Getting Started as a Dispatcher    

Public safety dispatching is a challenging job. We are looking for professionals to fill these positions.

Register & Apply

• Start by registering at Sheriff’s Job Gateway and creating an account.
• Submit your resumé for the Dispatch 911 Communications Officer I position and complete our online pre-screen questionnaire.
• If you’re a qualified applicant, you will be emailed a link within the first week of the following month, following the month of your application, to take our online 10-minute data entry test
• If you’re successful on the data entry test, you’ll receive an email within 1 week to take the CritiCall test.

Interview & Background

• If successful on the CritiCall exam, you will be scheduled for an in-person panel interview.
• About two weeks after your oral panel interview, we send you to a 2-hour background orientation program where you’ll be given access to complete your background packet online. It’s a detailed history of your life. We will conduct an extensive background check based on your statements.
• After you return your background packet we assign a background investigator to you.

The Home Stretch

• We take Livescan fingerprints of you.
• You take a polygraph examination.
• You take a psychological examination.
• You take a medical examination including drug and alcohol screening.

Dispatcher Training

After you are hired you begin a 32-week intensive, hands-on training program: 12 weeks of classroom training including a 3-week P.O.S.T. Certified Basic Dispatch Academy followed by 20 weeks of on-the-job training.

Communication Skills

Two different communications skills are taught during the training:

• Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) focuses on call-taking and interviewing techniques, as well as all phone, Computer Aided Dispatching (CAD)  and records systems.
• Radio teaches the basics of dispatching calls for service as well as how to deal with critical incidents on the radio and the workings of the radio system.

Prepared

The training prepares you to:

• Operate a variety of communications equipment including radio systems, enhanced 9-1-1, various telephone systems, telecommunications device for the deaf, recording equipment, and computer systems.
• Obtain essential information to determine priority, locale and the appropriate emergency units to be dispatched.
• Determine jurisdiction, notifying or transferring calls to other agencies as needed.
• Transmit information and orders, and receive messages, typing all radio transmissions received.
• Make inquiries to obtain information required by deputies in the field.
• Read and interpret maps to locate emergency incidents.

Environmental Conditions

Sheriff’s 911 Communications Officers wear headsets to answer emergency and non-emergency calls and view computer displays for prolonged periods of time. Work is done in the following environments:

• Challenging
• Confined
• Fast-Paced
• Noisy
• Sedentary

After Training

Upon successful completion of the training, you are assigned to one of our communications centers to continue on-the-job training in a fast-paced, high-call-volume environment.