New Telecommunications Survey for 2021
By mid-June, dispatch centers throughout the commonwealth will have the opportunity to participate in the first-ever Telecommunications Comprehensive Survey, conducted by the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training.
Every three years, DOCJT conducts the Law Enforcement Comprehensive Survey that has come to be known as the “salary survey,” due to the budgetary information it includes. The telecommunication survey will incorporate the same vital monetary information, along with sections on recruitment and retention, training needs, policies in place, equipment and technology, as well as other topics they see becoming prevalent in the next three years, according to Rachel Lingenfelter, DOCJT procedures development specialist and survey administrator.
“We hope that they will use this survey like the law enforcement survey,” explained Lingenfelter. “That they will be able to take this to their governing bodies to get pay raises, to get better benefits, better equipment and more training, and that we at DOCJT can use it to better train telecommunicators based on what is actually being used in dispatch centers.”
The survey also debuts at a critical time when the profession is experiencing a lot of technological changes that affect training, said Mike Keyser, DOCJT systems consultant and former Telecommunications Section instructor and supervisor. The survey also coincides with an increasing demand for online training options, as well as the recent deployment of DOCJT’s online telecommunications academy.
Commissioner Nicolai Jilek and his administration support the entire public safety family, and want to ensure that no member is left out.
“At DOCJT, we value the critical role dispatchers play in public safety,” said Jilek. “To better support them and their training needs, we are extending this opportunity for agencies to communicate with us directly about important issues they face.”
The survey is set to launch in mid-June via a Survey Monkey email sent to agency executives. Once all responses are gathered, the final report will be presented during the Telecommunications Advanced Leadership Kentucky Course in October. A digital copy will also be available on the DOCJT website.
As with the Law Enforcement Comprehensive Survey data, if agencies need specific information that isn’t included in the final report, they may reach out to DOCJT for individual analysis, said Lingenfelter.
“By us doing this survey, we believe we are collecting information for the benefit of dispatch agencies across the state that no one else collects,” said Keyser. “We are going to try to make it as comprehensive as we can.”
To view the 2018 Law Enforcement Comprehensive Survey, please click here.
