Not everyone knows it, but there are some serious issues with the ability of emergency call takers to find the location of 911 callers in the United States. The problem stems from the fact that the 911 system in the U.S. was developed with technology from around 40 years ago, when everyone had a landline, and the caller literally had to be in the building associated with the phone they were calling from.
A lot has changed since then, and now a majority of 911 calls come from cell phones, which aren’t tethered to any particular area or building. This means that when callers don’t know their own location—they can’t find street signs, are in a different city or neighborhood, or find themselves in an area without many identifying features—it can actually be very difficult for responders to find their location.
That might seem odd, seeing as we all have apps for finding our phones, tracking our location, and even tracking our friends’ locations, but PSAPs in the U.S. desperately need an upgrade, and that costs a lot of money that they aren’t necessarily getting.
So why is the U.S. National Grid so important? The USNG is the official coordinate system used for search and rescue in the United States. When someone calls 911, PSAPs that use this technology can use the caller’s device’s GPS to generate USNG coordinates. Usable data is anywhere from 8-13 characters, and it can generate a coordinate that identifies the caller’s position within 10 meters—a small enough area that they can easily be found.
There are a few benefits to using the USNG to find callers. For one thing, it’s an easy system for both the caller and the PSAP. It’s also the national standard, and has been the coordinate system for land search and rescue since 2011.
The system isn’t automatic, but if the caller has a smartphone, they can pull up the site and find their coordinates, or preferably, have the app saved on their phone to streamline the process. USNGAPP.ORG will work on a phone without internet connectivity as long as it has been used once before on that device. That makes it ideal for rural areas and other environments where data service is spotty or nonexistent and recognizable landmarks may be few and far between.
The race to upgrade PSAP technology and bring 911 call centers up to date with cell phone use is vital to our safety and security as a nation. When PSAPs implement the U.S. National Grid as part of their existing technology, it gives them another option for finding cell phone users in emergency situations.
If your PSAP is looking to upgrade software and technology, then look no further than KOVA. Our public safety software gives government, public, and enterprise organizations the actionable security information they need to be effective in their emergency response, investigations, and analysis. Contact us today to find out how public safety software solutions from KOVA can benefit your PSAP.
When you’re hiring someone for a high-stress job like a 911 dispatcher, the hiring process must be as thorough and precise as possible.
While there are always new hires who will end up not working out - sometimes before they even begin working - it’s important for 911 centers to do what they can to minimize these numbers. The turnover rate for 911 dispatchers is high, and many counties are incredibly short-staffed. These factors, plus the financial cost of losing new hires, make it especially difficult for 911 centers to lose employees during the training period or shortly after.
So what can hiring managers do to ensure that they’re hiring not just dispatchers, but great dispatchers?
Every candidate knows that being a 911 dispatcher is a stressful job. And most people think they can handle stress just fine. But as any 911 center manager knows, once someone is actually on the phone with someone in a life or death situation, they may find that their ability to handle stress isn’t as great as they thought.
While there’s no surefire way to test a person’s performance under stress, even with simulated training calls, one thing you can do is seek out people who’ve previously proven themselves in stressful situations.
To do so, make sure that it’s a prominent question during the interview process. You can also ask follow-up questions about how the person relieves stress, both at home and on the clock.
Any HR professional will tell you that body language can offer revealing insights into a person’s personality and work style. For a job like this, you want to look for people who convey confidence, without appearing arrogant. This means individuals who sit with their backs straight and their chests open, who project a calm demeanor.
Red flags to pay attention to are:
In order to increase your chances of hiring the right person, it can help to assess the job position you’re hiring for in terms of necessary strengths, rather than just job functions and experience.
To become a 911 dispatcher, a person must be resilient, practical, compassionate, efficient, and able to multi-task - among other traits. Are you asking questions that will allow you to see whether your candidates possess these qualities? Or are you stuck mostly on experience, asking more about a candidate’s previous work than anything else?
For professions that are regularly short-staffed, like 911 dispatching, it can be tempting to simply assume that a promising candidate will also naturally fit into your organization’s culture.
However, this can be a pricey mistake to make. It’s important to assess your candidates’ personal qualities as well as their professional ones to ensure that if they are hired, they’ll fit in well with the rest of your team.
