Dispatch Standards

[jcheatham]

Our Dispatch is under the PD and even though we have a great relationship with our PD our performance of our dispatch is not what we would like it to be. As we are trying to educate and modify, I was looking for any help with Standards I am aware of NFPA but what else? What do you use to motivate your dispatch center to process calls quickly, to notify you of situations that are of importance not just calls, and generally perform as a FD you need. Thank You for your assistance in this matter!

[AlanZ231]

We had a similar situation with a smaller city in our County. The one police dispatcher had the duties of all phones, police & fire radios. Unfortunetly the fire radios were the "odd man out". Firefighters felt that their safety was not being tracked by the dispatchers at the same level of care the police officers were. No security checks, no follow up if they hadn't been heard from in a while. And often not given any updates on the calls they are on, perhaps because the dispatcher was too busy with phones or police work.

The answer lies in training. The fire dept ended up contracting to the county for dispatch services, rather than their own city disp center. This alone speaks for itself. Had that smaller center been able to train the dispatchers how firefighters are equally important, perhaps the level of service could have been raised. Here at the county comm ctr, we except nothing less than professional. Hold high standards, train to those standards, and demand excellent performance.