COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER II

City of Brandon, MS • Brandon, MS

89d

About The Position

Under regular supervision, Communications Officer II is responsible for communicating with and dispatching public safety personnel. Incumbents respond to the emergency and distress calls; dispatch public safety personnel/officers respond to inquiries by the public and other public safety agencies; interact with city, county, state, and federal public safety personnel; and maintain records of all dispatches. Assists in the on-the-job training of Communication Offer I employees, advise in daily activities, and act in the role of Team Lead in the absence of the Supervisor.

Requirements

• High School graduate or GED equivalent along with the completion of minimum of two-years (64 semester hours) college work in an accredited junior college, college or university with major course work in communications or related technology subjects or honorable military dispatch service.
• 2-4 years dispatch service.

Responsibilities

• Answer multiple incoming emergency 911 calls.
• Answer multiple incoming calls to the police department on non-emergency lines and reroute calls to other personnel as needed.
• Recognize TTY calls, emergency, and non-emergency, and effectively communicate with the caller.
• Understand and respond quickly and accurately to written and/oral directions, instructions, inquiries, and requests.
• Quickly evaluate and prioritize the urgency of calls.
• Utilize training and maintain communications with caller while remaining calm, resolve situations, prioritize, and make decisions in multiple, highly stressful, and potentially deteriorating situations.
• Question callers requesting dispatch to determine location of incident, nature of call, description of any suspects or suspect vehicles, appropriate personnel needed for the type of incident described, and phone number and name of caller.
• Utilize special techniques to handle erratic and hostile callers when necessary.
• Relay departmental SOP pre-arrival instructions to the caller.
• Connect emergency callers to other agencies or coordinate with other agencies when the incident does not involve our jurisdiction or other agencies/jurisdictions are involved in the incident.
• Identify the need to notify additional specialized resources such as Poison Control, American Medical Response, etc.
• Operate the phone system safely and report any malfunction immediately to supervisor.
• Monitor radio traffic on patrol (police) frequencies, rescue (fire) frequencies, and county-wide police and fire frequencies.
• Promptly respond to incoming incidents from radio traffic.
• Dispatch appropriate personnel to emergency incidents inside and as required by mutual aid agreements, outside the city.
• Maintain a clear, monotone, professional tone over all radio frequencies.
• Monitor and respond to radio traffic during incident and act based upon information given by field personnel.
• Advise officers and fire personnel of any safety issues of locations based upon previous call history.
• Announce all points bulletins and other messages over the radio.
• Conduct periodic welfare checks of field personnel during incidents to determine status.
• Recognize situational need to notify specific persons or agencies in emergency.
• Operate radio equipment safely and report any malfunctions immediately to supervisor.
• Log information received from callers into the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system to streamline dispatch.
• Verify CAD accuracy of street addresses, response pattern advised by CAD system, and beat location of described incidents for appropriate dispatch.
• If CAD is unable to validate location, have knowledge of jurisdiction including beat boundaries.
• If CAD is unable to give proper unit assignment, assign the appropriate number and type of units to respond to the incident.
• Add, update, or remove location alerts at various locations in the city based on need, call history, aggressive nature of residents, and other reasons as instructed by field personnel.
• Review call histories at incident locations to improve officer safety and response efficiency.
• Review suspects or caller information in arrest/report records for violent history, active warrants, or other information as needed by field personnel.
• Maintain accurate logs of important information during emergency and non-emergency incidents.
• Query vehicle registration and/or driver's license/person information for field personnel on traffic stops or other incidents; query III/criminal history information on persons; query wanted status of vehicles, persons, or property as requested by field personnel.
• Advise patrol officers of required information for entry of persons or property as missing, wanted, or stolen, respectively, on the NCIC database.
• Enter persons or property as missing, wanted, or stolen, respectively, on the NCIC database.
• Respond to hit requests sent by other agencies on entered persons or property.
• Coordinate patrol, investigations, and the administration to locate and recover persons or property as needed.
• Always maintain security of the NCIC computer.
• Maintain integrity of NCIC files entered or handled by the operator and any other persons who are allowed access to the files.
• Maintain records for all III/criminal history requests by officers and investigators.
• Witness and sign uniform traffic citations as sworn by police officers.
• Witness and sign affidavits as sworn by police officers and/or complainants.
• Receive cash bonds/fines after hours and issue proper receipts to the public.
• Maintain security and accuracy of the cash drawer and any received moneys for bonds or fines paid.
• Receive written bonds from bonds persons and send releases to holding facilities/jails as needed.
• Contact judges to assign bonds for arrestees, and when applicable, arrange for housing of juvenile arrestees in the appropriate holding facility.
• Update bond information for inmates in holding facilities and advise those holding facilities of the new information.
• Coordinate officers, investigators, and administrators to fulfill the requests of holding facilities in which we have housed an arrestee.
• Contact off-duty personnel when directed by patrol supervisors for response to after-hours incidents.
• Receive and dispatch after-hours calls for public works and the street department.
• Keep records of library conference room activity and release the keys to persons renting the space.
• Assist field personnel with searches or management of arrestees while in the police department as needed.
• Advise supervisor(s) of any unsafe, illegal, or other harmful activity in the workplace which might compromise the police department or the safety of the public.
• Participate in scheduled training to maintain certification for state regulations.
• Keep the integrity and confidentiality of all persons and/or information received.
• Ability to work any shift, holidays, and weekends. Subject to on-call status.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Industry: Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support
• Education Level: High school or GED
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees