The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International released for comments the second draft of a candidate American National Standard (ANS) that identifies the minimum training requirements for public safety telecommunicators.
Candidate APCO ANS 3.103.1-200x identifies minimum training requirements for public safety calltakers, fire service dispatchers, law enforcement dispatchers and emergency medical dispatchers and defines this training for the public safety agencies to provide to telecommunicators in certain knowledge and skills. This second draft includes the addition of Chapter 10: Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Dispatcher and revisions throughout the entire document resulting from the first public review and comment period as well as additional research.
“The focus of this standard is to provide the training necessary for front-line communications professionals to be competent in the delivery of public safety communications services,” APCO International President Richard Mirgon said. “APCO International respects the diverse nature of public safety communications, but has long recognized the need for some level of standardization to support the professional development of these dedicated and highly skilled individuals.”
APCO’s history with training standardization began at its 1995 annual conference, creating Project 33 and leading to the National Public Safety Telecommunicator Training Standard. The most recent updates were based on research compiled from regional occupational analysis workshops conducted with over 100 high-performing telecommunicators from various agencies participating.
The draft standard can be downloaded for review at http://www.apcointl.org/new/commcenter911/ansi-activity.php and comments must be submitted by July 26 to standards@apcointl.org.
