Public Education and Training Pitstops on the Road to NG9-1-1

Public education efforts must increase until NG9-1-1 is fully implemented in the region.  Since these major cities in Collin County are adjacent to cities that do have NG9-1-1 capabilities, callers may not understand why they are able to text in Allen and Frisco but not in the adjoining city of Plano.  Public education budgets are limited.  The 9-1-1 National Public Educator Forum offers free public education materials and ideas to assist agencies with limited public education budgets.  The NCTCOG created the following video on a limited budget utilizing interns, staff, children of staff, and movie-making software. NCTCOG Text to 9-1-1 Public Service Announcement 

Public education is usually focused on pre-school and elementary aged children.  However, the integration of social media and wireless technology requires a shift in focus.  It is equally important to educate the middle-school and high-school population on various ways to access

9-1-1 in emergency situations.  Media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube should be utilized to reach adults.  Significant improvement in massive 9-1-1 public education efforts are necessary as NG9-1-1 is implemented throughout the country.

Training will be necessary to address the processing of NG9-1-1 calls. 

Since federal mandates regarding 9-1-1 call processing are non-existent, state legislative mandates regarding 9-1-1 call processing vary by state.  Some states have limited or non-existent training requirements for 9-1-1 dispatchers.  The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) posted a training and certification survey on their website in September, 2010.  The following excerpt illustrates the issue of the lack of national training requirements:

APCO - What Does Your State Require?

Training.  In the comm center, it can be the difference between a bad day and saving a life.  Both callers and first responders rely on the skills and knowledge of their telecommunicators.

 “For the safety of our citizens and our responding units, they expect a professional to be behind that radio and behind that phone,” says Sherry Decker, 9-1-1 communications supervisor for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.  “Citizens expect a trained voice that can put their world back together.  They don’t care if the dispatcher has been there for one day or 20 years.  They just want the dispatcher to know how to handle their call.” 

 

Despite the need, there are no national minimum training standards for 9-1-1 telecommunicators.  There’s also little consensus on how much training in what subjects is necessary and how—and whether—to fund such training.  Each state has taken its own path.

As of January 1, 2014 Texas requires telecommunicators to be licensed.  Although it is progress, the curriculum for the course has not been updated recently.  Training curriculum will require revamping to include NG9-1-1 infrastructure overview and call processing changes for situations unique to NG9-1-1.

Training on the technical aspects of the equipment deployed is important.  However, it is vital for dispatchers to have a minimum requirement for practice scenarios utilizing the equipment.  Currently the ability to receive data is limited to text to 9-1-1.  However, the education efforts have successfully informed the public to utilize traditional methods to contact 9-1-1 when possible.  Thus, the number of text to 9-1-1 calls received in the NCTCOG region has been minimal.  Without ongoing practice and training, the dispatchers may become complacent and unable to retain proper NG9-1-1 call processing protocols.  Ideally, national mandates would be the best way to address the issue.  However, until that comes to fruition, it is important that local agencies implement ongoing training cycles for telecommunicators.