I don’t know why but all of the sudden I feel this desire to move to Canada. I assume Canada is like the US and is in need of dispatchers. I would like to know if this is something that would help with an immigration application? Would an agency sponsor an already trained person? For reference I live in a very rural and northern area. Looking to go more north. No real reason…

I applied and got an email to do a supplement questionnaire. They ask if I’ve ever consumed or possessed marijuana including THC pens.

The answer is yes, and I plan on being honest. However I stopped once I was 23, did it only once more when I was 25. I turn 27 in a week, and while I can remember the month and year of the last time I had smoked I couldn’t possibly jot down all of the times and dates that I had smoked prior to that as I did it quite often.

But that is what it is asking for, how would I go about answering this question?

Side question: It also asks about steroid shot/orally. I once had a terrible throat infection and went to the ER because of how bad the pain was. They gave me a steroid pill to help ease the symptoms. Would this be what they are asking for? I’ve never taken steroids for any other reason than that. And only took it the one time in 2021 but would not be able to remember the exact date.

I’m sure I’ll lose my job for this but I refuse to work with or assist ICE. Nothing to do with politics. Just can’t stand idly by watching this. I’ll find different ways to help the community be safe.

I'm interested in the job as 911 dispatcher and I feel like I would be good at the job. I'm currently a vet tech and receptionist so I'm pretty good at handling sensitive medical situations and emotional people. My biggest concern is how personal and invasive the application process is. I've read that they do extensive background checks which involves talking to neighbors and going through social media accounts. I understand checking professional references but that seems personal. My immediate neighbors either don't like me or don't know me well enough to recommend me for a job. Am I overthinking? Probably. I just don't want to waste anyone's time if they are going to judge me based on what my drug addict, bipolar neighbors say about me.

I was considering becoming a dispatcher until I realized that I might be required to work graveyard shifts. I'm fine with anything between 6 AM and 11 PM, but I don't want to do anything other than sleeping past midnight. I think I would be a good candidate because I imagine I've got what it takes mentally to handle the job and I also speak multiple languages that are widely spoken in my area in California. So is there an option to opt out of night shifts at all?

EDIT: appreciate everybody's responses. I received the information I needed here and will be crossing this job off my list.

I did the 2 free practice tests and think they are helpful, and I'm wondering if they are accurately representing the CritiCall test as I am tempted to pay for one for their full test simulations. I could just retake the same 2 samples for practice or look around but I liked the way they have it set up and that it gives a score at the end and shows the mistakes.

I was wondering if anyone has used 911professor to practice for the CritiCall test and if anyone has paid for their full test simulations? Was it worth it?

Also, if there's any recommendations for practicing typing vin numbers, that would be really helpful. I keep losing track near the end.

I’ll try to make this short. Been dispatching going on 3 years now, I’ve loved it all for the most part. Had a fair share of irate and disruptive callers but I’ve been fortunate to not experience anything very traumatic. My first year I was explicitly call taking and running clearances, I was super lucky and stayed on day shift the entire first year, after I moved on to a couple FD channels I spent the last of my time on day shift and was formally condemned to nights for over a year. Just recently got a stroke of luck and I’m back on days for at least a few months.

I’m struggling with the direction I’m going, nights made me a real asshole. I have 0 patience, tolerance, or compassion even when I’m not taking that many calls. As soon as I start to feel rested it’s right back to it. Not to mention the constant flip flop from day person on weekends to night owl on weekdays (we work 4 on, 4 off, 12 hour shifts). Now that I’m back on days I’m getting better, the level of burnout is still going to exist but not as much with a proper sleep schedule.

I haven’t been able to spend much time with friends and family. I partially restrict myself because I don’t want to surround them with my negativity. Some days I’m great and others I am pissy, impatient, and introverted and I don’t have a reason to be. I love my job, helping others, and what I do. But part of me wonders if I’m giving too much that I should be keeping for those closest to me. I’d like to spend more time with my friends and family I just rarely have the energy for it.

If you’ve faced this issue before did you mitigate it? Change jobs? Any input is appreciated!

I’m a paramedic in 911 system and have often wondered how dispatch works. I notice “APCO” on some of the CAD notes. So I’m wondering what it is and how much leeway dispatchers have. If every time a caller says chest pain it’s a priority 1 why doesn’t everyone say chest pain? I know that happens a lot but what other judgment calls can a dispatcher make to help weed out frivolous upgrades?

