CAL-EDA President's Message

Doing The Right Thing!

July 20, 2009

Dear CTDA Members,

For the last six years, the California Tactical Dispatcher Association has been used by law enforcement agencies from all over the United States and Canada for many different reasons.

CTDA has provided support for agencies looking to create new Tactical Dispatch Teams, from offering ideas about how to start a team and member selection to samples of Policies and Procedures and After Action Reports.  The Outreach Team traveled to Irving, Texas to teach the basic course to 21 new Tactical Dispatchers.   CTDA has held relative regional training meetings up and down the state, from Santa Rosa to Chula Vista.  The most important thing CTDA has done is provided training at our annual Training Conferences over 500 dispatchers from across the United States, as far away as Alaska and Vermont.  We have met dispatchers from across the state and across the nation, and lifelong friendships have been made, and rekindled, at our conferences.

We have hosted Key Note speakers from such memorable events as the Amish School Shootings, the Columbine Massacre, the North Hollywood Shootout and we were lucky enough, and honored enough, to be in the presence of two everyday heroes from the New York City Police Department as they recounted the personal, gripping details of the events of September 11, 2001.

CTDA has brought historic training opportunities to California – and given hundreds of dispatchers the ability to participate in some excellent training by one-of-a-kind guest speakers.

But with everything good that CTDA has done, the time has come for a change.

When the tragedy befell the Oakland Police Department in March, it was the dispatchers of California who stepped up to answer the call for help.  They did it because it was the right thing to do.  More than 500 emails and phone calls from dispatchers all over the state were received as they volunteered to drop everything an come to the aid of their brothers and sisters in Oakland.  107 dispatchers made the trip, staffing the Oakland Police Communications Division for 103 hours.  From that unprecedented, tragic event, CTDA saw a need to change, and improve, for all Public Safety Dispatchers in California.  Because, again, it’s the right thing to do.

So it is with renewed enthusiasm and excitement that we present to you the California Emergency Dispatcher Association, or CAL-EDA.  This association is for all Public Safety Dispatchers in California, both Police and Fire.  We are taking some of the best elements of CTDA, and expanding them to include all dispatchers in California.  The new association will become effective January 1, 2010.  The emphasis for the new association will be training for dispatchers, by dispatchers.  Including new and unique classes that dispatchers will find relative and useful.  Another emphasis will be networking for dispatchers, both on a regional level, as well as statewide.  Social events, department events, statewide events to bring all dispatchers together, in a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere, where we can talk with each other, exchange ideas, and most importantly learn from each other.  We will be working on becoming advocates for dispatchers.  When is the last time you saw a POSITIVE news story involving Public Safety Dispatchers?   We will have a whole segment of the new association dedicated just to getting the word out about the GREAT things that our every day heroes do on a routine, consistent basis.  

The task before us is monumental – and we need your help.  We are looking for dispatchers who want to teach classes.  We need dispatchers to help with the association, to help with the conference planning, networking events, and with the Public Information.  We need you to join the association, so we can continue to provide professional, relative, important training to all dispatchers in California.

We are excited about the future.  January 1, 2010 will be a turning point in the dispatching PROFESSION in the state of California.  We want you to be a part of the excitement, the enthusiasm, the profession that is public safety dispatching.

Please, if you have any input, ideas, questions or concerns send me an email.  We are going to need help from a lot of people to make this association successful.  Whether you are interested in becoming a member of the Executive Board or being an instructor for a class, we need your help.  Interested in helping to organize regional training meetings or the annual conference, let us know.  Send me an email at kanderson@cal-eda.org.  If you know anyone else who might be interested in helping out or learning more about the new association, either the Police or Fire side, feel free to forward this email to them.

It has been an honor to lead the largest dispatcher-only professional association in California for the last six years.  I think we have made a difference in the lives of many dispatchers, but we can do more, and we can be better, for ALL dispatchers in California.  Join me and the rest of the Executive Board in making this transition.  Tactical Dispatch will always be a passion of mine, and a focus of this association, but now it is time for a change for the greater good.  Now is the time to include everyone, and together, we can become better.  California Emergency Dispatcher Association - because it is the right thing to do!

Respectfully,

Kurt Anderson
President
California Tactical Dispatcher Association
California Emergency Dispatcher Association