Even though dispatching is largely a job in which one works alone, there are always times - in any profession - in which workers must come together as a team. If one person has a strikingly different personality or skill set than the rest of your workers, it will be much harder for that person to succeed.
To learn more about making your PSAP an efficient and successful workplace, read our post “How to Avoid Common PSAP Workplace Problems.”
Technology plays a vital role in all parts of daily lives, from working, to staying in touch with friends and family, to deciding what movie we’re going to stream on Netflix tonight.
When it comes to public safety, however, technology can mean the difference between life and death. When someone is in a dangerous car accident and calls 911, their well-being depends on the 911 dispatcher being able to pinpoint their location so EMS can respond as quickly as possible.
If someone is at home when a break-in occurs, their ability to text 911 instead of having to call and speak aloud can mean the difference between the intruder finding them—possibly escalating the situation—or leaving the premises after the burglary.
And for law enforcement, reliable, easy-to-use technology can mean the difference between a speedy arrest and conviction or a case that stays open for months. Today, there’s a huge variety of software on offer for law enforcement, from tools like KOVA’s Silent Partner recording app to large-scale platforms like the Nextiva Physical Security Information Management program.
Then there’s our Verint Media Recorder. A versatile, multi-functional and multi-media recording system, Verint Media Recorder is able to work as a stand-alone recorder and playback unit, or as a server in a networked system. PSAPs can use Verint Media Recorder to help them move toward Next Generation 911, or NG-911, standards, as the system supports recording connectivity with digital PBX/ACD stations; digital/analog trunks; service observe; single step conferencing; radio systems; and VoIP and H.323 systems.
Verint Media Recorder can be a strong tool for law enforcement, as well. The system can support full-time, on-demand, scheduled, or event-driven recording, offering the versatility that law enforcement agencies need to do perform to their highest capabilities.
For example, let’s say a law enforcement agency that uses Verint Media Recorder receives information pertaining to a case via email. The system could be configured to record the screen when that information is received, making it easier to ensure that all evidence, including electronic, is tracked, recorded, and catalogued.
Another use for the event-driven recording function could be to selectively not record administrative telephone lines, so you don’t clog up your storage with hours of calls to the HR department, or with questions about payroll.
Another perk of this system is that the parts are all industry standard, off-the-shelf PC components. There’s no proprietary technology that will require agencies to purchase new systems or upgrade their old ones—instead, new technology can be added right on to Verint Media Recorder.
Upgrading to fit all NG-911 standards requires a major commitment of resources: not just the obvious ones like time and money, but new technology, new ways of thinking, and new skill sets. Verint Media Recorder can become one piece of that puzzle for PSAPs moving toward NG-911 standards.
At the same time, Verint Media Recorder can help law enforcement do their jobs better. Think your PSAP or law enforcement agency could use Verint Media Recorder’s capabilities? Contact KOVA today!
When it comes to criminal investigations, law enforcement needs every helpful tool it can get.
From mobile voice recording apps like KOVA’s SilentPartner to the multi-media recording system, Audiolog for Public Safety, there are many recent technological advancements that are helping police officers, detectives, and other public safety officials do their jobs even better.
One you may have heard about is speech analytics software. What speech analytics software does is convert audio recordings, like 911 calls, into indexed, searchable data. This allows investigators, police officers, and others to identify trends across calls by noting the frequency of specific words, as well as where they’re used in relation to other words.
What makes it more than just simple word-identification, however, is the fact that words are indexed for content and meaning, making correlations between calls and incidents easier to spot.
For example, if a certain district with known gang activity is experiencing a high number of shootings, investigators could predefine words—the names of various gangs, for example—and enter them into the speech analytics database. By being able to see when and how often a particular gang is mentioned, they may gain a new level of insight into their investigation.
This feature is especially helpful with 911 calls, since the caller is often agitated or frantic, and can hardly be expected to discuss a possible root cause or previous, similar issue while on the phone.
One successful use of speech analytics occurred at a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) in Pennsylvania, when the software was used to investigate a series of porch fire arson incidents that had been happening across the city. As part of the investigation, the local fire department compiled a list of all the addresses that had been affected.
