The overall goal of instruction in the Course The ABCs of Call-Taking is to provide the student with proper call-taking techniques to employ as a public safety dispatcher.

Specific goals are to provide the student with:

1. an understanding of the importance and role the call-taker has in the public safety profession.

2. knowledge of the two basic call-taking elements, eliciting information and giving information.

3. fundamental ground rules that apply to call-taking.

4. knowledge and awareness of the basic concepts and skills of call-taking including primary and
secondary questioning techniques, obtaining descriptions and dealing with second or third hand callers.

5. a heightened awareness of citizen and officer safety issues along with questions to determine the danger level to citizens or involved parties and responding units.

6. advanced techniques to improve their call-taking skills: active listening, flexibility in their communication style to deal with the wide variety of callers, rapport builders, reassuring statements, and avoiding landmines.

7. information on technology based issue: cell-phone calls, how they differ from landline calls and how to respond to those differences; and how to properly handle hearing impaired callers and callers with a language barrier.

8. the “ABC’s” of accurately building and composing text so that it meets the needs of the dispatcher and responding units.

9. an awareness of the multitude of competing tasks that a call-taker faces along with the knowledge on how to prioritize and respond to those tasks.

10. the importance of customer service and public perception with specific ways to maximize both.