I just felt the need to share this, it’s rare, so there’s a decent amount of people to chat with and the phones aren’t ringing off the hook.

And it’s the last night of the tour.

How’re yall doin tonight???

I am 23, and I'm doing the 911 and public saftey course at a local college this year.

I obviously haven't been applying yet. However I'm terrified.

I have had a pretty rough life.

1. I do not have a criminal record, however in highschool I was mixed up with some "Bad influences". This was before I dropped out during covid.
2. I dropped out of highschool during covid, then worked a ton of different jobs. Now I was a wreck, I was 16-19. I had 0 direction in life and was working through personal issues. I lost quite a few jobs.
3. I have 0 relationship with my family, and like 2 professional references. Maybe 1 personal reference from a childhood best friend, but we dated, and it ended amicably (we just weren't right for eachother).

So yeah, I'm terrified that even though this job seems awesome, and impactful, I will never be given a shot due to being dealt a bad hand.

I've worked really hard too, and come a long way from where I started. I've finally had a job where I left on great terms. I worked really hard to graduate highschool. I even got through a pretty hard, medically focused college course (prehealth).

I'm just anxious that all I've done has been pointless.

Hello I applied to my local city’s dispatch listing. I’ve worked as a hotel GM for the last 23 years and this has always appealed to me. I applied and got an email to take a quick test. Any suggestions I feel like im going into it blind.

I'm 27F in northwest IL suburbs and just got chosen to continue in the 911 nena dispatcher application! They're now saying the next step is mandatory orientation and a written examination in two days and I am wondering what to expect on the exam part?

I have combed through the past threads for more information but there isn't much on written exams and it seems to be different from the Criticall test. Some say it could be a civil service test? But am still unsure.

If anyone has any tips please share!! It's greatly appreciated!

So for context, the center I work at handles all police/fire/EMS/etc for the county. Our room is split up into 5 positions: call takers, fire-rescue dispatch, two different LEA dispatch pods, and teletype. Everyone starts out as a call taker, then after probation is over you can begin training at the other positions, which are essentially mini promotions and a raise. Few people want to train up to LEA dispatch, as it can be a lot, and be fairly intimidating. So it’s the unspoken understanding that if/when you train up to LEA radio, that is where you’ll spend your days working cause there is so little movability.

That’s where I’m at. I trained at the end of 2024, and as a result spend most days working that position. I have also been a CTO (for 7 years, and in that time have had 15-20 different trainees), and our CTO’s basically only are responsible for training new call takers. Generally LEA dispatchers aren’t asked to train call takers, because they are needed for radio, and the longer they spend away from calls, the less proficient they become, and are less ideal to train there.

Well our training staff has been coming to me and asking me to train new call takers all of a sudden. I expressed to them my concerns about not being proficient enough to train. They acknowledged that this was the case, but continued to ask me anyway. This Monday I turned in my memo to resign from the role as a CTO, citing my concerns and expressing how I wasn’t comfortable continuing to train in that capacity… and boy are they pissed. They have basically presented it in my employee file that I bailed on them as a trainer just to get out of having to train someone.

Is my concern valid? Was I wrong for doing that? Like I can still work as a call taker and appropriately process calls as needed, but I feel like being adequately able to train a new hire is a different story. But I’m basically getting the “fuck you”’ from my admin now.

Anyone on here work for CACC (more specifically Hamilton) and know what shift pattern they follow?

I’m a previous dispatcher back in the application process after some time off and due to various life circumstances the specific shift pattern they follow makes a pretty big difference for me.

If anyone knows/ has any insight and could reply or send me a message I’d appreciate it!!!

Hey everyone! I am currently in school to be a 911 dispatcher and will be starting a placement shortly. We do have a uniform we are required to wear but nobody has said anything about shoes. I'm aware it's a silly question but all of the jobs I've had previously were very strict about what shoes you could or could not wear. I really want to get a pair of fun, bright coloured sneakers since I know the job will be a little glum and hard at times ( bright shoes are kind of a pick me up) but I dont want to invest and be told they arent allowed. Also I am in canada if that changes anything.

Anything you say will be greatly appreciated as I'm just very excited

Is it common for your trainer to be condescending? I have two trainers and it seems like I do better with the guy then then the female .

I'm considering becoming a dispatcher. I understand that in addition to answering urgent emergency phone calls some dispatch agencies also train dispatchers in FAA UAV/UAS certifications.

I'm curious if there's a career path from dispatcher to UAV pilot? My state's department of military affairs recently put out an announcement that they're hiring a UAV/UAS pilot and I've heard from an employee involved in it that the local dispatch agency has a robust drone program.

Has anyone here gone this route?