BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 770
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Date of Hearing: March 21, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
Steven Bradford, Chair
AB 770 (Torres) - As Introduced: February 17, 2011
SUBJECT : Emergency telephone systems.
SUMMARY : Expands the size and responsibilities of the State's
911 Advisory Board (advisory board). Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the State Chief Information Officer (CIO) to review
and update standards for recruitment and training of public
safety dispatchers when reviewing and updating technical and
operational standards for public agency systems.
2)Adds one representative from the Commission on Peace Officer
Standards and Training and a representative from the Office of
the State Fire Marshal to the advisory board.
3)Modifies the requirement that the advisory board advise the
Chief Information Officer (CIO) concerning the following:
i. Issues related to the receipt of calls in
a language other than English by dispatchers at a
public safety answering point;
ii. Need for additional recruitment of
multilingual public safety dispatchers; and
iii. Need to create standardized basic and
advanced training programs for all dispatchers
assigned to a public safety access point (PSAP).
4)Makes technical changes to conform to the Governor's
Reorganization Plan No. 1 of the 2009-10 Regular Session.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Creates the Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act establishing
the number "911" as the primary emergency telephone number for
use in California.
2)Requires local agency providers to develop systems for
receiving 911 calls and relaying them to the appropriate
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responders.
3)Requires the CIO to review and update technical and
operational standards for public agency systems, after
consultation with specified entities and individuals.
4)Creates the advisory board to advise the CIO on several
subjects, including technical and operational standards for
the California 911 system, training standards for county
coordinators and public safety dispatch center managers.
5)Requires that multilingual operators be on duty or available
via conference at all times at those "911" public safety
dispatch centers serving an area where 5 percent or more of
the population speaks a specific primary language other than
English.
6)Establishes the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and
Training (POST) within the Department of Justice.
7)Requires POST to adopt, and authorizes POST to amend from time
to time, rules establishing minimum standards relating to the
recruitment and training of local public safety dispatchers.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : According to the author's office, this bill
addresses potential improvements in the procedures for
recruiting, training, and ongoing skill development for 911
dispatchers. 911 dispatchers perform a crucial function in the
public safety system. Their job is high stress and demands
precise performance in order to effectively relay calls to the
appropriate response entity. Due to the nature of 911
dispatching, recruitment and job creation is a problem in this
line of work.
1)Background : In 1976, the Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act
(911 Act) was passed into
law in order to shorten the time required for a citizen to
request and receive emergency aid. The
911 Act named the Department of General Services (DGS) as the
state oversight entity to ensure cooperation between the public
agencies, public safety agencies, and telephone service areas
that were involved in its implementation. Since DGS had no
expertise in this subject area, the 911 Act also created the
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advisory board in order to advise DGS on a number of specific
issues, including technical and operational standards for the
911 system and training standards for county coordinators and
dispatch center managers. As part of the Governor's 2009-10
Reorganization Plan, the Telecommunications Office of DGS was
consolidated under an expanded office of the CIO.
POST was established by the Legislature in 1959 to set minimum
selection and training standards for California law enforcement.
Participation in POST is voluntary. Over 600 agencies
statewide have chosen to participate. Participating agencies
agreed to abide by the standards established by POST. POST
provides over two dozen dispatcher training courses, including
basic and advanced public safety dispatcher courses for
participating agencies.
2)Need for additional multilingual public safety dispatchers :
This bill would require the
advisory board to advise on issues concerning the receipt of
call in a language other than English by public safety
dispatchers and the need for additional recruitment of
multilingual dispatchers. Clear communication between the
dispatcher and a person requesting emergency service is very
important. Under the basic 911 system, when an individual calls
911, the dispatcher does not automatically receive the caller's
phone number and location, thus the dispatcher needs to be able
to understand this information when it is relayed to them.
Moreover, the dispatcher needs to understand the nature of the
emergency in order to ensure they can dispatch the appropriate
responders.
According to data from the 2000 census, California leads the
nation in the percentage of people who speak a language other
than English at home, which is around 40 percent. More
importantly, it found that over 11.5 million households in
California were linguistically isolated, defined as having no
member fourteen years old or older who speaks English well.
These findings may illustrate the need for multilingual intake
capabilities at dispatch centers.
Since there are hundreds of different languages spoken in
California it may be impossible to have dispatchers available at
all times that will be able to serve all non-English calls. In
order to help deal with this issue, in 2005 DGS designated a
foreign language emergency translation service provider for the
entire state that supports 150 different languages. Under a
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multi-year agreement, the provider was to support over 500
public safety dispatch centers. A number of other public
emergency response entities have implemented similar services
over the past decade, most notably the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA). Therefore it is unclear if there is a
need for additional dispatchers that are multi-lingual due to
the adoption of translation services by DGS.
3)Standardized training : This bill requires the advisory board
to advise the CIO on the need to
create standardized basic and advanced training programs for all
public safety dispatchers. PSAPs vary in terms of the types of
training they offer. Currently, POST offers a 120 hour course
for public safety dispatchers and various courses for upgrading
skills. Some PSAPs, such as the Los Angeles Police Department,
have their own training for dispatchers, which has been
certified by POST. According to the author's office, other
dispatch centers provide no training at all.
4)Technical amendment : The Office of the State Chief Information
Officer (OCIO) has been
renamed the California Technology Agency in accordance with AB
2408 (Smyth), Chapter 404, Statutes of 2010. Consequently, the
references to the CIO should be replaced with the California
Technology Agency.
5)Related legislation : This bill is substantially similar to AB
423 (Torres) in the 2009-10
Regular Session. This bill was vetoed by the Governor.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : DaVina Flemings / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083
AB 770
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