Welcome Training Division

Blogmaster welcomes back those members of the training division back onto the floor, including their supervisor who is, after all, an SPCO and a former dispatcher (quite a good one too), albeit only for a day. It was quite refreshing to see fellow pcos working the floor on the busiest watch side by side with the operations staff. Blogmaster only wishes it were more often--like perhaps when actual classes are not in session (mostly all the time) for a variety of reasons, including adding a few extra bodies to the watch (any watch) which is always welcome. But even more important is the simple fact that the trainers need to keep up their skill sets for dispatching, handling calls, and cad use in real time under real operations in order for them to be knowledgeable and credible and give the newbies the very best training. This is even more important given that the city and the oemc have a very poor track record of supporting the training division and its mission--they don't even have adequate office space which Blogmaster views as another sign of complete disrespect for operations.

Blogmaster only wishes this newest development weren't so suspect. It is hard to believe that this initiative comes solely from the training division itself. The last time detailed folk were forced to come back the the watches it was at the behest of the acting deputy director (recall that whole 80%-20% fiasco) and was deemed a failure almost from the start (nevermind that it was SET UP to fail). Could it be that the suits are FINALLY looking into better utilizing the existing resources at hand and concluding that perhaps--just perhaps--the training division could spare some of its pcos some of the time to actually do the job they are being paid to do? After all, with no classes in session, no prep for future classes imminent, and not much else to do what is the point in keeping 5 or 6 pcoIIs detailed there permanently?

Despite managements blather, Blogmaster does not buy the ridiculous line that the training division is busy doing "other things". There is minimal budget, resources, equipment, facilities, or political will within oemc for "other things" aside from the occasional pdt class or cpd training session. If there were, we would all be seeing new training notices, directives, and sops ad nauseum. There would be a REAL comprehensive and widespread public education and information campaign about 911. There would be consistent and persistent training of current employees in new techniques, best practices, and efficiencies in processing 911 calls. There would be alot of accessible comparison data among and between chicago and its suburbs and other large cities so that benchmark standard could be developed and implemented. There would be techniques being developed for dealing with stresses of the job, development of new methods of teaching newbies, and ongoing professional development for the trainers themselves. But Blogmaster digresses and realizes that what is being described would NEVER happen here, not as long as the top suits at oemc are political hacks and that the details are merely another way to reward cronies, curry favor, or payback political favors. Because, really, we all know its not about filling such spots with the most qualified and the best people.