# Anyone know of a town using civilian dispatchers?



## visible25 (Feb 7, 2012)

Recently I was talking with an Officer in my town who said his first association with LE was when he was 17-18 and was a civilian dispatcher for his town. My town no longer offers it, but he suggested that although it'd be tough to look around and see if any towns still did this.

So, does anyone know of a town (preferably in Central MA) that might still hire civilians to dispatch for them? -I know I'm only 17, but I figured it'd be worth a shot!

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Any Departments who hire or allow civilians to volunteer as a dispatcher (doesn't need to pay as I could use for community service hours) -hope that makes sense

edit (x2): part-time preferred as I am still in HS


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## Deuce (Sep 27, 2003)

Worcester..


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## Rock (Mar 20, 2005)

Are you doing Community Service to pay your court fees and fines or is it to pay your probation fees?

The simple solution is to contact the city or town you're interested in working for and ask them. The list of towns that use civilian dispatchers is way too big to list.


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## visible25 (Feb 7, 2012)

Really? I'll look into that! thanks!



Rock said:


> Are you doing Community Service to pay your court fees and fines or is it to pay your probation fees?
> 
> The simple solution it to contact the city or town you're interested in working for and ask them. The list of towns that use civilian dispatchers is way too big to list.


Uhhh its for both XD haha
no its for my school. We can't graduate unless we have a certain amount of service hours (catholic school)


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## topcop14 (Jul 13, 2004)

Lets put it this way, I don't know of any in central mass police departments that make officers ride the desk..


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

It would be easier to list the municipalities that DON'T have civilian communications personnel.


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## visible25 (Feb 7, 2012)

Thanks LawMan, and yeah I figured that due to the sensitive material stations deal with on a daily basis it'd be tough to work with them because of my age.

But I'll look around, thanks for the replies everyone!


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## fra444 (Nov 23, 2008)

Fall River has civilians I hear. I also heard they have internships. Not sure if that helps there Jr


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## firefighter39 (Apr 10, 2006)

Check out L.E. Explorer Posts if you are looking for a good start

http://exploring.learningforlife.org/services/career-exploring/law-enforcement/


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## cc3915 (Mar 26, 2004)

My town has a civilian and a sworn inside for each shift.



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## visible25 (Feb 7, 2012)

I'm too young for an internship (most departments have them for college students) There are no more LE Explorer Posts near me anymore. but thanks for the continued help and information!


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## 263FPD (Oct 29, 2004)

Framingham. And the chief had supposedly asked the town to approve 3 civilian dispatcher positions. We have 5 at the moment. 


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## Guest (May 9, 2012)

Nearly every central Mass dept uses civilian dispatches. Call around, check out "Getting on the Job," look at local newspapers, call departments, check their websites, etc. From time to time Boylston posts positions. 

Since you are 17, you should look at internships or like another person said, explorer posts. Southborough used to have one, but that one has since shut down. There is one in Gardner that is relatively active from what I understand. Another good way to get into dispatching is maybe volunteer for the fire dept or EMS dept for your town. Make a good impression and then when you are of age and have some experience, you will have a decent shot in getting a job as a dispatcher. If you can handle the stress of an EMT and a FF, you may have a fair chance in handling the stress of the desk...but remember, it has it's moments where it is absolute suck.
Good luck


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## visible25 (Feb 7, 2012)

263FPD said:


> Framingham. And the chief had supposedly asked the town to approve 3 civilian dispatcher positions. We have 5 at the moment.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thanks for the info, I'll take a look into it!


