NCJ Number
219428
Date Published
January 1990
Length
501 pages
Annotation
This report describes the methodology and results of a job task analysis for public safety dispatchers in California.
Abstract
The results indicate that a substantial portion of the work domain of the dispatchers described in the Job Task Survey applied to dispatchers statewide. Over 50 percent of the tasks and 90 percent of the complaints/incidents list in the survey were identified as "core" work elements. Core tasks involved screening complaints and obtaining information, providing information to the public and other agencies, monitoring field units and emergency systems, dispatching personnel and resources, providing information to field units, reporting and recordkeeping, facility operations, training, evidence, custody, and auxiliary recordkeeping. On average, 85 percent of the existing dispatchers who responded to the survey reported having performed each of the core tasks "more than once per week;" and 51 percent were performed by dispatchers daily. Of the tasks that failed to meet the "core" criteria, 30 were identified as "group-specific," i.e., they were reportedly performed by at least 50 percent of the dispatchers and were rated as at least "of some importance" by supervisors in one or more agency subgroups. The majority of the 81 tasks that failed to meet either the "core" criteria or "group-specific" criteria generally involved reporting/recordkeeping and auxiliary job activities. The task analysis first developed a comprehensive task inventory, which was a list of behavioral descriptions of all job activities performed by dispatchers throughout the State. The task inventory was then incorporated into a survey instrument and administered to a representative sample of dispatchers and communication supervisors. The survey responses were then keyed into a computer file and summarized statistically to derive an overall profile of the occupation in terms of the important and commonly performed job activities. Numerous tables and figures, 9 references, and 42 appendixes with supplementary data and information