Then using speech analytics, law enforcement was able to identify similar incidents that had not already been included in the list of addresses. This allowed them to see the bigger picture, ultimately making for a quicker end to the investigation.
Another important benefit of speech analytics software is that by making trends visible, it can help police initiate a proactive response earlier than they might have otherwise. Sometimes the information may even allow them to take preventive actions.
You can learn even more about speech analytics software by reading our white paper on the subject.
Speech analytics has actually been in commercial use for more than a decade, but it’s only recently been put into place in the public safety realm. And now, analytics software is being used for more than just audio recordings.
Take video analytics. This software can scan surveillance footage for a particular person or thing, based on an uploaded photo or user-generated image. Some software is even able to filter out environmental factors like lighting or background movement. This can mean a drastic reduction in the time investigators have to spend manually scanning video for a face or car that there’s no guarantee of spotting anyway.
And now that there are text-to-911 services in certain cities, text analytics are emerging as well. These software systems analyze key words and phrases, just like speech analytics, but they can also analyze things like text response time. When used in concert with other analytics systems, text analytics can provide useful information.
As useful as all these tools can be, without properly trained users, they can result in a flood of data that complicates, rather than simplifies, an investigation. If your PSAP is implementing speech analytics software, it’s vital to make sure that those using it receive good training on how to use this important tool.
If you’re in need of speech analytics or other types of software for your PSAP, take a look at KOVA’s Verint Media Recorder for Public Safety. This public safety software solution includes a wide range of features: performance management, quality assurance, speech analytics, incident investigation and analytics, workload forecasting and staff scheduling, staff coaching and training, and citizen surveys. Contact KOVA today!
https://www.fcc.gov/text-to-911
http://www.officer.com/article/12031164/the-increasing-importance-of-analytics-in-law-enforcement
http://www.kovacorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Kova_SpeechAnalytics.pdf
If you manage a Public Safety Answering Point, then you’re probably very familiar with Next Generation 911, or NG911. These standards, which are gradually being put into place throughout the country, are taking current, telephone-based 911 systems and upgrading them into fully digital networks capable of transmitting video, photos, and SMS in addition to audio.
Transitioning to a new network is never easy, especially when that transition must be seamless—in other words, 911 services can’t be down for any period of time while the switch from current, Enhanced 911 services to NG911 is being made. For this and other reasons, transitioning to NG911 is a daunting prospect for many PSAPs.
However, the many major benefits of NG911 systems make them well worth the trouble. Here are just a few of the reasons PSAPs should begin implementing NG911 capabilities sooner, rather than later.
Those who work in public safety know that despite cell phone location data, 911 dispatchers can’t always pinpoint a caller’s location. This is especially true for rural areas, which have their own set of challenges for 911 services.
For obvious reasons, this can present major problems. While many callers will be able to tell dispatchers exactly where they are, callers who are injured, disoriented, or traveling in a city or town they don’t know may not be able to give their location accurately. This can delay care, and in some cases, even make the difference between life and death.
With NG911, 911 dispatchers can transmit maps to first responders rather than giving them the location verbally. This can greatly enhance police or EMS’s ability to respond quickly and efficiently. In addition, callers to NG911 systems can transmit photos and videos, giving even more information about their situation to dispatchers.
The text-to-911 abilities that many PSAPs already offer have made access to 911 services easier for countless citizens with special needs. Before text-to-911, those who were deaf, hard-of-hearing, or speech-impaired had to use additional devices to communicate with 911. Now, they can reach the service on their phone, just like everyone else.
Text-to-911 is also highly beneficial for people in a number of emergency situations—victims of domestic violence, for example, or home invasions are able to communicate silently, which can be vital to avoiding further harm.
Another way NG911 can help is by making it quicker and easier to route calls to different PSAPs, should any one system become overloaded—as can happen during power outages or natural disasters. This reduces callers’ wait time, which in turn reduces call abandonment.
Consider this example: Vermont implemented statewide NG911 standards before it was struck by Hurricane Irene in 2011. When the hurricane hit, one of the state’s largest PSAPs had to be evacuated, which could have been disastrous for communities needing help.
But because NG911 systems were in place, 911 calls were able to be routed to other PSAPs throughout the state, and communications were not interrupted.
