Behind the Frontline: 911 - Answer the Call

Transcript

Kim (911 operator speaking)

RCMP Bonjour.

Good thanks, how can I help you?

My name is Kim, I’m a telecommunications officer, and I work out of Edmonton Headquarters in K Division.

What city or town is this for? Valley view......OK

What made me decide to become an operator was I took schooling for criminology. I like helping people and I thrive in a high paced environment, so it was the job for me.

Tracy (911 supervisor speaking)

I actually was lucky enough to be at the Lethbridge college for my policing program. It was suggested that I should look at telecoms. I ended up here and I love it, I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Jason (911 operator speaking)

My name is Jason Steel and I work here at the Southern Alberta OCC it is our Operational Control center in Red Deer Alberta and I’ve been here for 13 years.

To start training you need to have your grade 12 diploma. The actual training is all done in house and it is several weeks of classroom time.

Tracy (911 supervisor speaking)

When you come up you learn your call taking side of things, like what is needed when we receive the call from the client and then you are matched with a coach and you work as a call taker for some time so you can get comfortable in our communications center. We then send you back down for dispatch training and we do the same thing over. So some classroom time, matching with a coach and then you get on the radio and you get to work with the officers on that side of the house.

Jason (911 operator speaking)

We are looking for people who do thrive in a really high paced environment. One of the key things we are looking for is for the core values of compassion, respect, accountability, honesty, integrity and professionalism. If you exhibit those as you go through the interview process, those are some of the key things that we want to see.

Tracy (911 supervisor speaking)

The full training program itself is a National Training Standard, and we are the only ones in Canada that actually has one. It is a 6 month full training program for a specific amount of hours.

Jason (911 operator speaking)

We want to have people who thrive in a fast paced environment who really care about the other person on the other end of the phone. We want compassionate people, but we want people who aren't going to be completely pulled into what’s going on for that other person.

Tracy (911 supervisor speaking)

Certainly someone that’s comfortable enough to be able to try to take as much control over the call as possible to obtain the information we need. Usually those people take a lot of pride in their work, are very detail orientated and will do well in a challenging atmosphere. They will enjoy the pace of it, and just know that they’re doing something that’s so important and apply it to something that is so ever important for the public and officer safety that we deal with on a day to day basis.

Date modified: