Part-Time Public Safety Telecommunicator

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This critical role serves as the vital communication link between the public needing help and emergency services response. Telecommunicators are typically the first point of contact when a person reaches out for help. This entails a candidate to be able to work independently in a high-stress environment while receiving and evaluating incoming emergency and administrative requests for services, including but not limited to law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS);

triaging those requests for service; providing guidance and assistance to the public in life-safety situations; and coordinating appropriate responses to high-risk, high-stress operations, with the objective of keeping all participants safe.

The primary responsibility of the PST is to protect citizens and emergency responders during the emergency incident. These include:

• Screening requests for emergency services; answering them professionally, recognizing if a call is received from telephone, text, video, or an automated data feed.
• Using appropriate technology to communicate with callers.
• Using knowledge of law enforcement, fire, and EMS protocols and interpreting sensor data to triage, prioritize, properly categorize, and initiate the correct emergency response.
• Demonstrating clear and effective communications with active listening, call control, judgment, respect, and empathy with callers that range from calm to panicked.
• Managing challenging callers using appropriate handling of distressed, autistic, hearing-impaired, elderly, angry, and foreign-language-speaking callers.
• Ability to prioritize multiple events based on available resources - critical thinking.
• Utilizing language interpretation services and coordinating with mental health resources for appropriate contacts with callers who have mental health or language barriers to receiving help.
• Using text-to-911 to communicate effectively with callers.
• Interpreting caller location by using geographic knowledge, tools, and location tracking capabilities when available.
• Interpreting automatic number and automatic location data provided by the emergency communications phone system and verifying data using mapping software for accuracy and reliability.
• Maintaining communications during life-threatening emergencies, providing safety/lifesaving instructions, and maintaining control of the conversation until field units arrive on scene.
• Documenting incident details quickly and accurately to establish incident urgency, categorizing the incident type, and obtaining the proper help for the caller.
• Relaying initial information for dispatch accurately, reviewing the call for service details, and assuming incident command until first responders arrive.
• Conducting health and safety status checks of responders and using other available technology to ensure on-scene responders’ safety.
• Documenting thoroughly and accurately all incident activities while maintaining awareness of scene activities.
• Operating emergency, administrative, and backup telephone communications systems effectively.
• Facilitating the transferring of calls to the appropriate resources and performing conference calls with…