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APCO Standards
APCO American National Standards (ANS)
Operational ANS
Standard for Calltakers when Handling Calls Pertaining to Missing and Sexually Exploited Children – APCO ANS 1.101.1-2007.
Reports of missing and/or sexually exploited children may be among the most difficult, challenging, and emotionally charged cases your agency will ever experience. The attitude and approach taken when responding to reports of missing and/or sexually exploited children may determine whether the child is recovered promptly and safely or remains missing in an exploitive environment. Each stage of the case, therefore, from initial call through successful recovery, forms a critical component of a thorough child-protection response. Often the initial call forms the foundation and direction of the response to that missing and/or sexually exploited child.
In an effort to develop best-practice guidelines for handling calls pertaining to missing and/or sexually exploited children, a joint steering committee on Call Center Best Practices in Cases of Missing and Sexually Exploited Children was developed. Members of the committee include the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), National Academies of Emergency Dispatch (NAED), National AMBER Alert Initiative (U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs and Fox Valley Technical College), National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), and National Emergency Number Association (NENA). These best-practice guidelines have been submitted through the APCO ANS process facilitated by APCO’s Standards Development Committee (SDC) and received designation from ANSI as an ANS on December 19, 2007.
Brief Description:
This standard is a reference created specifically for calltakers to present the missing and/or sexually exploited child response process in a logical progression from the initial call through the first response.
Training ANS
Minimum Training Standards for Public Safety Communications Training Officer - APCO ANS 3.101.1-2007.
APCO International’s Call Center Standards Committee developed the content of the Minimum Training Requirements for Public Safety Communications Training Officer and submitted the standard through the APCO membership standard process where the APCO International Board of Officers, Membership, and Executive Council reviewed and commented on the content, approving the standard in February 2007. The standard was then submitted to APCO International’s Standards Development Committee to be considered for APCO’s first ANS. The standard was approved by ANSI on September 19, 2007 as an American National Standard.
Brief Description:
The focus of the Minimum Training Standards for the Public Safety Communications Training Officer (hereinafter “CTO”) is to provide training necessary to foster levels of consistency for training officers providing on-the-job training to active 9-1-1 operators and telecommunicators, as well as to promote the leadership role of the CTO in a public safety communications center. The standard responds to the valid needs of the industry in dealing with the rapidly expanding and ever-changing service environment, providing competent training standards while defining training in certain knowledge, skills, and abilities to be provided by the agency for those telecommunicators selected as CTOs. The standard specifies the minimum training requirements, in general, of all personnel assigned to an one-on-one communications training function in an emergency communications environment while recognizing the need to supplement basic competencies with agency-specific information and existing equipment-use parameters, as revised.
It will ensure base-line literacy requirements in 9-1-1 and emergency communications while providing the important guidance in monitoring and ensuring the maintenance of complete training records in all areas of required performance and certifications through competent training.
APCO International’s Membership Standards
Long before APCO International received ANSI accreditation as a SDO, the association strove to ensure that standards and effective practices were developed to address the needs of our members and the public safety communications industry at large. Led primarily in these activities by the APCO Call Center Standards Committee, in the development of these standards, APCO has produced some of the industry’s most recognized and respected standards and effective practices. These Membership Standards include:
Training Standards
Operational Standards
Technical (IEPDs)
* developed in partnership with the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute.
For more information on APCO International’s standards development activities contact the Comm Center & 9-1-1 Services Department Staff at apcostandards@apco911.org or call (888) APCO-911.
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