https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

content


Juggling act

Juggling act

Consolidated 911 centers meet tough training challenges
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 1st March 2008

It’s a high-stress job, one that demands its practitioners master a million details, and one in which policies and procedures keep changing all the time. Training employees to work in a 911 communications center is tough in just about any situation. But in a multiservice, multijurisdictional center, where one person might do three different jobs on three different days, training poses particular challenges.

For instance, there’s the challenge of teaching linguistic skills — and those aren’t the skills call-takers also need to help people who understand only Spanish or Korean.

“Police officers have their own language,” said Wanda McCarley, operations group manager at the Tarrant County 911 District in Fort Worth, Texas, and immediate past president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials. “It’s codes, and sometimes it’s clear voice with words like ‘DL’ for ‘driver’s license,’ ‘perp’ for ‘perpetrator.’” Fire and ambulance services each use their own lingo as well, “so you really are speaking three different languages,” McCarley said.

On top of that, call-takers and dispatchers working in a consolidated center may face geographical puzzles. That’s true at the West Suburban Consolidated Dispatch Center, which serves first responders in Oak Park, River Forest and River Park, Ill.

“Each one of the villages addresses differently,” said Greg Riddle, the center’s director. “So you don’t have a continuity of address ranges. You don’t have continuity of streets by name.” For instance, two buildings in neighboring villages might both be located at 123 Lake St. “You have to really be careful in making sure that you clarify the community along with the numeric and the name of the street,” he said.

In addition to address assignments, variations in terms and procedures might trigger confusion in a center serving multiple jurisdictions.

“One city’s police may have one set of codes. Another city might have a different set,” said Angela Bowen, communications training coordinator for the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, which provides 40 hours of state-mandated training to local communications officers from throughout the state.

Ideally, agencies that consolidate their dispatch services will agree on policies and procedures, Riddle said. “One of the things you try to provide uniformity in is, do the departments respond to the same types of calls?” he said. “Such as vehicle lockouts — some departments respond and some don’t.”

Despite efforts to get all agencies pulling in the same direction, inevitably some of them will hang onto certain non-standard practices. They might resist the change. Or one police department might be so small that it can send only one unit on a certain kind of call, where neighboring departments routinely send two. Dispatchers must remember all of these idiosyncrasies.

The best way to make sure telecommunicators retain and correctly apply all the detailed information that pertains to the job, experts say, is to train them thoroughly.

“The key is just to learn the things to begin with. Then it’s not so hard to remember which procedures to use when,” Bowen said.

Some of the best tricks for learning are the same ones that work in elementary school — “like flash cards,” Bowen said. “Some will record the information on an audiotape or MP3 and listen to it while falling asleep, to imprint it on their memory,” he added.

“The key there is just to keep their skill levels up and deal with all the changes,” said Tom Hanson, executive director of the Emergency Communications Center for Charlottesville, the University of Virginia and Albemarle County, Va. Public safety agencies constantly are changing their policies and procedures, and each time they do, the communications center must get the word out and enforce the change, he said, “so staying up with those is obviously a big deal.”

The training protocol for new emergency telecommunicators varies from state to state and center to center. In Texas, for example, it starts with at least 40 hours of classroom training, McCarley said. In contrast, training at the West Suburban Consolidated Dispatch Center starts with three weeks in the classroom, Riddle said.

New telecommunicators at the Department of Public Safety Communications in Fairfax County, Va., attend 10 weeks of formal training, the first eight based on a local curriculum and the last two devoted to a state-mandated program, said Steve Souder, the center’s director.

Chris Fischer, interim director of the North East King County (Wash.) Regional Public Safety Communications Agency presently under development, recommends using simulation and practical problem-solving in the classroom. “There’s a lot of technology involved, obviously, and we have to teach them the technology,” she said.

Fischer, who starts a term as president of APCO this August, spent 20 years as director of Valley Communications Services, another consolidated center in King County. One thing she learned there was the value of sending trainees out of the classroom and onto the operations floor, to watch experienced call-takers at work.

“We started interleaving observation time with classroom time,” Fischer said. “It was validating what they were learning in the classroom when they went out on the floor, so they could see how it really applied to the call.”

Watching call-takers also eased the transition for trainees when they progressed from handling simulated calls in the classroom to taking real-life calls. “That adjustment is pretty hard,” she said.

Trainees also benefit from observation in the field. “People go out and ride with squads, and they learn from listening and watching,” McCarley said.

When new recruits complete the classroom training, many centers put them to work as call-takers-in-training. A communications training officer supervises each one and offers continual feedback.

“They do that in a very controlled environment, with a fully-certified call-taker/dispatcher at their elbow to listen to what they’re doing and to correct them if any errors have occurred, and to evaluate their performance on a daily basis, so that mistakes that are made do not occur again,” Souder said. In Fairfax County, that mentoring period lasts 10 weeks.

Once an employee graduates to independent call-taker, he or she might specialize in that job or move on to train as a police and/or fire and rescue dispatcher.

Moving cross-trained employees from job to job is one way to help them remember the ins and outs of the different agencies they serve. “We rotate our folks on a daily basis. So every day, hopefully, you’re working a different radio so you can keep your skill levels up,” Hanson said.

Frequent rotation also helps employees keep abreast of new procedures in all of the services and jurisdictions, Fischer said. “To be able to see a memo come out is one thing, if it changes something. Being able to actually work the change is pretty important.”

Besides learning how to take calls and dispatch, 911 telecommunicators often have to acquire additional skills. For example, anyone who interacts with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center requires special training, McCarley said. “If you’re doing data entry, entering stolen items and warrants and the like, it’s a week-long course.” Each state’s crime database system has its own training requirements as well, she said.

