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Taking a poll across the board. Are most of your guys communications centers out there sworn, civilian or a mix ? Which in your opinion is better and why?

Civilian only at mine. I agree this is better as policing and dispatching are two totally seperate professions and should be treated as such. egpd mentioned a good point about using prior experience in a way it should not be used. This would be similar to a medical professional going beyond EMD protocols when handling a medical call.

It should also be noted that there is such a thing as a "sworn" communications center, but they are not police officers.

WE HAVE BOTH CIVILIAN AND SWORN DISPATCHERS. WHILE OUR CIVILIANS DO AN EXCELLENT JOB, I THINK IT'S GOOD HAVING DISPATCHERS THAT HAVE BEEN THROUGH BLET. IT GIVES THE PEOPLE TAKING THE CALLS A BETTER UNDERSTANDING AS TO JUST WHAT THE OFFICERS ON THE ROAD CAN DO, AND ALLOWS THEM TO BETTER ADVISE THE CALLER AS TO OPTIONS.

Our dispatchers are all civilians... We have had, and do have, a retired officer but I don't see that that makes any difference because as stated above, it's two completely different jobs.

All civilians at my Comm center. They used to send up LE's on disable up to help answer phones, but something happened with the last one and we haven't seen another unit. Now they usually just sit out at a district office and
we'll advise them of a PS call. Yes, they are 2 different jobs and most LEO's don't want OUR job.

Unless your training includes on the job experience, riding in patrol cars for weeks... I have my doubts as to whether civilians would perform equally put along side LEO's that have a year or two experience under their belts.

I say this for 2 main reasons.

1. Understanding EXACTLY what the patrol officers attending the scene of a crime need to know... this is a very detailed topic obviously, and I could write for an hour about different scenarios... as you all no doubt know it is very subtle & nuanced at times. But those subtleties can be very important.

2. Being able to more effectively "weed out" the b.s. callers who are just using police to further whatever goal they have at any particular time. Ie- get back at the girlfriend, embellish a situation to speed police response, etc.

Sure, civ comcen personnel can probably be just as good as a LEO, but I feel without on the street experience, it may take a significant chunk of time to reach that point. Half the job of a good dispatcher can be accumulating info that can help the case at the end of the day. Not just the point & shoot of what, where, who and when.

This is just my opinion, please don't think I'm trying to put you all down, this is just my own personal experience of working along side civilian comcen people. As egpddisp says, their training sounds amazing... so the difference is likely dependant on a lot of other things apart from the two points I make.

Catlette: I always found it funny that sworn members didn't want to work communications- there's something to be said about the excitement of coordinating chases, major incidents, etc, and then just stepping out of the booth to make a coffee- no paperwork. But that's all behind me now! :-)

Our center is all civilian. We had a sworn officer work for a short time while between jobs but he had problems with not being a cop on the phone. I say civilian is the way to go.

Our department has only civilians for dispatchers.  If officers are on light duty, then usually they are first placed up here.  Not always; it depends on the need(s) that the department has at the time (property, paperwork etc.)

We do have retired officers that are now coming up to help with our TIPS hotline (we take calls for a week-long period, every 13 weeks.) so that is nice to meet some of them and hear their stories about the past times in the department.

Officers give us our breaks here...our supervisor is here during weekday 8-4, but in the evenings and overnights, the officers relieve us.  They have to be dispatch qualified, so in order to do that, they usually have to sit in here for half a shift or a full one and learn the routine.  I wish I knew a little more about stuff, so that we could just HBO it over the phone and not have to send a unit.  We are a small department so we go on almost everything....and we are not (yet) at the point where we are doing reports over the phone.  No station officer either, so we have to send.  I would like to be able to help patrol out a little more.  But I try to take the call, get the necessary info, dispatch the officer and let them make the call on how to respond and what to do.

Civilian for all positions.  With a sworn captain as our commander.

