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PREPARATION GOAL: To acquire the knowledge and skill in preparing to dispatch and to adequately adjust to activity. SETTING THE STAGE  Shift change is a very important time of the day for everybody, more so for the Com...

PREPARATION GOAL: To acquire the knowledge and skill in preparing to dispatch and to adequately adjust to activity. SETTING THE STAGE  Shift change is a very important time of the day for everybody, more so for the Communications Officer at the end of their shift. There is no way to predict what they have gone through, so we can predict that they will be more than ready to be relieved on time. Relieved on time means they have conducted a verbal briefing with the Communications Officer beginning their shift, passed on any pertinent information, and logged off the computer before their specific shift end time. Ensure that you check all locations on the status monitor to ensure they are consistent with our locations/abbreviations, because once that operator has left the room; we are several minutes from getting them back or having them call in.  Once logged in you need to familiarize yourself with all activity in the room. At a minimum, you can accomplish this by: 1. First, read all pending incidents and dispatch calls immediately. (as units become available) 2. Be prepared to sit down and get right to work. Plan on there being calls in pending during the majority of all shift changes. 3. Next, read all calls that are working and that have units assigned, be familiar with in progress calls as well as all calls that may be holding. 4. In addition, when console equipment is inoperable or malfunctioning you need to make notification of that to Communications Supervisor, HelpDesk, and any other operators who will be using that console.  A big issue in preparation is the ability to multi-task. Multi-tasking will involve: receiving and questioning calls for service, dispatching calls, post-dispatch activities, receiving Officer initiated calls, anticipation and planning for emergency situations, and an occasional phone call from a Supervisor or Officer. Page 1 of 2  1. As you already know this is not a job where you can get up in the morning, or evening, and know exactly what you are going to do at work. The day’s activities dictate themselves. 2. Now you will know when to prepare for high volume shifts depending on the day or event. For example, plan on a very active evening and night on New Year’s Eve. This is not the day to come to work and plan on finishing a novel. 3. The opposite is also true. Routinely on Christmas Day, day shift is quite slow. There have been many holiday’s during day shift where activity is at a bare minimum. Of course the later it gets in the afternoon and evening, the call volume increases because of family disturbances and alcohol related incidents.  After you have gone through a high activity workload, you must be able to recover from such activity increases. 1. Operation has to come first. When the activity slows down, double-check your commands versus the status monitor for verification and validation that all procedures were accomplished. Some prefer to use “sticky note” or pen/paper to keep notes. 2. Secondly, you must take care of yourself. If you need to get up and take a personal or emotional break, by all means, please do. Of course, please get someone to take over your channel first. There will be times when there may not be another dispatch operator on duty to relieve you right away, so hang in there until someone becomes available.  Knowing the resources in the communications center will greatly enhance your abilities to multi-task. If you don’t have to think or lookup where to find something, your responses to requests will be timelier. Page 2 of 2  GAINESVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT OVERVIEW OF POLICE TRAINING  Dispatching all Police calls for service 1. Priority 3 – One unit 2. Priority 2 – One unit 3. Priority 1- Two units 4. Communications Officers are responsible for deciding the appropriate number of unit(s) and which unit(s) to send to every call for service, including notification of appropriate Patrol Supervisors for specific calls. 5. Communications Officers are also responsible to ensure the nature code utilized is correct.  Providing accurate information to field units 1. As the call information is updated, the Communications Officer shall provide pertinent updated information to the responding unit(s). 2. The Communications Officer also processes TLETS information by reading and giving returns. When an Officer provides a license plate, it is imperative the Communications Officer run the plate and interpret the return. The same applies to when an Officer performs a check for wanted on a person.  Maintaining unit status 1. The Communications Officer is 100% responsible for awareness and accuracy of the Officers locations once dispatched to a call for service. 2. Communications Officers must copy the information given by Officers, such as location and plate information when making traffic stops. 3. Every activity must be inputted quickly. 