Schools & Colleges For Dispatching

Thanks to Jean Smith of the Victoria (Tex.) Police Department comm center for sharing this selection of Web sites pointing to schools that provide public safety dispatch training. "We are a profession and to make this a career, I strongly feel you should be able to get a college education base and start your career in dispatch," Smith says. updated 12-13-2001

• South Bay (San Jose, Calif.) Public Safety Training Consortium
• North Central (Wisc.) Technical College
• Napa Valley (Calif.) Jr. College
• Community College of Allegheny County (Penn.)
• Santa Rosa (Calif.) Jr. College
• Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College
• Passaic County (NJ) Community College
• Monroe Community College (NY)
• Fresno (Calif.) City College
• Rio Honda College (Whittier, Calif.)
• Golden West College - Criminal Justice Training Center
• List of California law enforcement training academies (that may include dispatching)
• Elgin (Ill.) Community College offers a Public Safety Communications Program.
• Western Nevada Community College offers public safety telecommunicator training.
• Meridian Community College (Miss.) offers a 66-semester hour associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree in Emergency Management and Communications Technology, which is available for distance learning on CD.
• Medicine Hat College (Alberta, Canada) has a one-year program in Emergency Communications & Response. The same program is offered at Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton (Alberta).
• Elgin (Ill.) Community College

Both APCO and NENA have on-line education programs focused on public safety:

• APCO's Virtual University is managed by Jacksonville State (Ala.) University
• NENA's program includes special topic sessions via conference call and on-line visuals

E-mail us if you know of other junior colleges, community colleges or other training institutions.