A change in state law approved earlier this year complicated hiring for 911 dispatch centers, and state 911 officials are hoping legislators will address the issue in the coming legislative session.
Paul Nave, director of Owensboro-Daviess County 911 dispatch, said a bill passed in the 2024 legislative session changed the hiring requirements for dispatch centers that are part of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services.
Dispatch centers that use CJIS have access to information telecommunicators can provide to officers and detectives in the field, through sources like the National Crime Information Center and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Not every dispatch center uses CJIS, although the Owensboro-Daviess County 911 center does.
Nave said House Bill 782, a bill centered on telecommunicator training that became law in July, is believed to require part-time telecommunicators hired for centers that use CJIS to undergo four weeks of in-person training at the state telecommunicator academy — the state law enforcement academy in Richmond.
Although an online telecommunicator academy is being developed, it is not scheduled to begin operation until mid-2026. Until then, the law requires all telecommunicators to get a certification of completion from the Richmond-based academy to work in 911 centers with CJIS.
New full-time dispatchers are required to attend the academy.
Nave said the Owensboro dispatch has eight part-time positions, with four filled. Only one of the current part-time telecommunicators would be required to get additional training under the law, Nave said.
But all future part-time hires would be required to go to the four-week academy, Nave said. That will create challenges in hiring part-time telecommunicators, Nave said.
“It would be impossible for me to hire any (part-time) people for this job,” Nave said. “If they have to go in person, I couldn’t find anyone to do this job.
“The interpretation is … part-time people who work with CJIS are required to go,” Nave said.
Dispatch center directors received an interpretation of the law from the Kentucky League of Cities, Nave said.
Part-time employees, Nave said, would have trouble attending the in-person academy, because they have often have other responsibilities.
“Most part-time people have family obligations or are employed by another place” on top of working at dispatch, Nave said. “It would be virtually impossible to leave their place of employment for a four-week expense to go to the academy.”
Nave, who is a member of the Kentucky Emergency Number Association-Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, said the agency is hoping to find a legislator to file an amendment to the law in the coming session.
“We will be working with legislators and legal at the LRC (Legislative Research Commission) to modify” the law, Nave said.
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