4. This may include updating status as necessary for Officer initiated vehicular and/or foot pursuits. 5. Hostage situations, barricaded persons, citizen contact, etc. Officer locations must be as accurate as possible (in the alley, in front of the house to the west, etc…) Page 1 of 4  Awareness of Officer safety in all duties is paramount Dispatcher duties are performed using multiple systems and require knowledge and application of specific commands and/or monitoring equipment that includes some of the following:  Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system: Knowledge/application of specific commands and syntax for specific activities  Motorola Radio system: Knowledge of use of system & preparation for radio transmissions (knowing what to say, how to say it, phonetic alphabet, common terminology, etc…)  Mapping technologies  VESTA phone system with IRR (Instant recall recorder) playback  Mobile Data Terminals (MDT) The Trainee will begin his/her on the job training with an approximate four week rotation, however based on previous dispatching experience and information retention of the specific Trainee this time may be adjusted. During this phase of training, the Trainee is working at all of the above responsibilities, sharing responsibility with the CTO and performing the data input. The final phase is Ghost Phase. During this phase, the CTO will observe the Trainee and little to no help will be given. During this time, the Trainee will be responsible for applying the experience and knowledge they have acquired up to this point of training. Training can be extended in the final phase for additional weeks if the Trainee is not yet ready, but continues to show marked progress. PRIORITIES AND OFFICER SAFETY As a Communications Officer, your number one priority is Officer/responder safety. This applies regardless of which console you are assigned to. There should never be an instance when an Officer is asked to “standby” when they are checking traffic on the radio. The dispatch environment is hectic and there are many things happening at once. The nature of the job requires you to be able to multi-task. Radio traffic must always come first. 911 calls are typically urgent matters that need a quick response, but it needs to be understood that there will be times when an Officer has a single opportunity to announce their radio traffic. Consider the consequences if the Officer’s traffic is missed or not answered promptly and an Officer is injured, or worse. The Communications Officer plays a vital role in assuring the safety of the Police Officers. This is accomplished through prompt and accurate response to the radio, thorough call taking, checking the status of Officers and immediate response to an Officer’s request for back up. Page 2 of 4  INTRODUCTION GOAL: To establish an awareness of the responsibilities of the Communications Officer and the equipment used to perform required duties. The primary roles of the Communications Officer are to dispatch calls for service, maintain unit status, provide accurate and needed information to responding personnel, and to be constantly aware of Officer and citizen safety. ROLL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER Dispatch Calls for Service  You may or may not know when a call taker is about to enter a call in your queue unless they are sitting directly beside you, so anticipate that every time the phone rings…it’s a call for service in your command area. It will be stressed continually throughout your training to dispatch all calls immediately. Maintain Unit Status  You will be responsible for 100% awareness and accuracy of Officers locations and/or status updates. Although the term is quite often used “nobody is perfect”, as a Communications Officer 100% accuracy is required. We never know when somebody could get hurt, or need assistance and we would not be able to provide this in a timely manner because of inaccurate information. Provide Accurate and Important Information to Responding Units  The post-dispatch phase is where we will provide any pertinent updated information to units. We will also be able to make supervisory notifications during this phase, if they were not dispatched at the onset of the incident. Page 3 of 4 Officer Safety  Awareness of Officer safety is paramount. All actions revolve around Officer safety. Just by putting on their uniform, their lives are put in danger. Some of the public have a negative view of Police personnel and see them as the enemy instead of public servants. Their perception is with FD, you’re going to get help…with Police you’re going to be arrested. Safety will be discussed and stressed continually.  