“If you’re dispatching fire calls, you’re probably going to want some NIMS [National Incident Management System] training,” McCarley added. Also, many call-takers learn how to help callers with medical emergencies, talking them through the Heimlich maneuver or CPR until help arrives. They also might learn hostage negotiation.

All of this training takes time and costs money — sometimes more than centers can afford. “By the time we hire an employee and take almost a year to train him, it’s cost us about $30,000 per employee,” Hanson said.

“When the budget gets cut, it’s always the dispatch training budget that gets cut first,” McCarley said. “We’re usually pitted against squad cars, body armor, bullets for the range — those kinds of issues.”

And not all centers can train new recruits or offer continuing education in-house. “There are some areas of Texas where training is really hard to come by,” McCarley said. “The second issue is getting your people off shift to train.”

“The smaller centers are very challenged, because they only have so many people to go around. And when you pull them off the radio or off the phone, somebody’s got to be there,” Fischer said.

Online training could provide an answer to that problem. “My sense is, that will become more and more critical,” Fischer said. While telecommunicators still have to leave their stations to take online training, “they don’t have to travel, and they don’t have to stay overnight, and you don’t have to pay for meals,” she said, adding that such training might keep them off shift for just four hours rather than two days.

Officials at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center hope to get an online training module up and running by the end of the year, Bowen said. While that won’t cut the number of hours trainees spend at the center taking the state-mandated course, it will let them learn the basics on their own and use classroom time to focus on the practical aspects of the job.

Despite all the challenges of training emergency telecommunicators, especially in a consolidated environment, center operators agree that a thorough training program is essential, both to make sure the job is done right and to retain employees in a high-stress, high-turnover field.

“The more comfortable they are doing the job, the more likely I think they are to stay in our industry,” Fischer said. “I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get them trained, so that they know their business and so that they will stay in our business.”

BEST PRACTICES FOR TRAINING TELECOMMUNICATORS IN A CONSOLIDATED 911 CALL CENTER

  • Encourage jurisdictions that share a call center to develop uniform codes and procedures.
  • Get the word out quickly about all changes in policies and procedures.
  • Use flash cards and audio recordings to review information.
  • Use simulation and practical problem solving in the classroom.
  • Alternate in-class lessons with observation of call-takers at work.
  • Have trainees ride along with first responders in the field.
  • Have each new call-taker work one-on-one with an experienced mentor.
  • Rotate employees from job to job daily so their skills stay fresh.
  • Use online courses to make training less expensive and time-consuming.
Tags: content

Most Recent


  • Juggling act
    Newscan: Securing the Internet of Things is quite a challenge
    Also: EWA requests dismissal of 900 MHz applications; TIA names tech and policy priorities for 2014; IJIS Institute names Shumate Award winner; App makes bus waits more tolerable; a Blackberry comeback may be in the offing.
  • Juggling act
    Newscan: FCC certifies Carlson Wireless's white-space radio
    Also: Congress looks to revamp telecom law; Obama to place some restraints on surveillance; IEEE to study spectrum-occupancy sensing for white-spaces broadband; Major Swedish transport operator opts for Sepura TETRA radios; RFMD to partner on $70 million next-generation power grid project; NENA opens registratiuon for "911 Goes to Washington."
  • Juggling act
    Newscan: A look at the critical job of 911 dispatchers
    Also: NYC launches website for tracking 911 response times; Oregon implements 911 on pre-paid cell phones; LightSquared wants to keep spectrum assets; Harris receives multiple government orders; FCC extends rebanding financial reconciliation deadline; Zetron gear at core of communications system upgrade; Ritron debuts wireless access control system; EWA seeks policy review of VHF vehicular repeater system deployments.
  • Juggling act
    Newscan: Average peak data rates of 144 MB/s average realized in tests with CAT 4 LTE device
    Also: Verizon, T-Mobile to swap unused spectrum to improve coverage; Internet giants oppose surveillance--but only when the government does it; FCC Chairman says incentive auction will be delayed until middle of 2015; FCC chair announces staff appointments; Alcatel-Lucent names Tim Krause as chief marketing officer; New Jersey county deploys TriTech CAD system; Toronto airport deploys 26-position Zetron console system;

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • RugGear: Contributing to the future of mission-critical broadband communication review and market vision
  • Photo gallery: 2014 Communications Marketing Conference (CMC) in Tucson
  • Juggling act
    Top 5 Stories - Week of Sept. 22
  • Juggling act
    RCA plans to expand this year's Technical Symposium

Commentary


Updated: How ‘sidelink’ peer-to-peer communications can enhance public-safety operations

  • 1
27th February 2023

NG911 needed to secure our communities and nation

24th February 2023

How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

How AT&T won DFW Airport’s $10 million private 5G business dlvr.it/Spj4Pt

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

Russia’s war in Ukraine shows cyberattacks can be war crimes dlvr.it/Spj3c2

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

FCC grants 700 MHz Band 14 license renewal to FirstNet Authority dlvr.it/Spj2Ny

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

Broadband for Critical Communications Everywhere Providing Connectivity When Seconds Count dlvr.it/Sph602

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

How vehicle insurance and autonomy intertwined dlvr.it/SpglBb

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

World’s least-expensive self-driving vehicle revealed dlvr.it/Spgc88

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

Voice calling is finally making its way onto 5G dlvr.it/SpdtYW

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

With many cities facing a fiscal cliff as ARPA funding ends, debt ceiling debate continues on Capitol Hill dlvr.it/Spdsnq

26th May 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.