911 Public Safety Dispatcher

HIRING BONUS:

Entry Level Hiring Bonus: $5,000

Lateral Hiring Bonus: $7,500 (minimum 12 months full-time service as a E911 Public Safety Dispatcher. Current employment preferred).

***Paid in three installments***

Performs difficult work receiving, recording, and responding to emergency and non-emergency calls; dispatching and coordinating law enforcement, fire, and medical personnel to caller locations, operating multi-line phone systems and enters data into a database; monitors and transmits on local, regional, and statewide radio resources; completes required reports and other related work tasks. Work is performed under the limited supervision of the Director of Emergency Communications.
Responsible for all department voice, radio and teletype communications. Telecommunicators are responsible for receiving, screening and dispatching emergency 911 and non-emergency calls for Police/Fire/EMS response within Chisago County. Operates a multi-channel radio and computer-aided dispatch system, playback audio recorder system, video surveillance system, TDD/TTY device, security devices, state teletype system, and completes computer entry/query in national, state-wide and local records systems. Telecommunicators work in the Communication Center and have frequent contact with multiple Public Safety agencies, city departments and the general public, while performing Public Safety dispatch activities. Contacts frequently cover material that is confidential, sensitive or urgent in nature. Contacts require extreme tact, courtesy and mature judgment.

Qualifications and Requirements: Type 40 wpm; Willingness and ability to work rotating shifts; including nights, weekends and Holidays. Subject to emergency callout(s). Ability to communicate effectively. Ability to evaluate emergency situations and make timely decisions under stress. Must possess excellent verbal and written communication skills, as well as excellent listening skills. Ability to follow instruction. Ability to maintain data in a highly confidential manner. Must have excellent multi-tasking ability. Must possess good map reading skills. Must be detail oriented.
If selected from the applicant pool, mandatory written testing by invitation will be scheduled.

Starting Wage: $26.31 per hour

Essential Functions

Public Safety 911 Emergency Dispatchers shall demonstrate proficiency in performing the following duties:

• Receives incoming emergency police, fire, and medical calls for eleven cities and ten townships in Chisago County. This function includes: answering the phones within three rings, determines the nature of the incident; determines the location of the incident; determines the appropriate agency/agencies to respond; obtains caller’s name, phone, number and location; determines priority of the call as it relates to other on-going events; assigns the call to the appropriate agency/unit according to policies and/or procedures.
• Receives incoming non-emergent police, fire and medical calls for the same jurisdictions cited above. Effectively processes all calls. Dispatchers must expediently determine the nature of the calls by virtue of their knowledge of criminal, civil and traffic statutes. If they are unable to satisfactorily process the call, they must be able to refer the caller to the appropriate resources.
• Operates all voice communication equipment. These functions include, but are not limited to, the operation of the telephones, radios and various electronic equipment. The telephone function involves the operation of answering multiple incoming emergency and administrative telephone lines for both the citizens of Chisago County, as well as anyone passing through the area. The radio communication involves the effective use of multiple two-way voice communication radio resources; all of which are continuously monitored by dispatchers during the normal course of their duties. The radio system also involves the paging of all fire departments as well as civil defense paging.
• Processes data entry for calls for service and other initial complaint reports. Accurately records times, dates, and other pertinent information at various stages of a call for service. Generates any additional forms that must be attached to the initial complaint reports, or other specialized report forms, and makes the appropriate entry of the data via the operation of a data processing terminal. Dispatchers must also be knowledgeable in the manual operation of the terminal and related printers. Knowledge of the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, the National Crime Information Center, the Minnesota Criminal Justice Reporting System and the Minnesota Crime Information System. Accuracy of these entries is of paramount importance due to their value for investigations, locating persons and recovering property, as well as liability consideration attached to accurate reporting and relaying this data.
• Provides information to authorized personnel by accessing hard copy files and electronic data bases. This information is strictly confidential, and the dispatcher must have Hot File certification to request this information. Certification must be renewed every 2 years by testing process.
• Takes calls and messages for the all Sheriff’s Office personnel, 24 hours a day. Dispatchers are responsible for receiving and processing all telephone calls that are dialed into the Sheriff’s Office main telephone numbers.
• Maintains dispatch center work area and equipment in clean and working condition.
• Monitors internal on-site intrusion and fire alarms for Government Center and Public Safety Center.
• Records the on-duty and off-duty times for all Sheriff’s Department deputies, city police officers and fire departments.
• Provides training to new employees as needed and may have limited supervisory duties when necessary.
• Acts as secondary Master Control for the Jail, monitoring and allowing access into the secured areas of the Public Safety Center.
• Provides effective and credible testimony in legal proceedings when necessary.

Desired Minimum Qualifications

High School diploma or GED and experience, or a combination of equivalent education and experience.

Special Qualifications

Valid driver’s license.

Working Conditions

• This classification occasionally involves physical agility requirements such as: climbing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, crawling, reaching, pushing, pulling, repetitive motions and manual dexterity.
• Sensory requirements include standard vision requirements; vocal communication is required for expressing ideas by means of the spoken word; and hearing is required to receive detailed information through oral communication and/or to make fine distinctions in sound.