What NG911 benefits really boil down to is increased efficiency for PSAPs and the first responder agencies that work with them. Every photo, video, or text that provides a more complete picture of a caller’s situation not only makes response time faster, but also more appropriate.
The same is true of location accuracy and the ability to reroute calls to other PSAPs. When each call requires fewer resources—in this case, time spent trying to figure out a caller’s location or needs—dispatchers are able to handle calls more quickly, which can decrease the probability of a system becoming overloaded.
As for cost savings, while transitioning to NG911 generates a lot of costs up-front, the potential savings down the line are substantial. As noted in a 911.gov report, after switching to a statewide NG911 system, Vermont saved money by rerouting calls from a rural PSAP that fielded only 1 percent of the state’s 911 calls. Because it’s easy to share and transmit information between NG911 PSAPs, agencies and jurisdictions have the ability to make decisions about combining resources, if that’s something that makes sense.
At KOVA, we’re committed to staying on top of developments in technology. If you’d like to learn more about NG911 standards, visit our White Papers section to read about how NG911 is affecting dispatcher training. And if your PSAP is already making the transition to NG911, take a look at our public safety software solutions.
Sources:
http://www.911.gov/ng911_law/download/ng911_resize_mar2013_final_lr.pdf
http://www.911.gov/pdf/NG911-StandardsIdentificationAnalysis-jan2014.pdf
https://transition.fcc.gov/statelocal/NG911-presentation-4-22-2014.pdf
The National Emergency Number Association, or NENA, sets strict criteria in multiple areas of the emergency response process. Its standards are the gold standard of compliance in the industry, and following them will ensure that you’re ready to meet any emergency like a pro. After all, 911 dispatchers save lives every day, and the more efficient you are, the better you are at serving the public.
NENA’s standards include the following segments: Accessibility, Agency Systems, Core Services, Interconnection & Security, NG9-1-1 Transitioning Planning, and PSAP Operations.
Younger generations are less comfortable than any before with phone calls, and 64 percent prefer text messaging to phone calls as their primary method of contact.
Alice, 42, is one of the people who prefer SMS to audio conversations. She has laryngeal cancer that created chronic hoarseness, meaning that it’s difficult for people to understand her through a phone.
“I don’t know what I would do if there was an emergency and I needed to call 911,” she said. “Sometimes even my friends and family don’t know what I’m trying to say, much less a complete stranger during a scary situation.”
To keep up with the changing needs of the populations, your PSAP needs to make SMS familiarity a priority if it hasn’t already. This may involve learning common text abbreviations and creating a guide to communicating with brevity. To make the service more accessible with those with disabilities, you may also consider providing alternative ways of giving feedback, like visual or nonverbal responses.
This committee tests and defines the tools your PSAP uses to make sure they’re up-to-date and able to respond to emergency calls. Many of our clients have contacted us after wondering if their dusty old equipment was in compliance of NENA standards, and instead of wondering, the easiest way to comply is to entrust KOVA with your public safety software solutions.
KOVA’s Verint Media Recorder for Public Safety suite offers the latest technology and gives you all the tools you need to comply with federal, state, board, or agency mandates for call handing evaluation and reporting.
While protocol may seem overly stuffy or even frivolous in the realms of etiquette or dating, in your contact center, it is absolutely essential.
Your PSAP’s resident data entry team should be intimately familiar with all format protocol, because entering the information any other way may undermine the entire 9-1-1 system architecture. A typo can endanger lives or threaten the credibility of your records.
Your dispatchers should also understand geographical zoning—in other words, which calls are routed to which place.
This set of standards deal with the actual medium of the call, its connection, and the quality of the audio. Dropped 911 calls have caused concern in states as disparate as Tennessee and Pennsylvania in recent years.
"We expect 911 to be there throughout our entire call," Theresa Allocca, a victim's mother, said.
Your dispatchers need to understand how to handle call connection as well as the max volume of calls. If your PSAP is routinely getting congested, you’ll need to change the infrastructure to allow everyone to get through.
