| Dave Larton |
Reaching the Community
| Dave Larton is a dispatcher with the City of Gilroy, CA. He is on the training staff of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, Telecommunications Branch, and the webmaster for several public safety web sites. |
This article can be found on
page 76 of the May/June 1998
issue of 9-1-1 Magazine.
It's a pretty safe bet to say that the Internet has made a big difference in how a PSAP operates. This magazine, and others like it, have written a lot in the last few years highlighting the values of having Internet access in the Communications Center. We now have weather forecasts, gang information, crime prevention tips, and other useful data available to the Comm Center staff at a click of the keyboard. What hasn't had as much press is the ability of the World Wide Web to reach the community as an important educational tool of the Communications Center.
Many of the websites I've seen have a brief explanation of the Center's physical location, some call volume statistics, and a small scanned-in photograph of a dispatcher sitting at a radio console. That's okay; what I'd like to advocate here is that those sites have a much larger potential, and a much larger audience. `How we reach the public' is one of the questions we all too often ask ourselves. Does the public know we're here? Do they realize the type of work we do? The long hours we put in? How they can become involved with us?
A Communication Center's Internet presence has the ability to `advertise' the work we do, the people we interact with, and the communities we serve. While we aren't `selling' a product in the strictest sense of the word, in many ways...we are. We are selling ourselves.
It's really important to get out into the community and educate the public about 9-1-1 services. While we don't have the ability to leave the Center as much as we'd like to talk with the public, an interactive e-mail site can help answer many of the questions the public may have about who we are and what we do.
Some of the most popular Internet PSAP sites have taken on a very proactive approach, and are essentially using the Net to `meet and greet' the public. They use their web pages to take a visitor on a trip through the Center, to highlight their work, and to stimulate interest in the profession. Some agencies, such as the California Highway Patrol, have developed the ability to display near real-time CAD events and to replay dispatched radio traffic. Others have focused on public education, having on-line games for youngsters to play while learning about 9-1-1, fire safety, first aid or drug abuse prevention. A few sites have even gone as far as giving a web user the ability to write their own `cold call' reports, with a report number issued by the site!
If you're proud of your Center, show it off with lots of good quality color graphics. Have your agency's Public Information Officer get involved with the site, and encourage him or her to develop new and creative ways to `get the word out.' What about starting with an explanation of how to utilize the 9-1-1 system, when to call your department's non-emergency number, or maybe highlight the efforts of a dispatcher for a difficult job well done?
You want creative? Stop by Linda Olmstead's Break Room for Public Safety Personnel Home Page and be prepared to spend some quality time in a dispatcher's world. I've yet to not have a good time (and I admit I learn a lot) every time I go by, just to see what new things she's added to the site. It would be a great first stop if you are interested in ideas for a public safety dispatching page.
An interactive Internet PSAP site may have information on employment opportunities, qualifications and educational requirements, tour information and other items of interest to the web visitor. The general idea here is to use the Internet as one more public education tool. Use the Net to highlight the important work we all do in the Center; it's a pretty safe bet that you'll soon reap big rewards from the public!
