Some interesting posts.
I've got 16 years behind the mic as a public safety dispatcher.....here's my take:
There are no laws banning the use of Nextel/phones for dispatch that I've ever heard of.
My agency requires all dispatches to go via radio. Sensitive information may be relayed via MDT to the responding unit(s).
As for DaveNF2G's post:
There would be fewer such questions if dispatchers were trained:
1) Not to mumble.
2) To speak slowly and clearly when dispatching.
3) To read the entire job before starting to voice dispatch it.
Excess reliance on CAD, text messaging, etc., has produced some very sloppy dispatching.
That statement is not entirely true. While CAD, text messaging, and cellphone/Nextels may have caused dispatch skills to get sloppy it may have also been responsible for the people on the other side of the microphone to get just as sloppy. I don't mean to offend anyone but that is the absolute truth. I'm the senior dispatcher on the night shift (6pm-6am) with 3 other dispatchers on my crew. We've all been trained to get as much information as possible from the caller and to put that information out on the dispatch. Our computer/radio work is constantly being reviewed so we're all in the habit of getting all that information and putting it out clearly and coherently.
However my agency has cops/fd/ems personnel who ask the most idiotic questions. We will put out a call, state that that is all the information available, give the cross streets the call is between and here come the questions:
Who called?
Why did they call?
Where are they calling from?
What do they want us to do?
Call them back and ask them this, this and that for me.
I've heard these questions, on the air, from the road lieutenants down to the zone patrol units.....over and over again, on all types of emergent and non-emergent calls. And this is from a PD that requires a minimum of 60 college credits just to apply for the test to be an officer.
Unfortunately there are some EMS/FD personnel that are just as bad. An example of that is our EMS when responding on any working structure fire. Some of our EMS crews will always make the following radio call: 'Unit *** is on-scene. Where is the fire building?' My reply to that, which gets me written up by EMS each time I do it: 'Unit *** my guess is that it's the building with the flames coming out of it and all the fire trucks parked in front.' First off, if you have to ask where the fire building is then you are not on scene yet. Secondly, if you cannot figure out which building on the street is on fire I'm not so sure I'd want to trust you to be able to save my life as an EMT.
Our FD is a little better......we have 5 companies and most of them are pretty good. We do have 1 chief that runs around like a chicken with his head cut off at any call-working fire or not. We also have members who will ask on the radio that they are at the firehouse and if they should respond with an apparatus. I've been a volunteer firefighter in my town for 19 years and I've yet to be dispatched to a call where we can use our private vehicles as primary response vehicles. You roll with a crew, if you're not needed you will be returned. If not you respond in the apparatus safely, based on the initial dispatch and any updates given by units already on scene.
I don't want to make it sound like I'm superior to anyone else. I'm not....I'm human and I make mistakes too. It's just that I try not to ask those 'Bill Engvall-Here's Your Sign' type of questions.
Our officers are very well paid and college educated. It annoys the hell out of me to hear them ask these stupid questions on the air, even more so because after 16 years of dispatching I'm still not making even $30,000 a year while they're making upwards of $50-60,000 right out of the academy. I never went to college yet I was trained to do my job and I do it as I was trained.
Why do some PD/FD/EMS personnel insist on being the way they are?