JamnJim18 said:


> Nearly every central Mass dept uses civilian dispatches. Call around, check out "Getting on the Job," look at local newspapers, call departments, check their websites, etc. From time to time Boylston posts positions.
> 
> Since you are 17, you should look at internships or like another person said, explorer posts. Southborough used to have one, but that one has since shut down. There is one in Gardner that is relatively active from what I understand. Another good way to get into dispatching is maybe volunteer for the fire dept or EMS dept for your town. Make a good impression and then when you are of age and have some experience, you will have a decent shot in getting a job as a dispatcher. If you can handle the stress of an EMT and a FF, you may have a fair chance in handling the stress of the desk...but remember, it has it's moments where it is absolute suck.
> Good luck


Yeah I've tried explorer posts but the 'known' ones on the web are no longer! But I'll be sure to start looking around for stuff, I'm currently set up to work with a detective to do some compliance checks and "other things" so maybe this summer I can try and figure something out there


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## HPD46 (May 13, 2012)

dispatching is fun! although i work for a regional NH communications center, we do police fire and ambulance. it can be a pretty good adrenaline rush!


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## niteowl1970 (Jul 7, 2009)

HPD46 said:


> dispatching is fun! although i work for a regional NH communications center, we do police fire and ambulance. it can be a pretty good adrenaline rush!


C'mon now.... All dispatchers do is play on Facebook and watch movies all night


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## HPD46 (May 13, 2012)

niteowl1970 said:


> C'mon now.... All dispatchers do is play on Facebook and watch movies all night


haha maybe in most places... but we dispatch for 63 agencies in 28 different towns.. so we get pretty busy!


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## visible25 (Feb 7, 2012)

HPD46 said:


> haha maybe in most places... but we dispatch for 63 agencies in 28 different towns.. so we get pretty busy!


 sounds pretty fun!


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## plymouthguy45 (Jan 16, 2012)

Plymouth PD


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## Guest (May 14, 2012)

HPD46 said:


> haha maybe in most places... but we dispatch for 63 agencies in 28 different towns.. so we get pretty busy!


Hanover, NH gets that busy? Wouldn't seem like it since there are only 7 FT and 4 PT dispatchers for so many agencies,,,


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## 263FPD (Oct 29, 2004)

To dispatch that many agencies in regional dispatch, how many people have to be working all at once. Even in northern NH, with that many jurisdictions, the volume of calls has to be pretty steady. 


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## HPD46 (May 13, 2012)

Right Wing Liberal said:


> Hanover, NH gets that busy? Wouldn't seem like it since there are only 7 FT and 4 PT dispatchers for so many agencies,,,


Alot of the towns we dispatch for are pretty small, and we dispatch for alot more Fire Departments than we do police departments. We have Dartmouth College in town which puts up quite a few calls for service, even though they have their own safety and security dept. we cover an area from as far south as springfield/grantham NH to as far north as Corinth/Topsham/Orange VT. we also cover from Cornish NH, to Orford NH, and quite a few miles for Interstate 89 and Interstate 91. other regional dispatch centers near us are Hartford VT, and Grafton County Dispatch. I can say that as far as dispatch centers go we have some of the best equipment you can get - to include a $400k fire radio federal grant that will replace all of our fire radios and replace/add some new radio towers and base stations within our coverage area. We also have it really well as far as admin goes, and pay. it would be nice to be like Lakes Region NH fire dispatch or southwest mutual aid where their dispatchers are considered career fire fighters and are in group 2 state retirement (20 years and age 45), their dispatchers also respond to major incidents and provide scene command which is cool - Southwest mutual aid has a portable radio tower that is on a trailer that they take with them to all major scenes. the reason we cant do that is becuase were are considered the Hanover NH Police Department dispatch center so we can possess the NH State Police Online Telecommunication System which lets us run like plates and licenses and stuff for the police departments we serve, in NH by law a dispatch center cant have a SPOTS system unless they are owned by a PD. and in order for dispatchers at a PD to be group 2 we have to be cops, and its just not worth it to the town to send us all to a 14 week police academy as we couldnt cover the shifts etc. so thats pretty much it in a nutshell...


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## HPD46 (May 13, 2012)

mtc said:


> Not with Nanny and her damn NET!!
> 
> Same with FleaBay and Craig slist !
> 
> In fact - we can't even open news articles with those words in them!


that sucks!


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