The dispatcher plays an important role in the safety of the Officers. It is the Communications Officer’s responsibility to obtain vital information that the Officers need when responding to calls for service. On appropriate calls, asking the reporting party if there are any weapons, drugs or alcohol involved is very important. Always check the alert file as well. When an Officer has been on scene of a high priority call, such as a fight in progress or family disturbance for 5 minutes it would be appropriate to check the Officer’s status on the radio. This also applies to Officer’s who have been on traffic stops for 10 minutes or longer, and when an Officer is out with a wanted person or stolen vehicle that is occupied. Page 4 of 4  DISPATCHING GOAL: To acquire the knowledge, skill and ability to properly dispatch calls by CAD or manual operations while maintaining radio traffic. USE OF RADIO CALL NUMBERS Radio transmissions are typically directed to specific unit numbers. These correspond with the Officer’s badge/ID number. Each officer is assigned a beat in the city but is also responsible for the entire city. THE CALL DISPATCHING PROCEDURE CAD will prioritize calls based on the nature code selected by the Communications Officer. If you have to change the nature code based on the information provided to upgrade the call, it is in the department’s best interest that you do that prior to dispatch. Failure to upgrade a call and it have a negative effect on the call could have serious consequences for all involved; primarily the citizens and Officers.  The call dispatch procedure is as follows: 1. Receive the call via CAD or manual card 2. Review call notes and caution information 3. Question or prompt the call taker for accuracy or completeness (only if needed). Often times we dispatch a call without a lot of notes. Unless it is pertinent to Officer safety, give the call taker a chance to process the call without continuously interrupting them. 4. Make unit assignments (initial assignment) 5. Forward call to MDT via CAD 6. If a priority call, you must dispatch call over the radio Page 1 of 5  There are certain time requirements that must be met for the different priorities. Although the goal is to dispatch every call immediately, there may be times that call activity requires us to contact supervisory personnel because the call load exceeds manpower. We cannot hold calls without a Patrol Supervisor approval. Once the supervisor has been made aware of the call holding, those remarks must be put in the notes field of the call screen.  Unit recommendations will involve many factors, which will mainly be dictated by the call for service. The priority, seriousness, time delay, and number of subjects involved will impact your decision-making.  As a Communications Officer, you will be required to review, edit, clarify, and at times validate calls during all phases of dispatch. If a high priority call is entered without notes, go ahead, dispatch it, and if necessary prompt the call taker for notes. Ensure that you continually relay all pertinent information to responders. This may involve working multiple calls and relaying information on each call. Pay close attention to what notes apply to what calls. There is no need to give non-priority notes. It ties up unnecessary radio time. If the notes are pertinent, then give them. SAFETY COMES FIRST!  An Officer will acknowledge receipt of a call over the radio and enroute themselves on their MDT. There may be times when they are not in their vehicle and they will receive and say, “show me enroute”, or just “enroute”. If an Officer advises he or she is enroute, but does not enroute himself or herself, please ensure you complete this step.  Routine backup assignments will be based on the Unit Recommendation Guidelines. Again, this is only a guideline; you may have to assign additional units based on the call notes.  We try to keep radio transmissions to a 30-second time limit or less. Please adhere to this procedure for many reasons. 1. Primarily, we don’t want to tie up the radio for extended periods in the event that an Officer needs to broadcast a transmission. 2. If you think about it 30 seconds is a long time to speak. You will easily be able to broadcast information in this time requirement. It may require some pre-planning of text, but it can easily be done. Pre-planning is also going to play a big role in how logical your notes will come across over the radio.  It cannot be stressed enough the importance of checking alert notes. Not relaying this information or being aware of it could have grave consequences. 1. ALERT INFORMATION: This is the most important. It deals primarily with subjects from past incidents or subjects who have made threats against the public or Officer. Some alerts require more than the usual number of units dispatched or even silent dispatching. Page 2 of 5  2. PREMISE INFORMATION: This type of flagged information will provide the Officers with specific alarm permit information about a location. Including residence/business name, phone numbers, and miscellaneous contact phone numbers. 3. CALL HISTORY: This is the location history. Any prior entries related to this address/location will be detailed here. TRAFFIC STOPS & OFFICER INITIATED MARK OUTS  Officer initiated traffic stops pose a huge safety issue for Police Officers. Primarily you will receive self initiated activity over the radio if they are not of a personal or administrative nature. Personal or administrative self initiated activities should be done by CAD to free up radio time. 1. Receive and acknowledge each mark out with their unit number. This will give you two opportunities to verify exactly who you are speaking to. EX: “326 traffic”. “326 go ahead”. After the information is provided and completely understood, acknowledge by saying “received”. If the Officer called themselves the wrong unit on the first transmission, the second one gives them the option to correct it. 2. Study and read the street maps in CAD, the phone and on the walls. By doing this, you will become familiar with street names and have an idea of where in the city they are located.  