As an American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-accredited Standards Developer (ASD), APCO International is dedicated to ensuring public safety communications has a role in the development of standards that affect our industry. APCO’s standards development activities have a broad scope, ranging from the actual development of standards to the representation of public safety communications in other standards development areas.

APCO Announces Final Approval of Career Progression Standard

APCO International received final approval for APCO ANS 1.122.1-2023 Career Progression Within the Public Safety Emergency Communications Center on June 2, 2023.

This operational standard places an emphasis on the need to effectively manage situations with critical decision-making responsibilities. It also offers guidance for emergency communications centers (ECCs) of all sizes on opportunities for employee growth, promotions and development of tomorrow’s leaders.

Copies of the standards are available at apcointl.org/services/standards/find-standards/

Find Standards

Locate training, technical and operational standards developed by APCO for the public safety communications profession.

Standards Review & Comment

During the time a standard is open for public review and comment, any person with a direct and material interest has a right to comment on the standard and have it considered by the standards working group.

Help With Standards Development

Take your professional game to the next level and contribute to producing standards for public safety communications.

APCO Standards Activities in Progress

The following standards are currently in development:

Operational Candidate ANS

  • Non 9-1-1 Call Processing and Dispatch
  • Supplemental Emergency Responder Recommendations
  • Career Progression Within the Public Safety ECC
  • Minimum Technical Requirements for Remote Support to Emergency Communication Center (ECC) Operations\

Technical Candidate ANS

  • Common Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) GIS Identifiers

Training Candidate ANS

  • Detecting Early Warning Symptoms of Stress in Public Safety Telecommunicators
  • Core Competencies and Minimum Training Requirements for Peer Critical Incident (or Crisis) Support Team
  • Minimum Training Standards for Public Safety Telecommunicators

Revisions to Current APCO ANS Standards

  • Multi-Functional Multi-Discipline CAD Minimum Functional Requirements
  • Wireless 9-1-1 Deployment and Management Effective Practices
  • Public Safety Communications Incident Handling Process
  • Minimum Training Standard for TTY/TDD Use in the Public (Reaffirmation in progress)
  • NENA/APCO Standard for Telecommunicator Emergency Response Taskforce (TERT)

Questions and Suggestions

If you have any questions, suggestions, or need for specific standards, please submit them for APCO’s review to [email protected] or call the Standards Program Manager at (469) 424-7599.