Wondering how you guys are handling interactions with ICE/DHS in the event your agency arrests an undocumented immigrant that’s on their radar?

I admittedly haven’t been working much lately, been taking care of the sick family and my dog who needed emergency surgery. I went in for one day last week and of course had an interaction with DHS over a female we locked up for her 3rd DUI in two years while her two kids were in the car, caused a four car pileup, sent two people to the hospital. Children were held until the dad could pick them up, she got her charges, got processed, DHS hit us up with a “request” to hold for ICE when she got printed and the notification went to them since I guess they had been wanting her already from past arrests, and we let her walk out the door fifteen minutes later with her court date and told ICE happy hunting, but we don’t do their job for them. Clearly if she ain’t wanted in NCIC yall don’t want her bad enough for us or anyone else to hold her for you.

Wondering how your interactions, if any, have gone as of late? I’m sure there are some agencies that deal with them all the time but this was my first since probably Obama’s admin.

For the past year or two the undocumented population where I work has exploded and everyday I’d say at least two or three are locked up for DUI, domestic violence and assaults, or some sort of burglary to a business or car or other theft. Am I going to be talking to these dingleberries everyday? Or will they get the hint that we aren’t helping them after the first few times we tell them happy hunting and let their person go if we can’t hold em?

The one I talked to from DHS was pissy when I asked her to identify herself past “I’m from DHS” and she just had this scummy and condescending tone the whole time like she couldn’t believe she had to talk to someone from a municipality as a fed.

I’m wondering if they’ll be doing things like staging teams in different quadrants or sectors of a state that will be trying to respond to agencies where a person they want is being processed for an arrest that hits their radar where they’ll be racing the clock on the arrestee being released after being processed so they can try to intercept them as theyre leaving or be there at the department before theyre even done being released so they can grab them up.

EDIT: Politics totally aside, genuinely looking for what your experiences have been and what types of interactions are being had, I can care less how you feel about the experience unless you can be civil and neutral in describing it.

My small campus police department is in the market for a new cad and wondered if anyone has been using 365labs.

I'm just looking for an honest opinion of it! Thanks!

Im looking for study materials or courses to train myself, as we dont have much available where i live. Thank you very much in advance!

Hello everyone. I have been in classroom training for 2 weeks and have another 2-3 weeks to go before I start call taker training. I have been aceing the signals and 10-code exams but when we did our first group scenario to practice using CAD I feel like I froze up.

Is this a view of my future or is it to soon and I should become more comfortable the next few weeks?

Also, the scenario that was used didn't seem real. There are four of us in the group and the trainer. She had us all on the same call, talking to the same caller, at the same time. Like we were competing to get our questions asked and answered, then writing all the same remarks in a linked call.

I would think it would have been more productive to split the call like it would be in the actual COMMS room. Have multiple people call in about the same Emergency and assign each call taker to a different caller then duplicate the calls or link them. That way we are talking to separate callers asking our own individual questions.

Am I wrong? In a real scenario 4 different call takers are never going to be talking to the same caller at the same time correct?

Thank you for your feedback.

Hey, so I was at work last weekend and during my break I experienced my very first ever seizure. I had 2 at work. 6 at the hospital, 3 were back to back of each other. The doctor diagnosed me with Functional Neurological Disorder with Psychogenic non-epileptic seizure. I have a follow up with my primary, two physical and orthopedic therapy appointments scheduled soon. They believe the stress from what I’ve gone through recently, being sick with the flue then an extreme migraine (I’ve had migraines before), the combination of all of that caused this.

I just wanted to know if anyone else has experienced something like this and how do you emotionally process this? I work in emergency response and I never imagined my colleagues and supervisors would have to assist me at work (thankfully not on a call). I haven’t fully processed my new diagnoses and it’s scary to think this is my life now and that a simple Sunday turned into this. The seizures were so scary. My body hasn’t fully recovered and I use a cane right now for assistance in balance. This has been so hard for me to process.

Hi everyone! Last month I interviewed, tested and was hired on to dispatch at the local PD. They handle all pd/fire/ems call for this town and the 2 next door. I signed the offer letter, and they told me I'd start training as soon as my background check cleared.

Now, I've never been in trouble. Of any kind. So I wasn't concerned, and was just impatiently waiting for the detective running the check to get it done. I got an email today that they'd found "red flags" and that the detective was advising against hiring me.