What do you do if the vehicle stopped during a traffic stop is stolen? We have to ensure that any information we put out on the radio will not jeopardize an Officer’s safety. A big delay at the position sometimes is not what actions to take, it is “what to say” on the radio. Memorize and build a knowledge base of scripts for anticipated emergencies.  As a Communications Officer, you will be required to occasionally check on the status of Officers that are on calls. We have CAD defaults set up on timers for certain commands. Example: The vehicle stop command has a 10-minute timer. There are also times where a status check is not needed. Even though policy/procedure addresses status checks, there is room for dispatcher discretion to be utilized.  A back-up request that is needed on the initial transmission may have a slight delay to it, but your goal will be eventually to send a back-up without much thought process or delay. If you follow the above procedures and do the process in your head every time, all it should take is for Page 3 of 5  you to glance at the status monitor and make a unit selection. It should be that quick. Sending someone farther away is better than sending no one at all. Officers will typically jump in and take it if they are closer. Silence and not reacting to a call for assistance is dangerous and never acceptable.  Emergency button activation back-ups are not routine, but these procedures are non- discretionary. You are required to follow them systematically and in the correct order. Again, these procedures are ministerial in nature and cannot be deviated from. 1. However, there will be times that you may have to add a step or two to be able to even begin the procedures. Example: Someone requests emergency back-up. The first step is to determine the Officer’s location. The next step is to dispatch two units and a Patrol Supervisor to the Officer’s last known location. What if you have no units available? This is where you may have to include a step or two to get available units and then the procedures can be followed. Example: You can broadcast, “I need a unit to back-up 343 on his traffic stop?” in order to clear up units to send.  You may not realize it, but we have been discussing “forecasting” in some way or another throughout the dispatching process. This involves, but is not limited to: 1. Monitoring other radio channels’ activity, without jeopardizing the radio channel you are primarily responsible for. When we discussed status checks earlier, it would be easy to evaluate if you are listening to other radio channels by seeing if you habitually ask the Fire dispatcher if they have spoken to a unit. If you were not in a priority situation, you should have gotten some of the transmission or enough to determine if it was one of your units or not. Listen to the Fire radio and read notes on their call screens. This will help you prepare in sending patrol units to Fire Department requests as needed. All radio volumes should be kept at an acceptable level in order to hear and understand what is being transmitted. 2. Anticipating additional information prior to being asked by Officers. As you work the channel, you will become more experienced at routine requests prior to them being requested. Page 4 of 5 PATROL BREAKS  Patrol Officers are allowed one hour of break time per 12 hour shift, most of the Officers will take a 15 min break towards the beginning of shift then take a 45 minute break later on in the shift. Calls for service will always come first. The officers will check themselves out on breaks from their MDT.  In emergency situations, Officer’s may be pulled from their breaks to assist with calls. Make sure the Patrol Supervisor is made aware of this and notate this information in the notes section of the call screen. EMERGENCY & PRIORITY SITUATIONS An area of concern with these situations is closing the dispatch channel where the emergency initiated. The Patrol Supervisor may advise you to close the channel; however, don’t wait for their permission. If the radio traffic starts getting very busy for an incident involving a large number of Officers or poses a major safety risk to the responding units, take the initiative and close the channel yourself. 1. Priority Traffic or Emergency Traffic is a procedure used so that whoever needs to transmit an emergency transmission will be given sole rights to the radio. This is not limited entirely to Police personnel; there may be cases where we will need to use this procedure. 2. To utilize the procedure, the person transmitting the emergency traffic will preface their announcement with their Unit/Badge number followed by the words “Emergency Traffic”. Example: “121 Emergency Traffic”. 