SOC Makes Interim Decision NOT to Listen

Editor's Note: After reading below - APCO has put out a Take Action request. All 911 Dispatchers and Field Responders please take the time to tell the SOC committee how wrong they are. They are accepting comments until 9/20. https://www.apcointl.org/advocacy/take-action.html

Frustrated. Disgusted. Disappointed. Bewildered. The list of my current emotions could go on and on. I hung up my public safety telecommunicator’s headset in 2005 BUT the work, the people and the pride have never left me. I’ve spent the last 11 years focusing on, researching and writing about all the amazing forgotten first responders that keep our field personnel and citizens safe 24 hour a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year all over the world. I personally know the toll the work takes on each of us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It is not a job; it is a calling. Not everyone can do it. Not everyone wants to. We give a little bit of ourselves to every caller and in every radio transmission. Many of us have struggled to keep refilling all of those outputs and so many of us are affected by the stress inherent in being first responders. Why am I mentioning this in a paragraph that begins with intense emotion? Because we have once again been told that we are NOT first responders and that we are JUST clerical workers. And I am angry. At least there is still something that I can do about it and so can you. Let me explain.

SOC Classifications

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The OMB coordinates statistical information for the federal government. One of their statistical mediums is the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC) system. SOC organizes all organizations within the United States. Keep in mind, SOC does not affect federal regulations, such as overtime nor does it affect local regulations. It is merely a conduit in which occupations are classified and statistics maintained. One of the 10 Classification Principles states, “Occupations are classified based on work performed and, in some cases, on the skills, education, and/or training needed to perform the work.” Keep this in mind.

Currently, 911 Operators and Police, Fire and EMS Dispatchers are categorized under the major group Office and Administrative Support Occupations. We then have the minor group, Material Recording, Scheduling, Dispatching and Distributing Workers along with couriers and messengers, cargo and freight agents, postal service workers and stock clerks and fillers. After that, we are broken down under the detailed occupation category of Dispatchers then Police, Fire and Ambulance Dispatchers. The category is defined as:

Operate radio, telephone, or computer equipment at emergency response centers. Receive reports from the public of crimes, disturbances, fires, and medical or police emergencies. Relay information to law enforcement and emergency response personnel. May maintain contact with caller until responders arrive.

Although the detailed occupation generically defines the tasks we do, the fact that it falls under a clerical heading does not accurately reflect the nature of EMERGENCY work. It does not afford the recognition deserved by those who are the first first responders. Those who respond to a scene via hearing and take control, give direction and advice and perform emergency crisis intervention using their voices. As I’ve said a million times before, you do not have to be boots on the ground to respond to an emergency scene and when first responder is defined as someone who responds to an emergency, public safety telecommunicators undisputedly fall into that category. This brings me to my angst.

Revisions to the SOC

Every ten years the OMB reviews the SOC and makes changes. Since July, 2016 the OMB classification committee has been receiving a second round of comments. During this time, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) provided the committee with succinct arguments to first rename the detailed occupation from Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers to Public Safety Telecommunicators and reclassify to Protective Service Occupations, such as police, fire fighters, EMS, lifeguards, even crossing guards and TSA agents. APCO explained their stance for the following reasons:

• Better encompasses both 9-1-1 call taking and emergency dispatch.
• More appropriate given the increasing diversity and technical nature of the profession.
• Aligns with the Congressional Resolution that established National Public Safety Telecommunications Week

Along with APCO’s compelling arguments, the Next-Generation 911 Caucus, a committee made up of bipartisan House and Senate representatives wrote a letter in support of the renaming/reclassification stating the “current classification…is not consistent with the specialized training and life-saving nature of the tasks performed by Public Safety Telecommunicators.” I’m sure each and every one of us who have put on the headset agrees that we do not do secretarial work and that we ARE first responders, the same as field responders. Unfortunately, and this is where my hair stands on end, the OMB committee doesn’t agree.

Interim Decision NOT to listen

Last week the OMB committee responded to the proposed SOC revision with an interim decision not to change the reclassify or rename. These were their reasons: 

• “The work performed by 9-1-1 professionals is that of a dispatcher and not a first responder.”
• “Most dispatchers are precluded from administering actual care, talking someone through procedures, or providing advice.”
• “Separating 9-1-1 dispatchers from other dispatchers would cause confusion.”

Where do I even begin in expressing my outrage? APCO responded just as strongly stating the decision is a mistake and seems to disregard all of the factual evidence, information and support from professionals. The committee clearly does not understand the work we do. I just have to say unequivocally in response:

• Public Safety Telecommunicators have dispatching duties as part of their multi-faceted, fast-paced emergency work and are clearly first responders.
• Talking a citizen through CPR, advising a mother to leave a smoke filled house with her children and intervening with a suicidal citizen seem to very clearly be “administering actual care, talking someone through procedures” and “providing advice.”
• Is it really all that confusing to people that a 911 Dispatcher does different work than a taxi dispatcher? I don’t think so.

Next Steps

Right after the interim decision, APCO hosted a webinar clarifying the issues and asking public safety professions to take action by telling the federal officials involved with the SOC revision that we disagree with the current classification of 911 professions. In the next 18 hours, over 5000 emails were sent. APCO then had a meeting with the appropriate federal office which allowed APCO to gain insight into what was truly necessary for the classification to “protective” to occur. Due to this, APCO has temporarily suspended the email campaign but assures us that they will be giving us guidance on the next step. We have until September 20, 2016 to be part of the comment period. So, the process is not over.

I encourage each and every one of you to stay informed on this process, watch for APCO guidance and calls to action and refuse to accept this antiquated, misinformed and disrespectful categorization. How we are classified by the federal government matters. One of the themes that I have heard over and over during my interviews with public safety telecommunicators is that they do not feel respected as first responders. They are often dismissed and forgotten about. Right now, we have the opportunity to get the federal government to put our occupation where it clearly belongs: Protective Service/First Responder.