Atlanta Police Department

The intent of this directive is to establish standards and procedures for reviewing the job performance of communications employees by the Quality assurance unit.

2. POLICY

It is the policy of the Atlanta Police Department to promote overall adherence to standard operating procedures and guidelines to provide a framework for the continuous improvement of the overall operation of the Communications Section.

3. RESPONSIBILITIES

3.1 All Communications Section employees shall adhere to this policy.

3.2 All Quality Assurance Unit employees shall:

1. Identify opportunities to improve the quality management process, systems and standards.

2. Work closely with supervisors and upper management to resolve any quality issues regarding 911, fire, and police dispatch.

3. Supply Supervisors monthly, with copies of all employees monitored.

4. Meet quarterly with Supervisors and Upper Management to discuss any issues, solutions, or suggestions with the quality assurance unit.

3.3 All Communications unit supervisors shall:

1. Meet with each employee within 5 days of receipt of a monitoring complaint for corrective action.

2. Provide results of meeting with employee to the Senior Supervisor on staff within 5 days of receiving complaint from quality assurance unit.

4. Ensure the Quality services unit is provided with updated Supervisor assignment sheets for each watch.

5. Make sure Quality services unit receive a copy of each communications daily work assignment sheets.

6. Identify employees with reoccurring errors and make the appropriate corrective action needed to resolve the issues.

7. Make sure the working fire log is updated and maintained.

3.4 All Call Taking Employees shall:

1. Answer the telephone: �Atlanta 911 Emergency, Operator (name) stating his or her name and (operator number).� If possible, �How may I assist you?�

2. Ask and verify the location of the incident or emergency.

3. Obtain the callback phone number from the person making the call.

4. Determine the nature of the incident or emergency and select and assign the appropriate response to the incident.

5. Obtain all pertinent information and make updates accordingly and keeps the caller on the line until all required information is obtained.

6. Ask if any weapons are involved.

7. Ask if a crime occurred and �do you know who did it?�

7. Get a description of the perpetrator, the vehicle, and the direction of travel of the perpetrator.

8. Ask if medical services are needed.

3.5 All Trainees being monitored shall be evaluated by the Training Supervisor on the watch.

4. ACTION

4.1 Dispatching

1. Dispatching the appropriate police and fire units within the prescribed time frame established by the Atlanta Police and Fire standard operating procedures and guidelines.

2. Provides all pertinent information to the responding police, fire, or EMS units and relays updated information about the incident or emergency to the responding units.

3. Answers all radio transmissions promptly and correctly.

4. Speaks clearly and concisely to the responding units.

5. Listens attentively and understands each message that is received from the responding units by repeating information back to the unit.

6. Exhibits a timely response to requests from field units.

7. Maintains a calm and professional demeanor at all times.

8. Utilizes Resources, Alert Tones, and contacts other agencies and or utilities as needed

4.2 Conducting Reviews.

1. The quality assurance reviews completed on each operator shall be finished according to a specified time frame (10-15minutes) per operator. These reviews shall be used to evaluate the performance of the various aspects of a communication officer�s duties. In addition to measuring individual performance, these reviews shall aid in determining whether the process used by the Communications Officers are functionally efficient on a regular basis.

2. A random sampling of Atlanta Police and Fire Communications employees shall be reviewed on a recurring basis by the quality assurance unit to ensure compliance with the quality assurance review standards (See attachments of Quality Assurance Review Form) as well as those outlined in the standard operating procedures For the Atlanta Police and Fire Communications Section.

3. The quality assurance reviews shall be used to support the development and assessment of goals and expectations on the Communications Officer yearly evaluation. The quality assurance reviews shall also be used to identify areas of the Communications officer�s job performance that may require additional or supplemental training, and aid in determining whether any processes of the Atlanta 911 communications center may require modification or change.

5. All Communication Officers, whether part-time or full time shall be subject to the quality assurance process.

6. Reviews shall also be conducted on requests from supervisors.

4.3 Monitoring the System.

4.3.1 The Quality Assurance Unit shall monitor between 25-30 police 911 & dispatch calls daily and 15-25 Fire 911 and dispatch calls daily.

1. The Quality Assurance Unit shall monitor between 125-150 police 911 & dispatch calls per week and 75-100 Fire 911 and dispatch calls per week.

2. The Quality Assurance Unit shall monitor between 500-520 police 911 & dispatch Calls per month and 300-400 Fire 911 and dispatch calls per month.

