APCO Committee Releases Interim Report on HR & Staffing Challenges
At the APCO Annual Conference & Exposition in Houston this month, the APCO Professional Communications Human Resources Taskforce (ProCHRT) released its initial report. The report, titled Interim Report on Challenges Facing Human Resources & Staffing in the 9-1-1 Public Safety Communications Center, grades the nation in five categories based on the committee’s research: state mandated training (D), in-service opportunities (N/A), emergency medical dispatch (D), retirement benefits (F) and overall (F).
“We can only conclude, at the writing of this interim report, that the nation would rank an F [with regard to both training and retirement benefits],” says the report. “[The grade] does not and is not meant to measure the quality of services provided by 9‐1‐1 public safety communications centers — rather, it considers the legislative, regulatory and work environments, the existing infrastructure related to personnel and the available trained and qualified workforce that constitute the public safety communication centers relied upon every day by citizens as well as public safety responders.”
The taskforce, which was established in April 2009 by then APCO President-Elect Bill Carrow, set out to review the human resources challenges affecting PSAPs because of growing concerns, such as professional recognition, training and employment benefits, among public safety communications professionals. The questions addressed include:
- Why are communications personnel not formally considered part of the public safety effort?
- Why isn’t more attention paid to the training and certification of 9-1-1 telecommunicators?
- How can the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) address scheduling flexibility for public safety communications that is similar to other public safety professions?
- How can the number of years of service required to be eligible for retirement be reduced to align with other public safety professions?
The work of the ProCHRT taskforce is not over. A final report and grade is expected. According to the report, “The preliminary findings should raise concern in every locality and state in the country. It should raise awareness and concern to legislatures both at the state and federal levels. Improvements relative to many human resource issues within the public safety communications center will most likely require a different mindset of the critical nature of these individuals and will most likely require legislative change(s), etc.”
The report also includes a summary for each state about its training standards, retirement benefits and labor laws. Initial needs and concerns identified within the report include:
- The need for comprehensive mandated initial training;
- The need for ongoing in‐service training required to ensure skills and knowledge are maintained and continually updated; and
- The need for Emergency Medial Dispatch pre‐arrival instruction programs to be adopted in every state and used by every comm center;
- Concern about the limited access to improve retirement benefits commensurate with the high stress of the 9‐1‐1 profession in relation to other public safety personnel;
- Concern about the restraints imposed by FLSA on the ability to scheduled personal in relation to other public safety personnel;
- Concern about the continuing challenge of attracting highly qualified personnel the 9‐1‐ profession and retaining them and the experience gained; and
- The need to recognize 9‐1‐1 personnel by title, training, certification, salary and benefits as fully fledged members of the public safety First Responder continuum.