3. As the Communications Officer you will respond with “121 Emergency Traffic, go ahead”. This will advise all units to standby and not to use the radio until 121 has finished his transmission. The actions that follow are entirely incident based. The priority transmission could be suspect information, pulling up on a high priority incident, pulling up on an Officer assist before getting involved in the incident or any other emergency reasons that a unit feels they need priority over the radio. 4. Pursuits. The two types of pursuit incidents you may be involved in will be vehicle or foot. Page 5 of 5  CAD AND MDT INTERFACE GOAL: To properly operate the CAD and appropriately utilize the interface systems with MDT’s. CAD SYSTEM  A big part of your daily operations will deal directly with electronic message transmissions. Whether it be with an officer, your co-workers, or TLETS interface you will constantly use electronic messaging. There are several reasons we need to use this function. Just to name a few: 1. Between co-workers in dispatch: If we verbalized all information or requests, it would be total chaos in our work center. The majority of information exchanged can be conducted by messaging and placing the information on the call for service. However, do not hesitate to stand up and verbalize in the event of a priority situation. Remember, MDC messaging should only be work related information. Do not place yourself in a position where you are typing unprofessional and personal messages to your co-workers. It could end up on the news and used in a court of law. 2. To responders in the field: To pass on information to the responding units if we receive word that the use of a scanner may be involved in a Police operation. We also utilize messages to pass along non-emergency or administrative information to units. Example: We can send a message to a unit to public service the jail instead of tying up radio time. Once again, do not write inappropriate messages to Officers, this information is not privileged and could be an embarrassing situation for not just you, but for the entire department. 3. Radio broadcasts: If we receive an urgent teletype that pertains to our area or Officer safety, we will copy and paste the message received via OpenFox on the message function of the CAD system to all. Depending on the nature of the teletype, the information may need to be verbally broadcast as well.  Incident history queries will be needed on a daily basis. Quite often, there is a call for service request based on a prior incident or related to a prior incident. It can expedite dispatch of the call and dissemination of notes if we have the previous file number logged in the call if it actually pertains to the new call for service. Page 1 of 2 MDT OPERATIONS  In some instances an officer will have already ran an inquiry on their MDT and be aware of a hazardous situation. They have access to the TLETS interface on their mobile units.  Mobile data units also have the capability to perform unit and incident history queries. Not as extensive as CAD, however they are able to use certain command functions.  One of the greatest advantages or benefits of mobile data units are the capability to view, modify or clear calls for service. This allows us to minimize radio traffic and give the responding unit the necessary information to respond to the call. Page 2 of 2 ABBREVIATION POLICE EVENT CODES AC ALL CLEAR CA CHECK AND ADVISE CAM CAMERA REQUESTED CC CRIME WATCH CARD PLACEMENT CIDN CID NOTIFIED CLOSE CHANNEL CLOSED CN CAB NOTIFIED CODE RUNNING CODE CONF CONFIRM WARRANT COS CAB ON SCENE CPR CPR IN PROGRESS CS CONSENT TO SEARCH CSIN CSI NOTIFIED CSL CRIME SCENE LOG STARTED DC DISREGARD COVER DDN DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE – NO OFFENSE REPORT DDO DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE – OFFENSE REPORT DET SUBJECT DETAINED DNCONF DO NOT CONFIRM WARRANT HOLD PLACE HOLD ON VEHICLE HWN HEAVY DUTY WRECKER NOTIFIED HWOS HEAVY DUTY WRECKER ON SCEEN IC IN CUSTODY K9AS K9 ARTICLE SEARCH K9B K9 BITE K9BS K9 BUILDING SEARCH K9D K9 DEPLOYED K9N K9 NOTIFIED K9ND K9 NARCOTICS DEPLOYMENT K9O K9 ON SCENE Page 1 of 2  K9TD K9 TRACK DEPLOYMENT LL LESS LETHAL DEPLOYED ABBREVIATION POLICE EVENT CODES ME MAKING ENTRY MEN MEDICAL EXAMINER NOTIFIED MEOS MEDICAL EXAMINER ON SCENE MW MIRANDA WARNING NCS NON CONSENSUAL SEARCH OC PEPPER SPRAY USED OPC ORDER OF PROTECTIVE CUSTODY OPEN OPEN DOOR OPENCH OPEN CHANNEL PRI PRIMARY SEARCH COMPLETE RC REQUEST COVER UNIT RCODE REDUCE CODE RIFLE RIFLE DEPLOYED SC STATUS CHECK SEC SECONDARY SEARCH COMPLETE SFST SFST IN PROGRESS SS SPANISH SPEAKER REQUESTED TAS TASER UTILIZED WD WRECKER DISREGARDED WN WRECKER NOTIFIED WOS WRECKER ON SCENE Page 2 of 2  MANUAL OPERATIONS AND DISPATCHING GOAL: To acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to transition from CAD to manual dispatching. There are two instances we need to discuss where we may have to revert to non-CAD operations. One is due to scheduled or preventive maintenance. The other is when the CAD server crashes or has an unexpected error.  