State-by-State Required Dispatcher Training

In 1999 I began gathering information on required training for public safety dispatchers, both initial-after-hiring and on-going (yearly, every two years, etc.). When I began, a few states required dispatchers to take some course of instruction after they were hired. In some cases a state law established a curriculum, and the requiremeent "shall take…within one year of hiring." Many states, possibly a majority, had no mandatory training requirement at all.

Since that early survey, many more states have added some level of initial training requirement. However, at least 20 states have no mandated training, leaving it up to the individual agency to determine the necessary curriculum, training hours, requirements to pass training, etc.

In 2008, as a result of the Denise Lee kidnap-murder in Florida, there was renewed interest in dispatcher training in that state. Ms. Lee's husband Jason began a campaign to bring mandatory and funded training to Florida through the legislature. The state's APCO chapter had already been working on such a requirement for several years. Mr. Lee's work helped push the legislature to pass an optional and unfunded certification program in

In August 2010 the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) survey each state for their training requirements, and posted the results of their work. It indicated that 20 states have no dispatcher training requirements. The states that require training may or may not fund the training through reimbursement to the local jurisdictions.

Review the chart below, and then help out—e-mail the name of your state, along with the number of hours of initial and on-going training. If your state has no requirement, send me a "zero" for that category, and include any explanatory comments.

Note: States with no listing indicate that I haven't collected information so far. It does not indicate that the state has no training requirement.

State

Initial
Training
Hours

On-Going
Training
Hours

80

2

120

24

80

360

40

208 (6)

349 (9)

40

40

8

160

16

320

40

40

24

32

8

80 (8)

24

40

160

40

16+

16/40

16

0 (5)

0

0

320/320(10)

24 - EMD

90

90

120

40

0 (3)

40

80

12-16

104

24+

80

80

80 (7)

8 (2)

40

10

24

12

280

40

360

30

58

20

• (1) work in progress on establishing standards
• (2) every two years, minimum
  
• (3) 40 hours initial training required for sheriff's dispatchers only
  
• (4) 16 hrs within 1 yr of hire and 16 hrs of CDE every 2 years for a single agency type (police, fire, etc.) 911 comm center;
  if you dispatch 2 or more agency types it is 40 hrs within 1 year of hire and 40 hrs of CDE every 2 years following
  
• (5) 80 hours of training available from state academy, but not required
  
• (6) voluntary, not financed. Download legislative bill (pdf)
• (7) within six months of taking the job
• (8) funding started in 1999; standards developed starting in 2005; standard finished in 2007; enabling legislation may be passed during 2009. It includes training standards for trainers.
• (9) 181 classroom and 168 on-the-job
• (10) 320 hours of classroom, 320 hours of mentored training