Richmond residents Kelsey Cole (left) and Helen Paige Shepherd (right) graduated from the Kentucky State Police Telecommunications Academy in Frankfort on Oct. 27.
Both serve as police telecommunicators at KSP Post 7 in Richmond.
The course provided 236 hours of instruction during a six week period.
The curriculum included subjects such as: legal liability, limits of telecommunicator authority, the telecommunicator’s role in public safety, interpersonal communications, customer service, interaction with the news media, stress, ethics and confidentiality, responder safety, basic fire dispatch, state emergency operations plans, criminal justice information systems, cardio pulmonary resuscitation, first aid training, emergency medical dispatch and special needs callers.
The final week of the academy included training on computer-aided dispatch and other databases.
To complete the course, the telecommunicators were required to successfully process scripted calls for service and demonstrate proficiency in obtaining pertinent information, dispatching responders, providing emergency medical dispatch if needed and correctly documenting information from the call for service.
This training is completed using a computer simulation system to simulate their working environment in the radio room.