The aim of the NG911 movement is to transition from the traditional methods of operating a PSAP to a “next generation” model. This will continue to happen in the next few years, and your contact center is advised to prepare by moving as much of its data into NG911 infrastructure as possible. While a full-featured, completely standard-based NG911 system hasn’t been developed fully, it is in the works and PSAPs should be prepared.
When the unspeakable happens, 911 is the first to be contacted by Americans in crisis. The PSAP Committee provides drills for these anomalies, from natural disasters to power outages. Your contact center needs to practice these drills regularly so that the unexpected occurs, your dispatchers are prepared.
After all, public safety answering points need to be available around the clock, every single day. No matter the technical malfunction, epidemic, or flood, your dispatchers need to be ready to react. These extenuating occasions, your traditional response protocol won’t work. You need to have contingency plans readied, implemented, communicated, activated, and evaluated.
For example, in the occasion of geographic information system failure, supervisors should tell operators to use physical maps; if half of the dispatchers are out on sick leave, the Operations Officer should know to activate the “re-routing of calls to buddy” procedure.
Public safety access points (PSAPs) like yours are the first line of defense for Americans during some of the worst times of their lives. You’re expected to be there, 24/7, no matter how difficult the call or how hard the day. There’s no understating the importance of what you do: neglecting a call can mean the ruin—or even end—of someone’s life.
Unfortunately, an Albuquerque contact center is learning that the hard way and is facing endless scrutiny after one of its dispatchers handled a call in a very poor way.
On July 28, 17 year-old Jaden Chavez-Silver was at an Albuquerque party and became the victim of a drive-by shooting. One of his distraught friends called 911 and in a moment of frustration, used profanity. The dispatcher, Matthew Sanchez, said, “Okay, you know what, ma'am? You can deal with yourself, I'm not going to deal with this, okay?" right before the line disconnected.
Although Mr. Sanchez did dispatch an ambulance while still on the call, the shooting victim was pronounced dead at the hospital. Critics are saying the teen’s death might have been avoided if the dispatcher had stayed on the line and coached the caller in lifesaving measures.
“I don’t understand why he did what he did,” Nicole Silver, the victim’s mother, said.
The dispatcher, Matthew Sanchez, had been a 911 dispatcher for 3 years and 5 months. He quickly tendered his resignation. The Albuquerque Fire Department is now under investigation to see if Sanchez handled any other calls improperly during his tenure there.
Chris Carver, an operations director for NENA, said that hiring the right people can sometimes be more important than training. "They need to be professional at all times, detail-oriented, be able to handle stressful situations ... It isn't something everyone can do," Carver said. "It's a very specific set of skills that can be hard to find."
In the wake of this tragedy, remind your dispatchers exactly what’s at stake during each and every call—no one can afford to lose his cool or respond in any way except calmly and professionally. Review KOVA’s helpful tips on how to deal with a difficult caller, and consider calling a special meeting to remind your staff.
You might also find it useful to utilize our Verint Media Recorder for Public Safety software to record, search, and evaluate your dispatchers on a regular basis to avoid the trouble the Albuquerque Fire Department is now under.
In other top news, there’s talk within the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of ending a nearly 20 year-old rule that says that wireless phones must be able to dial emergency services even after the owner stops paying for service.
The FCC says its proposal is due to popularity of low-cost plans, as well as problems the rule has created for PSAPs. In some parts of the country, 90 percent of 911 calls received from phones without service were fraudulent, and three out of four of those were made by kids playing with old phones. These false 911 calls slow down responses to legitimate calls and divert resources.
Wireless phones without service are also enjoyed by pranksters, because they’re harder to trace. These prank calls are a major distraction for dispatchers.
Still, some people are against the rule reversal. Critics say that some people rely on the wireless service without regular service for emergencies, such as lower-income, elderly, and disabled populations.
One way to deal with these fraudulent calls is to use KOVA’s Audiolog for Public Safety software, which can record calls full-time, on-demand, by event, or when scheduled. Having a record of these false calls makes it easier to identify and prosecute repeat offenders.
There’s a lot to learn for the savvy contact center supervisor who’s willing to learn from the news stories mentioned here
In the last few months, PSAPS in the news have made a splash for these top headlines. The savvy supervisor can learn from these news events and prepare themselves accordingly. Contact us at KOVA today for help upgrading your software to keep your public safety access point out of the news.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski addressing public safety officials in Arlington, VA. last month, spoke about the need to adapt to modern communication: “It’s time to bring 9-1-1 into the digital age.”
