Dispatch: Continuing Education Training 2025

Active Listening – 1 Hour Skill Development
Active listening is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding. It is an important first step to defuse the situation and seek solutions to problems. Hearing what is said differs from listening to what is said. Hearing is a physical act that involves perceiving sound. Listening is an intellectual act that involves hearing sounds with thoughtful intention. It is easy for telecommunicators to get caught up in other tasks such as typing an incident and simply hear the caller talking without listening to what is being said. “Active listening involves demonstrating an interest and understanding in what is being said by staying focused, asking questions, listening for the main point, and listening for the rationale behind what is being said” (APCO PST-1)

Distracted on Duty – 2 Hour Skill Development
As 911 operators, we are tasked to do a very essential job. It can be life or death, or as simple as explaining a run of the mill civil matter to that frequent caller on a regular basis. Many people have great respect for what we do, we are seen as professionals. They remark, “How do you stay so calm? Isn’t that stressful?” Would those same people be surprised or think differently if they knew that we watched movies and ate popcorn while on duty? If they knew that sometimes we had no calls for hours at a time and other times can’t get up for 7 hours straight due to call volume and radio traffic? If they knew that we took personal phone calls and texts in the 911 center? If they knew that many of us surf the internet in-between calls from the public and radio traffic? We know that distraction from the job at hand can create tragedy. We also know what our reality is – so lets discuss.

Excited Delirium – 2 Hours Skill Development
The headlines read “9-1-1 call leads to tragedy after man dies following altercation with police” or “man dies in police custody after being struck with TASER”. The family is now suing the police department for brutality and excessive force and insisting that officers should have been able to subdue their family member without an altercation. The officers describe the subject as combative and failing to comply with their orders and insist they were only trying to subdue the subject and protect themselves. What did these officers get into? Well, there is a possibility the officers encountered a case of excited delirium. This purpose of this course is not to train telecommunicators to provide a clinical diagnosis. The purpose of this course is to examine what excited delirium is and provide an overview of how telecommunicators can recognize and respond to an excited delirium incident. It is imperative that telecommunicators be familiar with the policies and procedures of their respective agencies with regards to these types of incidents.

Vehicle Water Rescue – 2 Hours Skill Development
“Help my car is sinking!” This plea for help is a terror-filled call that no dispatcher wants to hear. But the dispatcher’s response will determine if the caller lives-or dies in a watery tomb. Action, not location, is crucial to survival in a water rescue situation. Dispatchers need to change their regimental thinking when this particular call comes in. If the driver of the vehicle does not escape immediately-while the vehicle is still on the surface of the water-s/he will most likely drown. The dispatcher can ask questions after getting the driver (and occupants) out of and to the top of the vehicle. During this course we will outline the Indiana State Police protocol for water rescue calls for dispatchers. We will also use video testing the ideology and compare recommendations to our local policy and procedure.

Power of Positive Thinking – 1 Hour Interpersonal Perspectives
Positive thinking sounds useful on the surface. (Most of us would prefer to be positive rather than negative.) But “positive thinking” is also a soft and fluffy term that is easy to dismiss. In the real world, it rarely carries the same weight as words like “work ethic” or “persistence.” But those views may be changing. Research is beginning to reveal that positive thinking is about much more than just being happy or displaying an upbeat attitude. Positive thoughts can actually create real value in your life and help you build skills that last much longer than a smile.