dispatch hiring info?

[makakona]

not for me! i have 3.5 kids four and under, do you REALIZE how much they'd have to pay me just to cover childcare?! :biggrin:

so, i know the info that's already on the internet and all of that... my mother-in-law is considering becoming a dispatcher, but she wants to be a traitor and go for sheriff, i think? she said it just comes down to pay and who's hiring, but i'm guessing it's a crapshoot between the two, from what i've read. anyway, anyone been on both sides of the fence and care to share? we all know chp is the way to go as an officer, but what about for dispatch?

for all of the officers i know who married dispatchers, i'm sure there are a few people here who could share something about personal involvement? my father-in-law was chp for 30 years and i figured that might dissuade my mother-in-law, but it hadn't really occurred to me that she might have a problem working dispatch with her son being an officer.

i'm just disappointed that the state is still paying her bills and she wants to go jump ship for the county. boo, hiss! :doubt: thanks in advance for any insight.

[lincolnyellow]

I've been a dispatcher for CHP for about a year and a half - whether it's better to go CHP or Sherriff depends a lot on where you live, and whether you might want to live somewhere else sometime during your career. In my area (we are very rural), CHP dispatchers make way more than for the allied agencies, and the benefits are very hard to beat. There are at least 3 of my co-workers who came from the Sherriff's office because of pay and benefits. In addition to our safety retirement pension, my favorite benefit from CHP is the fact that if you work for them for 20 years, they continue your health benefits, for the rest of your life, at the same rate they did while you were still actively working for them. This is huge! I don't know what other agencies offer though, how they might compare. I know in some cities, allied dispatchers make a lot more.

Another biggie in working for the CHP is the freedom to transfer to so many different spots in California. You can move and not lose your seniority, benefits or pay.

As far as dispatching for an officer who is a loved one - I have to admit this can be nerve-wracking. It all comes down to whether you truly think that, if the worst should happen and you are dispatching during an emergency involving your loved one, could you keep it together long enough to do your job? This sounds harsh maybe, but it is an essential question to answer.

All this said, I love the CHP - I plan on staying with them for the rest of my career. Good luck with your decision...

[FayeValentine]

I have a friend interested in doing dispatch with the CHP, she thought she had seen something that said there was an age limit...We looked at the CHP website and I didn't see anything regarding age but I wanted to double check with everyone here...

Thanks for any insight you have! Also can you please let me know how she could go about getting in to the testing process? When the next test might be?

Again thank you!

[HIPCHIP]

I used to work in the Comm Center and there were senior dispatchers that stayed there all of their career, there were dispatchers that transferred to other CHP comm centers, and there were the ones who left and went to an allied agency.

The biggest complaint I heard was that in the big cities it was WAY busy and they never got a break. There was also a lot of mandatory overtime because sometimes they were short handed. All of them said they got great training and experience at the big comm center. The ones that left for other CHP comm centers went to a nice quiet (or quieter) area, the ones that went to allied agencies said the pay was better and it was less busy.

To sum it up, CHP is good to start, and good to stay with, and you can transfer or jump to an allied agency, so lots of choices.

When an officer is in a world of hurt, it's a well trained dispatcher that looks out for them, so be the best you can be and get the best training and experience.

[cal911gal]

I've worked both. I started at age 20 with a SoCal Sheriff's Department, and came to CHP at 23. They each have their pros and cons - from pay, to retirement system/formula, scheduling, overall benefits package, etc.

While at the SO, I experienced more than I think I was ready to process at that age. Many suicides with me on the phone, houses burning with callers trapped inside, etc. It became too much too quick and I bailed to CHP. At that time, I got a BIG raise to go to CHP. Since then, we slid way backward on the pay scale.

But we're making progress in trying to catch up. And even though I make less than my peers at other agencies, I wouldn't trade this for anything.

With the CHP, as has been said before, transfer rights statewide are nice. I've worked the beach, the snowy mountains, and two central valley areas. The ability to transfer enabled me to leave a high cost area and move to a place I could afford my own home. If you don't care about geography, and care more about workload, CHP offers both ends of the spectrum and everything in between. You need to do your research, and preferably do some sit alongs, before deciding which agency/area you want to apply to.

As to dealing with loved ones on your air.......I had a deputy boyfriend when I was at the SO get into it with a guy on PCP. It was horrible, he got hurt. But I responded and did my job. Tears and shakes come later.

With CHP several years ago, I was dispatching when my husband (not an officer) got in a wreck. Thankfully it was non-injury. Months later, my stepson rolled his truck into lava beds and got pinned in. I was on the radio and working solo. You do what you have to do to get the job done.
I don't think you really know how you'll cope with something like that until you have to. Those prone to hysterics at the drop of a hat aren't going to be inclined to apply to dispatch anyways, so I'd hedge a guess that anyone seriously considering this job probably has the ability to function in a crisis.

As to your MIL applying Makakona, I don't mean to sound age biased, and I certainly am not. However, she needs to assess herself and think about how quickly she learns, how well she retains info, etc. As we age, it's harder to learn new things (in general, not for all people) and this job is extremely difficult to master in the time you are given. I constantly tell our trainees how proud I am of them, because they take all these different elements and put it all together in a few short months. I don't think I could master this job were I to apply to it today.
If she chooses to go for it, I wish her the best of luck. It's hard, but it's rewarding!