Emergency 911 dispatchers from police departments in Winfield and Arkansas City participated in a three-day session this week designed to train them to work as tactical dispatchers.
The class, conducted on the campus of Cowley County Community College in Ark City, also included dispatchers from Kansas State University, several other Kansas and Oklahoma communities, and one school administrator from Winfield.
Dave Larton from Morgan Hill, Calif. was the instructor for the course. Larton works for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. He has more than 25 years of emergency services experience, including 13 as a dispatcher and trainer for the Gilroy, Calif. 911 communications center.
911 dispatchers typically work from the dispatch center of their department where they receive emergency calls from the public for police, fire, medical or other emergency services and then dispatch emergency units as necessary.
Dispatchers maintain contact with all units on assignment, and monitor the status and location of police and fire units.
In tactical dispatch, the dispatcher works from the scene of a major event such as large fires, hazardous materials spills, shootings, hostage situations, or natural disasters.
On the scene, the dispatcher performs a variety of tasks including relaying radio traffic and providing detailed documentation of information and events during the crisis. Officers and officials use their documentation both during the event and as a record of the event, sometimes as evidence in court.
For the final day of the class, dispatchers participated in a training simulation with the Sumner County Special Weapons and Tactics team.
The dispatchers worked with SWAT members as they handled a simulated shooting and hostage situation staged in a vacant house owned by Cowley County Community College, located near the campus.
During the simulation, dispatchers practiced radio communication and information logging as the S.W.A.T. team resolved the hostage situation.
Besides providing an opportunity for the dispatchers to practice their new skills, they got a firsthand look at how S.W.A.T. teams function in an emergency situation, experience that will help the dispatchers be more effective in supporting that kind of operation in the future.
The training was sponsored by the Cowley County 911 Committee which is made up of representatives from the Cowley County Sheriff's Department, Cowely County Emergency Management, Winfield Police, Winfield Fire, Winfield EMS, Arkansas City Police, Arkansas City Fire-EMS,and Cowely County Rural Fire Districts.
The 911 Committee plans further training including an additional session of this training to be held in August.
