Santa Barbara County Fire Drops PulsePoint

[ko6jw_2]

As of June 1st Santa Barbara County Fire has dropped PulsePoint. No explanation was given, but there is a minimum charge of $8,000 per year to be part of the system. I suspect that the decision was fiscal. There is an iPhone app called Dispatch SBC available which has more features than PulsePoint, but only runs on iPhones. It is a free app and for about 36 hours seemed to be working well. Now it has stopped alerting. Major incidents not showing in log. There is a companion app called Dispatch STB which is linked to the Santa Barbara City Fire Department. It is also not functional anymore.

Anyone have any info or an alternative to suggest?

 

[Deadshot42]

I was wondering the same thing when I noticed. I don't live in SB County anymore but my parents do (near a high fire hazard area) and it was great for getting alerts when there was a fire nearby. I also suspect financial, as I know the County has been facing some budget issues, but the cost is minimal, and after 17 years in public service I'm sure there something much more useless / wasteful they could cut to keep this important service.

 

[hpycmpr]

Dispatch SBC is working now.

Steve

 

[Deadshot42]

Looks like PulsePoint is coming back, thankfully.

https://www.noozhawk.com/article/santa_barbara_county_grants_reprieve_for_pulsepoint_app

 

[zwarburg]

PulsePoint coming back!

I was crazy pissed about this as I use PulsePoint for my photography responses... (https://www.facebook.com/ZWarburgPhotography/). There was major pushback from a lot of locals and we even got a petition going. For once, the public pressure actually worked! They are bringing it back for at least another year.

-Z

 

[ko6jw_2]

PulsePoint is back as of Thursday afternoon. Dispatch SBC is still intermittent. Has missed calls this afternoon that PulsePoint reported.

The County of SB was quoted as saying that they dropped PulsePoint because they could not document that it resulted in any civilian responses to nearby CPR emergencies. I'm CPR trained, but I never got any alerts. Could it be that they did not set it up properly? Or, not enough people know about it? We need to keep the pressure on to maintain this system.

 

[zwarburg]

PulsePoint is back as of Thursday afternoon. Dispatch SBC is still intermittent. Has missed calls this afternoon that PulsePoint reported.

The County of SB was quoted as saying that they dropped PulsePoint because they could not document that it resulted in any civilian responses to nearby CPR emergencies. I'm CPR trained, but I never got any alerts. Could it be that they did not set it up properly? Or, not enough people know about it? We need to keep the pressure on to maintain this system.

I'm talking to the folks at PulsePoint to make sure that it is properly setup. I've got some contacts over there. I'm also going to make a big push on my Photography page to get more people to sign up. (Shameless self promotion, if you're on Facebook, check out my photo page: https://www.facebook.com/ZWarburgPhotography/. I focus on first responders.)

 

[ko6jw_2]

Pulse Point notifications are gone other than CPR (which has never worked anyway). The entire menu is gone from the Settings menu. Had to go back to Dispatch SBC, but it is still intermittent as far alerting or showing incidents.

Pulse Point is still listing incidents just not giving notifications.
What next?

 

[ko6jw_2]

I think there was a glitch in the app. Unfollowed SB County and chose another agency, then went back to SB and the notifications returned. Weird.