I asked for clarification, as I've genuinely never been in any kind of trouble. I worked as a school bus driver for a decade, during which they run a yearly background check, and nothing ever came up. The "red flags" that she relayed to me from the detective are: 1. I gave a false phone number for my ex husband. Well, my ex and I have contact only through fb messenger, and only about our kids. I genuinely didn't know he'd changed his phone number at the beginning of December. I immediately sent her his new number. 2. I didn't disclose the source of my income for my bakery business. Nowhere in the paperwork I filled out did it ask about my income, or income sources, or if I owned a business. It's a cottage bakery, meaning it's not required to be registed or licensed in any way, and it clears less than $100 a month. The source of income being the customers, obviously... nor did the packet ask about any of that info, so where and how was I supposed to declare it? 3. I left contact info blank for my sister when listing relatives. I left it blank because I haven't spoken to or seen her in 10 years, and have no desire to. I havent haf her phone number for longer than that, and have no one in my life who would have curreny contact info. I removed her from my life due to her addiction and lifestyle. Heroin and prostitution isn't something I want around my children. I love her, but I can't have her in my life. 4. I gave a false name of a former supervisor. Well. Considering they asked for 15 years of employment history, I'm not shocked I might have misremembered a name! I genuinely gave the names I could recall, and it absolutely wasn't intentional if I got one wrong!

I explained all of that, in detail, to the woman who interviewed and hired me. She was actually kind of appalled that the Detective had made that recommendation based on such tiny details that could have been rectified with a couple very simple questions. She's going to bring it all to the chief tomorrow to see what, if anything can be done.

So, my question is, is this normal? Should I have just left my sister off the paperwork? Are genuine mistakes like forgetting someone's name from 15 years ago really a reason to not hire an otherwise great candidate? Why wouldn't the detective just call me with something so simple as "hey, it seems like your ex husband has a different number than the one you gave, can you get us a current one?" Are people not allowed to have family that they've gone no-contact with for good reason?

I have no criminal record, can pass a drug test, have dispatched at the bus company during high stress incidents, and scored a 97/100 on their aptitude exam, the highest she had seen since working there. I excel at performing in high stress environments, can multitask like a mofo, and genuinely want to be in a position to help people. This position has been open since June of last year, because they apparently can't seem to find the "perfect" candidate. Is this normal? Is there any chance at all that the decision will be changed after me giving the additional info and context?

Apologies for this turning into a bit of a rant, I'm just genuinely shocked and confused.

I have to take the test in 2 days but I have an ear infection on my right ear. I have an appointment for tomorrow morning, but I'm also getting more and more nervous as the due date gets closer for the CritiCall test. I can hear pretty okay, especially with headphones.

I''m just wondering how much of the test is audio and is it a lot of information that I have to listen to at a time? And are the questions timed?

Anything to ease my anxiousness. I want to do well, there's a lot going on at my 2 current places of work and so I think it's time for a career change and really want to be considered for the position.

Hey everyone! I am applying to be a Fire Communications Dispatcher for OC Fire Authority. I was selected for the first round assessment. I was wondering if anyone had some advice for me! I am going to take the assessment this week and would really like to nail the interview process. I have tried to call the HR Admin in charge of the hiring several times to introduce myself but have had no answer. I don't want to be too pushy but I would really like to get ahead on this application. Does anyone have any materials that they would suggest I study or any advice on answering the assessment to get ahead of the rest of the pack? Thanks in advance!

I really want this job, so I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to nail this test. Is there anything you did to prepare for the criticall or any skill you wish you had prepared for more? What was your wpm?

If you were to give some advice, book recommendations, even just a mere quote, etc. regarding how to survive training… what would it be? Any and all input welcome. No matter how minute (my NOOT)

hi! first time posting here - i don’t work in this industry (i actually work in film lol) but i’ve always been so curious - what does your office layout look like? is it cubicles & everyone has a desk that’s separated or a big open space with phones? is it different in each state or pretty same across the board? hope this isn’t a stupid question, just something i’ve been wondering for a bit 🙂

Just a check in from the Mod Team on how the community feels about the new rule, how’s it going?

We stay on top of these as much as possible. Of course we sleep sometimes, on occasion some fall though.

Hope that it’s overall improved the experience for all.

Cheers.

I personally hate backpacks. I don’t like using them but I’ll admit they have a lot of space and I’m the type that likes to bring everything with me to work

Can someone help me understand the YR/YQ& locate more. Or if there’s a way that helped you guys understand it more. I always have trouble with that, I know it might be a simple answer but I just tend to struggle with it.