Our dept is currently civilian. However I hear rumor that the state is trying to go to sworn.

Don't know if there is any truth to that one or not though.

Here at our Office, our Dispatchers are civilian for the most part.  One of the other Dispatchers along with myself are also sworn and active Reserve Deputies as well as Police Officers for local villages.  While I can't agree that it is better to have one than the other (civilian / sworn) in dispatch, I will say that I have been told by some of the others I work with, it's nice to have us there because a lot of the questions they get are of a nature they are not familiar with and they would have to call a Deputy to ask them or tie them up to speak with the caller when they are busy enough already.  It's also nice to have a dispatcher on the radio that can get the needed information from the caller and relay it to the officer without having to constantly ask for updates, weapon locations or other information that the officer may need to know while reponding to the scene.

Please forgive the Dispatchers that are also sworn active officers or retired officers that are now in the Communications Center.  Remember, we on the road are trained to get certain information for every call and often it's more more detailed than when the call comes in over the phone and to make decisions accordingly.  There are times when I get on scene that I think to myself  "it sure would've been nice to know that before I got here."  I've been an officer a long time before I started dispatching and it's hard to be one without being the other.

On that note, I thinks it's a good idea and should be mandated in all departments, for the dispatchers new and veteran to ride a few shifts a year with the officers.  Our office only requires an eight hour shift with the Deputies while going through Dispatcher training.  It's a different world out there on the streets and anything can happen in a blink of an eye.  Neither area can afford to be complacent.

egpddisp says ...

Jonathon_Weston says ...

Unless your training includes on the job experience, riding in patrol cars for weeks... I have my doubts as to whether civilians would perform equally put along side LEO's that have a year or two experience under their belts. I say this for 2 main reasons. 1. Understanding EXACTLY what the patrol officers attending the scene of a crime need to know... this is a very detailed topic obviously, and I could write for an hour about different scenarios... as you all no doubt know it is very subtle & nuanced at times. But those subtleties can be very important. 2. Being able to more effectively "weed out" the b.s. callers who are just using police to further whatever goal they have at any particular time. Ie- get back at the girlfriend, embellish a situation to speed police response, etc. Sure, civ comcen personnel can probably be just as good as a LEO, but I feel without on the street experience, it may take a significant chunk of time to reach that point. Half the job of a good dispatcher can be accumulating info that can help the case at the end of the day. Not just the point & shoot of what, where, who and when. This is just my opinion, please don't think I'm trying to put you all down, this is just my own personal experience of working along side civilian comcen people. As egpddisp says, their training sounds amazing... so the difference is likely dependant on a lot of other things apart from the two points I make. Catlette: I always found it funny that sworn members didn't want to work communications- there's something to be said about the excitement of coordinating chases, major incidents, etc, and then just stepping out of the booth to make a coffee- no paperwork. But that's all behind me now! :-)

I disagree.  We have a dispatcher on the desk who is retired from another department.  The patrol officers HATE did I mention they HATE working when he is on the desk??  Why you ask??  Because he tries to be a cop.  He dispatches to what he THINKS is going on at the scene, and not the information he gets.  He sits at the desk and tries to be a cop.  You cant do that.  If you are a patrol officer, then be a cop.  But if you are a dispatcher, be a dispatcher.  That is one of the big problems with having a sworn officer on the desk......... they think like a cop (not a bad thing) but they dont think like a dispatcher

Not syaying one is better than the other in any shape or form. However, it goes both ways for example, people that were dispatchers and are now out working the road.  They try to dispatch from the car and that's not good either because all it does is get you mad because they are doing is telling u swhat we may already know from the phone that they can't hear us talking on.  There's a fine line that's crossed here and the problem is that, it's too fine of a line for anyone to actually tell where that line is until it's too late.  I think a Comm Center needs both civilian and sworn, no matter how bad you don't want it.  For a long time, our was just civilian and even the officer and supervisors say how good it is to have sworn personnel there.