Genachowski went on to say he would initiate a proceeding to gather public opinion how best to transition from current emergency communications to broadband-enabled, Next Generation 9-1-1.
21st Century Emergency Communication
These comments come hard on the heels of recent announcements by the FCC concerning the need to increase location accuracy for emergency calls originating from wireless devices. Currently, location technology is able to detect location of calls made outdoors, but is often unable to give similar information for indoor calls. Since the majority of 9-1-1 calls are made on mobile devices, there is a significant gap in emergency response communications.
According to Genachowsky, “The current 9-1-1 system is efficient and reliable—handling more than 650,000 calls a day. But today’s 9-1-1 system doesn’t support the communication tools of tomorrow. Many 9-1-1 call centers don’t even have broadband, and some are in communities where broadband isn’t even available. That is unacceptable.”
Of those 650,000 9-1-1 calls made each day, 450,000 are made on mobile phones.
“Even though mobile phones are the device of choice for most 9-1-1 callers,” continues Genachowsky, “and we primarily use our phones to text, right now, you can’t text 9-1-1.”
Genechowsky brought his message home to his Arlington audience. He cited the Virginia Tech shootings as a case in point – as the tragedy was unfolding, students tried to text 9-1-1, but those messages were never received by emergency dispatchers.
Call For 9-1-1 Texting Controversial
But providing support for 9-1-1 texting is not welcomed by all. To some the format is not ideal for communicating with 9-1-1 dispatchers. Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas, is hesitant to see texting become a means of contacting 9-1-1 operators. “While we understand the desire to use SMS [short message service] to contact 9-1-1, SMS has significant limitations and shortcomings that do not make SMS suitable for emergency communications, especially under life-threatening conditions.”
Social Media And 9-1-1: The Expectations and Realities
Despite Pearson’s concerns, the reflexive use of social media by a majority of the American public has a serious impact on how they respond to emergency situations. Many teens and young adults are unaware that they can’t reach out to 9-1-1 dispatchers using texts or social media.
The American Red Cross recently issued a study of the ways modern digital communication affects the ways Americans attempt to contact 9-1-1. The results found that:
The Future
Realizing the overwhelming need to adapt to current communication platforms, for Genachowski the way forward is not in dispute: “While the need for action is clear, modernizing 9-1-1 raises complex challenges that will take not only time, but also significant coordination. We need the help of our federal, state and local partners, public safety, lawmakers, communications and broadband service providers, and equipment manufacturers to develop a national framework for Next-Generation 9-1-1 services across the nation. FCC staff recognize the importance of this work and what it takes and continue to work diligently with all interested parties to move this initiative forward.”
In the fast-paced, high-stress environment that is a public safety answering point, the leadership qualities of a supervisor are vital to the smooth functioning of the dispatcher team. The rest of the PSAP staff takes its cue from management, so it’s crucial that supervisors develop and fully utilize certain leadership skills in order for their PSAP to achieve high levels of performance.
There are 6 especially important leadership skills that every public safety answering point supervisor should incorporate into their management style.
When supervisors are bogged down with paperwork and other requirements of the job, it can be difficult to take the time to simply observe how things are going in the PSAP. But such observation is vital to the prevention of problems. If a supervisor notices a trend among dispatchers – anything from arguments to sloppy work – while it’s still minor, it can be nipped in the bud before it becomes a major issue.
When things go wrong, it is tempting to play the blame game, whether we’re blaming people or circumstances. But that’s not productive, and it does nothing to solve the problem. It's important to figure out how the issue came up so that it can be avoided if it were to occur again. But trying to ascertain the cause of something and then only dealing with that part of the problem would be counterproductive. Make sure you don't single anyone out, and just deal with the behavior at hand. Talk to the whole team about it and maybe figure out a solution together so that if another problems occurs in the future, your team will deal with it together, instead of singling people out.
