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And are you on both 911 and the radio or is it a split mission for you?

Our CTO program is 9 weeks with an extra 2 weeks for remediation, if needed. There are two dispatchers on every shift; we do not have separate positions for call taker, 911, radio, teletype, etc... We do it all and it works very well for us...

tlwinkles379 said:

HA!!!! In our department a new dispatcher gets sat in the room with another dispatcher and shown the ropes. This includes Police and Fire and 911. No formal training at all.

Our training program is a mix of classroom and on the job. It lasts 16-20 weeks. Then they are on probation for 18 months.

Wow...No formal training is scary....

KSP that is how it is here, at least at the PD i work for.

I was on probation at this dept for a year

We work the phone,(local line and *911) the radio the computers (NCIC/RILETS) FOr the most part there is no formal training, depending on the department.

This department, at the least keeps my certifications up, but most of the money for training goes to patrol and detectives, if there is any left over, the SRO's get it. If there is any left over after that, maybe dispatch gets it, maybe not. Last year I put in for five different trainings and was denied for each of them, because there wasnt enough money.

tlwinkles379 said:

HA!!!! In our department a new dispatcher gets sat in the room with another dispatcher and shown the ropes. This includes Police and Fire and 911. No formal training at all.

Until they are comfortable....usually its about 4 to 6 months until they are on their own....

We have a 3 phase training program also, usually takes around 6 months. They have to complete the basic communcations course thru the academy as well as obtain their EMD cert and CPR cert. We answer 911 as well as non emergency lines all while working the radios. We have 12 radios and dispatch for 4 differant police/s.o. agencies and 2 fire departments within our county. So any new hire has to learn to work every signle postion we have and each one is different. It's alot to learn,but ohhh so much fun. My only issue is we seem to be keeping some that should have been gone after the first month of training. I see a big officer safety issue with this. Does anyone have seperate call takers so the main frequency operators can focus on their officers ?

tdccpd said:

We have a 3 phase training program also, usually takes around 6 months. They have to complete the basic communcations course thru the academy as well as obtain their EMD cert and CPR cert. We answer 911 as well as non emergency lines all while working the radios. We have 12 radios and dispatch for 4 differant police/s.o. agencies and 2 fire departments within our county. So any new hire has to learn to work every signle postion we have and each one is different. It's alot to learn,but ohhh so much fun. My only issue is we seem to be keeping some that should have been gone after the first month of training. I see a big officer safety issue with this. Does anyone have seperate call takers so the main frequency operators can focus on their officers ?

Here dispatch works the front window for walk ins, call taker, works the radio, and works the NCIC as well. I even have to search female arestees on my last two nights of my rotation, as we have no female on on those two nights.

The beauty of small town PD

Kentucky has a 4 week academy that all telecommunicators must attend. After that, it depends on their agency on how long they train at their local agency. Here at HQ, we don't have a time frame, but we do have a training guide and checklist of what is to be covered. We do have a 1 year probationary period.

shplifeline said:

wow...our CTO program requires 800 hours of training in 3 phases. Trainee has 2 different trainers and there is also a basic school that lasts 4 weeks.

A fully-staffed shift for us is 3 Communications Officers, 1 Senior Communications Officer (SCO), and a Supervisor. We're seldom fully staffed though due to turnover and the long hiring process. We answer 911 and non-emergency lines and dispatch PD, Fire, and EMS. 

As for training, it's recently changed due to failures. Used to be you were assigned an SCO who was your trainer until you were qualified. Some SCOs are great trainers and some not so great, and the training is inconsistent. People trained on one shift who are then assigned to another will do something and others on the shift say, "What the hey are you doing?" But that's how they do it on the other shift so that's how they were trained. That makes it very difficult on the trainee and on everyone else too.

We also attend EMD certification training and a week-long state-required Basic Communications Officer course, but the majority of training is OJT and some people don't even get to those courses until well into their employment. Our probationary period is one year and it takes around six months for most people to feel comfortable working any position in the center.

New people now are placed first with the Communications training coordinator for several weeks before being turned over to an SCO. But the people side really isn't the biggest challenge. What's tough is training people to do all the different jobs. We used to start people off on Records and call-taking, then they trained on Fire and finally on PD. But what we found was that people would pass the first part then fall apart on Fire, or the first two and flame out on PD. Now they're starting with Records but with no call-taking to see how that works. My thinking is to start them on PD since it's the toughest position to work, on the theory that if they can do that, they can handle any of the positions. Toss 'em in the deep end so to speak, but of course with training in advance and the trainer there to help. Still, I'm not sure that's the answer because the fundamental issue is that call-taking and dispatching are two very different animals.

For those in similar do-it-all agencies, what do you think is the best approach?

Training? What is that? Last dispactcher was put in our room and had someone for 14 days and then was left alone. We have no SOP or any offical training. You either sink or swim or call your sgt a lot....lol

tlwinkles379 says ...

HA!!!! In our department a new dispatcher gets sat in the room with another dispatcher and shown the ropes. This includes Police and Fire and 911. No formal training at all.

Thats a tough OJT program, at my old dept, if they could walk through the door without hurting themself, or knocking themself out they worked the console. That was also including Police, Fire, EMS, 911, 6 non emergency phone lines and the IDACS/NCIC computer. If things were busy and the other dispatcher couldn't help the new one, well "at least they tried".

Until they get it right.....