Our dispatchers work on teams. We have two teams, A and B. Our training allows us to get together with our teams away from the Communications Center for the day. This has been a great opportunity to spend time problem solving, team building and sometimes even have fun.

This year our training has included suicide prevention, hazardous materials, court room procedures, deaf awareness, domestic violence, updating department procedures, team building, observing and role playing with officers in high risk entries and the handling of critical situations.

Dispatchers joining our team spend most of their first year of employment in a structured training program. In our Communications Center we have three positions to work; Phones, Primary Channel (which we call hot seat) and a Secondary Channel (which we call backup).

Our newly hired dispatchers are assigned to a Communications Training Officer. They will spend ten weeks training our new dispatchers on one of the three positions. The new dispatchers rotate between shifts and teams about every ten weeks. A new dispatcher will also attended a three week P.O.S.T. Academy.

Each week our new dispatchers have expected performance standards to achieve, and the Communications Training Officer has expected material to cover.

We also write daily and weekly evaluations. In this most difficult job we try creative and innovative ways to teach our dispatchers to become confident and competent. We train our new dispatchers in our team environment, they receive support and encouragement from everyone.