Hello! I applied for a position in the town I just moved to, took the CritiCall exam, passed and had an interview last week. The interview was a panel interview that lasted no more than 10 minutes, and at the end the head of the dispatch department asked if I had ever been to a center, if I would like to, then said she would call me to schedule it for this week. She called the next day and we scheduled it for tomorrow so I can "see how the job is". I was hoping for insight on whether or not she may offer me a job or if the process may extend after this? I thought it may be a good sign that she called the next day and scheduled it this quickly.

What do you do when nothing else but being at dispatch feels normal. Home life. Social life. Nothing works right but me dispatching.

The detective said to wear comfortable clothes to my polygraph test tomorrow. Is it a mistake to wear jeans and a nice top? Or should I ignore it and wear slacks.

I just finished my panel interview in front of 10 active dispatchers and the training manager. I think it went well. I made them laugh a lot and they kept saying on how they can tell. I did my research on the position and I hope I get to keep moving forward the hiring process.

Hi idk if i’ll get my answers here or not. I’m 17 years old ive been thinking for a while about becoming a 911 dispatcher it’s something that interests me and that i’ve seriously wanted to do. i’ve done a little research. idk if this helps or not b it im from colorado. In my county here i saw that they’re starting the academy/training program this may. I’m still in an alternative high school but i was thinking about getting my ged. The requirements i was read up on said i needed a high school diploma or equivalent. and obviously no convictions or history or current use of drug abuse.

this specific website from my city didn’t say anything about being 18. i don’t turn 18 until july. so i would still be 18 in may when the academy starts, but i could have my ged before then. should i try and see if i could start in may or just wait until after i turn 18 and wait for the next time it starts. which i have no idea when that is and couldn’t find info about it.

if you took time out of your day to read this i appreciate it, and any advice you have for me.

Hi! I'm very new to dispatching, i.e. I have zero experience - I'm on day 3 of call training, and it has been brutal.

Our PSAP seems to hit the ground running - after the 4 day telecommunicator certification course, we take EMD for another 3 days, then about a week of CAD and other program training. In short, you start taking all calls - emergency, admin, everything - after about 2 weeks from hire. We also work all Fire, PD, and EMS.

My 'classroom' trainer had been almost entirely absent. I'm pretty good at self-initiating, so I did my best to learn what I can when there was quite literally no lesson plan - I asked to observe people on the floor, log into training accounts and transcribe calls, etc.... but it's hard to know what I need to know when I don't know what I need to know. People also weren't keen on letting me sit in, which is understandable - it's not like they're being paid extra to babysit me the way trainers are.

Very quickly on day 1 it was obvious I did not know nearly enough. My 'call'-trainer was incredibly frustrated with me - she kept acknowledging that it wasn't my fault, that it was the classroom that had failed me, but it's still hurting my chances in making it through the process. The others on the floor also aren't thrilled with me - it's a small PSAP, everyone else is on radio, and I'm the only call taker. When I don't do my job, everyone else has to pick up the slack. I've been taking the brunt of their frustration, and it hasn't been exactly pleasant. I try not to take it personally - 7 others have already quit before me - but it still sucks and it's very stressful.

I'm generally a good multitasker - I'm used to listening to multiple people while also doing something else. It's why I thought this job would be a good fit; I love helping people, and I thrive on chaos. What I had never experienced though is trying to hear a muffled voice that's been routed through hell and back, with my trainer continuously asking me questions that I had already asked the caller, and then also listening to PD/FD lines to make sure I wasn't missing relevant radio traffic, all the while summarizing what said muffled caller was saying. On top of that, I am learning CAD commands on the fly, as well as the 6 other programs that need to be cross-referenced during certain calls. My trainer can be a little rude and makes snarky remarks whenever I don't know something (ex: "Is this the right command for adding a unit?" "No it's the other add unit command - what the fuck do you think? Of course it's that one." )
It's been overwhelming, to say the least.

I really want to make it in this job, but I don't know how I can get practice outside of work. During hours, I'm just constantly on calls for 12 hours so there's not really any break to practice, or to even have a breather. I've definitely gotten better just in the 3 days, but I'm terrified of being fired - all of the other trainees were forced to 'resign' when they didn't hit weekly training goals. I worked so hard to get here; what can I do?