossen’s report highlighted a number of the most pressing issues facing 9-1- 1 today, including insufficient training requirements and standards, the raiding of state 9-1-1 funds, and a lack of strong coordination and oversight at both the state and federal levels.

However, I regret that the story did not adequately represent the reality of 9-1-1 service in this country. Americans have come to expect a high quality of service when dialing 9-1-1, and rightly so; the public’s expectations have been generated because our nation’s emergency communications professionals have provided the public they serve with reliable, consistent, timely, and professional service literally billions of times since the nation’s first 9-1-1 system was implemented just more than forty years ago.

 Washington, DC — The E9-1-1 Institute, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), the Association of Public-Safety Communications-Officials (APCO) International, the National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators (NASNA), and the 9-1-1 Industry Alliance (9IA) announced the opening of nominations for this year’s Seventh (7th) Annual Honor Awards ceremony. The organizations, representing 25,000 members in every state in the Nation, hold the awards ceremony each year where heroes and leaders in the 9-1-1 field are jointly honored by both the E9-1-1 Institute and the Congressional E9-1-1 Caucus.
This year’s ceremony will be on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010. The Co-Chairs of the Congressional
E9-1-1 Caucus are invited to present the awards. Heroism and leadership activities throughout the year of 2009 will be considered for the awards.