There are going to be some major constraints due to manual operations. Mainly, anticipate more radio traffic due to the inaccessibility of information usually available on MDT’s. We will have many more delays due to manual operations.  The most important thing to remember about Manual Operations is that each Communications Officer may do something differently to ensure they know where the units they are responsible for are. Whatever method is used, the only requirements are that it works for you, that you can document all the necessary information, and you know who is where when it counts. Manual Dispatching Sheets  All calls will need to be documented on a manual dispatching sheet. These sheets become an Officers’ unit history and will be inputted into CAD when the software is restored. SCHEDULED AND PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE  This is the optimal type of manual dispatch situation. Before the CAD system goes down, ensure you have documented the status of each Officer and their locations, how long they have been out or when their next status check will need to be, as well as having the Officer’s names, unit numbers and what vehicle number they are in.  Don’t forget to notate the calls that are in the pending queue. Once you sign out of CAD, you can’t get those calls back to dispatch them.  Much of this information can be retained easily by a screen shot of your CAD. However, be very careful with this process as one status change affects that status screen. Use that screen shot for reference only for those minutes that it is current. Page 1 of 2  SOFTWARE MALFUNCTIONS  This is difficult to recover from while working the console. These situations must be handled quickly and you must maintain the confidence on the radio and let the Officers know that you are in total control of the situation.  Once you realize that CAD is down, immediately notify the Officers on the radio so they will be informed. This will help prevent questions about why their MDT’s are not working properly. Page 2 of 2  RADIO SYSTEM GOAL: To acquire the necessary skills to properly operate and perform functions of the Motorola radio system. GENERAL RADIO INFORMATION  We share this radio system with all the other City departments that have radio contact with one another. Due to being emergency services, we have the highest priority on the radio system allowing us to never have delays in our radio transmissions.  The radio system has several different channels that are built in. This includes all Police, Fire and Public Works channels. VISUAL RADIO TECHNIQUES  The radio system allows us to see who is keying up on the radio. Unit identification on the radio system will display the Officer’s badge number if operating on a hand held radio or their vehicle number if operating on the car radio. This will give you visual reference of the hand held or vehicle radio that is transmitting. RADIO EMERGENCY ACTIVATIONS AND PANIC ALARMS  The radio system allows for different types of alarm systems:  Emergency Button Activations  Mobile radio emergency button  Portable radio emergency button  Both types of alarms will sound at each radio console in the room. Page 1 of 2 PRIMARY RADIO OPERATIONS  Your primary assigned channel will take precedence over all activity. Although you will be required to be aware of all that is going on in the Communications Center, you can never jeopardize your primary radio. This may involve many instances where you have to put someone on hold or advise a co-worker to standby. Primary radio assignment always comes first.  It will be stressed continually through your training that room awareness is a requirement. The monitoring of other talk groups and room awareness is essential to being a proficient dispatcher. Again, do not jeopardize your primary radio, but know what is going on around you. RADIO TRANSMISSION TECHNIQUES  Voice control will have a definite impact on dispatch operations. The ability to maintain calm and speak at a pitch and level that is easily understood by all on the other end of the radio is critical.  There will be several procedures in place to follow in radio transmissions, but we cannot cover or prepare you for every incident that you will encounter. You will have to do some pre- planning prior to transmitting on many incidents. Many pre-planning transmissions will eventually become scripts that you will have built into your vocabulary in accordance with set standards.  The most common mistake in using the radio is front or rear end clipping. This means that a person is speaking too soon after keying up the microphone or vice versa, continuing to speak after releasing the microphone. You must allow the repeater to open prior to transmitting. Normally if you hold down the transmit key about 1 second prior to talking you should come across with a complete transmission.  The dispatcher should use a professional tone and manner of speaking when using the radio, always following FCC rules and regulations. Officers should be answered on the radio in a timely manner, phones answered promptly, and citizens treated nicely. Multi-tasking is a must to work in the dispatch environment. Page 2 of 2