September 14, 2009, Alexandria, Va.  – The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International released for comments a candidate American National Standard (ANS) that identifies the minimum training requirements for public safety telecommunicators.

Candidate APCO ANS 3.103.1-200x identifies minimum training requirements for  public safety calltakers, fire service dispatchers and law enforcement dispatchers and defines this training for the public safety agencies to provide to telecommunicators in certain knowledge, skills, and abilities.

“The focus of this standard is to provide the training necessary for front-line communications professionals to be competent in the delivery of public safety communications services,” APCO International President Richard Mirgon said.  “APCO International respects the diverse nature of public safety communications, but has long recognized the need for some level of standardization to support the professional development of these dedicated and highly skilled individuals.”

APCO’s history with training standardization began at its 1995 annual conference, creating Project 33 and leading to the National Public Safety Telecommunicator Training Standard.  The most recent updates were based on research compiled from regional occupational analysis workshops conducted with over 100 high-performing telecommunicators from various agencies participating throughout the past year.

The voluntary and consensus-based draft standard can be downloaded for review at http://www.apcointl.org/new/commcenter911/ansi-activity.php and comments must be submitted by October 26 to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Web News/9-1-1 Magazine/via APCO