Under a law now being considered by the Florida legislature, a law enforcement officer who performs dispatching duties would be exempt from the state’s telecommunicator training requirements, which become mandatory on Oct. 1, 2012. It’s not clear what prompted the introduction of House Bill 783 by Rep. Kathleen Passidomo (R), who represents an area around the city of Naples. The bill is now being considered by a subcommittee. The state had no training requirements prior to 2008, but after the kidnap and murder of Denise Lee, the legislature passed an optional, unfunded certification law that requires 232 training hours of initial training, along with 20 hours of training every two years. In 2010 the legislature upgraded the law to be mandatory starting in 2012. The training must follow a curriculum (pdf) devised by the state Department of Education, and there are fees charged for certification. Read the training law here, and download (pdf) a copy of the proposed exemption law here.
2 comments… add one
The reason is simple, there is an (R) after representative Passidomo’s name. That party is never consistent with their messages.
Passidomo ran on a platform stating the people of Florida must be better educated. Of course with the anti public employee sentiment her party and the Tea Party are spewing with such vitriol, will they even bother to send potential police officers to a police academy?
This proposed legislation potentially reveals Passidomo feels that dispatchers are not valued in her state by saying anyone can just come in and do it without any kind of training.
After all the government can’t go and over regulate everything.
I do not think that this issue is a “party” issue. This legislation is at the request of law enforcement. Bad move in my opinion.
Of course, then again, most police chiefs think that a monkey can do the job of a dispatcher. Ironic, since that mentality is what gets most law enforcement managed 911 centers into trouble with the public.
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