Sometimes it can be hard to know what to do when a problem crops up, especially if it does seem to be because of circumstances that simply can’t be changed. But it’s important to do something, even if you’re not positive it will help. Learn about the problem and try to make a diplomatic decision, where all sides are understood and dealt with equally. The mere fact that you are trying something, rather than doing nothing, will boost morale – and eventually, you might just find a way to fix the problem after all.
With all the emphasis placed on NG911 technology these days, as well as the normal technological training and upgrades required, it can be easy to devote more time, energy, and funds to technology than to the people who will be using it. But the people are the heart of any PSAP, and need just as much, if not more, attention and funds devoted to their human professional development. Make sure your employees know how important and appreciated they are. You could always reward them with small breaks or free breakfast on Fridays. Even the smallest gestures will instill a great amount of motivation.
There’s nothing more inspiring to an employee than to see their supervisor walking the talk, doing exactly as they expect their employees to do. And there’s nothing more discouraging than seeing supervisors act as if they are above the law. If this means having to sit in their spot, doing what they do, then definitely do it. Lead by example, and dispatchers will be glad to follow. Be punctual to work, meetings and when meeting deadlines. Be courteous to all other workers and
Don’t try general motivation schemes without first ascertaining what exactly it is that motivates each of your dispatchers. In order to truly get them on board with your ideas, you’ll need to find a form of positive motivation that will be effective. Ask them what would work, and experiment till you find the right tools. Most of the time incentives work as great motivators. You can use them in a small competition to drive their work. You could also do team bonding competitions and encourage your team members to work together. Another idea could be to have an in-house retreat that has workshops geared towards team bonding, work improvement, and self motivation.
These 6 leadership qualities will give any public safety answering point supervisor the skills they need to effectively help their dispatchers improve performance - as well as morale. It is important that the team leader is humble, cooperative, and diplomatic so that the team members feel comfortable working with them or speaking to them about their own work issues. It is beneficial for the company if each team can get along well together as a whole, which is why it is important that each team leader work hard to keep their team together.
While every different job comes with its own set of required skills and talents, the work of a 911 dispatcher is unique. So when a PSAP supervisor interviews job applicants, it’s especially challenging.
Public safety answering point professionals must be trustworthy, reliable, thoughtful, alert team players who can learn from their mistakes and remain calm in extremely stressful situations. Those traits are difficult to ascertain from just one interview.
So we’ve compiled a list of some interview questions PSAP supervisors can use to get a feel for how well any given applicant would do as a 911 dispatcher, along with guidelines as to which answers reflect the best fit.
1. Why do you want to be a PSAP dispatcher? Listen carefully here for honesty, as well as a real understanding of what it means to be a dispatcher. If the applicant says it’s for the money, they probably aren’t your best candidate! But if they know it’s a difficult job, and look forward to the challenges in order to be able to help people, you’re on the right track.
2. Have you done anything to prepare yourself for this job? Being a 911 agent means constantly learning, both through formal training and through on-the-job experience. If a candidate has taken the initiative to take some courses on their own, or has even done a sit-along with an agency, you’ll know they are willing to devote themselves to that continued learning.
3. Describe a time when you became very upset, but had to recover quickly. It will be very helpful to know how applicants handle themselves in stressful situations, and how quickly they can work through personal emotions in order to take care of business. Find out exactly how candidates calmed themselves – someone who is aware of the means they used to recover is more likely to be able to use that skill again when necessary.
4. How would you try to control a conversation with an upset caller? You don’t want to hire someone who will try to bully their way through emergency calls; instead, look for people who say they would talk more slowly and deliberately, or break their instructions down for the caller into even tinier steps than usual to get them started.
5. What do your friends and family think about you applying for this job? Not only will the answer to this question give you insight into the way a person’s family views their talents and abilities, but it will also let you know what kind of support system each candidate would have in place if they were to be hired. If someone’s entire family is against the idea, they may not end up sticking with it long-term.
6. You’re working alone when you get a call reporting a heart attack at the same time as a call for help from an officer. What do you do, in what order, and why? There’s not necessarily a correct or incorrect answer here, but the candidate should be able to quickly come up with a plan, and then explain thoughtful reasons for each step taken. This will demonstrate their ability to think quickly and clearly under pressure.
Asking questions like these will enable you to see which qualities the candidates each bring to the table, and which would be most likely to succeed long-term at this career.