3. When errors are determined by the Quality Assurance Unit the following information shall be logged into the daily error monitoring log, which would be submitted to the senior supervisor for that watch and the assistant 911 director: (employee�s name, date and time of the incident, incident number, and the errors made.)

4. Errors shall be determined by using the standard review questions on the quality assurance review form and the guidelines written in the Police Communications S.O.P and Atlanta Fire S.O.G., Memorandums, Policy and Procedures.

5. When errors are determined the Quality Assurance Unit shall submit the following information on a Quality Assurance Review Form (Form APD 435) (see attached quality assurance review form) to the supervisor for corrective action: (employee name, incident number, date and time of the incident, and the error made.)

6. Supervisors have 5 days from receipt of the quality assurance review form to respond back to the senior supervisor with their results on Quality Assurance Error Feedback Form.

7. All recordings for review of errors shall be made on a request basis ONLY, via email by filling out a QA Error Recording Request Form (Form APD ?). (see attached QA Error Recording Request Form) Upon completion of error recording request form, the recording shall be returned to supervisor within 24hours.

8. Special monitoring, requested by supervisors shall be accepted on a QA Error Recording Request Form (Form APD ?) only, with a turnaround time of 24hours.

9. Supervisors should notify all employees of what is expected from them, in reference to the Quality Assurance Units criteria, per roll call training. This would ensure that each employee knows the guidelines of how they shall be critiqued.

10. The Quality Assurance Unit shall send weekly stat sheets to the Director and Assistant Director showing all work completed for that week.(See attached weekly stat sheet)

11. The Quality Assurance Unit shall submit a separate weekly percentage sheet for police and fire to be used Bi-weekly by the Director and Assistant Director for SSD meeting.

12. All monitoring of employees shall be done within a 30 day window from the current date. Recording prior to the 30 day window should be requested by a Supervisor or Administrative staff via the error request form.

4.3.2 Grading

1. Each employee shall be graded on a scale of 100% using the new quality assurance review form.

2. Call takers and dispatchers (police & fire) must maintain a compliance score of 80% or better.

3. Any call taker or dispatcher (police & fire) not maintaining compliance rates in any one month time shall be subject to disciplinary actions:

a. Corrective Action

(1) Training

(2) Counseling

b. Quality Assurance (QA) Reviews

(1) All quality assurance reviews shall be handled by the Quality Assurance unit, Custodial of Records or designee.

(2) At a minimum, each employee shall have 3-5 calls pulled at random on a monthly basis.

4.3.3 Forms

1. These forms shall be emailed to Administrative Staff, Senior Supervisors, and Supervisors. (Forms attached)

a. Police & Fire Percentage Form

b. Error Monitoring Log Request Form

c. Police & Fire QA Weekly STAT Sheet

d. Quality Assurance Error Feed Back Form

e. Quality Assurance 911 Call Taking Review Form

f. Quality Assurance Police Dispatch Review Form

g. Quality Assurance Fire 911 Call Taking Review Form

h. Quality Assurance Fire Dispatch Review Form

i. Quality Assurance Fire TAC Channel Review Form

5. DEFINITIONS

N/A

6. CANCELLATIONS

N/A

7. REFERENCES

Police & Fire Percentage Form

Error Monitoring Log Request Form

Police & Fire QA Weekly STAT Sheet

Quality Assurance Error Feed Back Form

Quality Assurance 911 Call Taking Review Form

Quality Assurance Police Dispatch Review Form

Quality Assurance Fire 911 Call Taking Review Form

Quality Assurance Fire Dispatch Review Form

Quality Assurance Fire TAC Channel Review Form

ATTACHED FORMS

(samples attached for viewing purposes)

POLICE & FIRE PERCENTAGE FORM

ERROR MONITORING LOG

QA ERROR REQUEST FORM

POLICE & FIRE QA WEEKLY STAT SHEET

QUALITY ASSURANCE ERROR FEED BACK FORM

QUALITY ASSURANCE 911 CALL TAKING REVIEW FORM

QUALITY ASSURANCE POLICE DISPATCH REVIEW FORM

QUALITY ASSURANCE FIRE 911 CALL TAKING REVIEW FORM

QUALITY ASSURANCE FIRE DISPATCH REVIEW FORM

QUALITY ASSURANCE FIRE TAC CHANNEL REVIEW FORM

BI-WEEKLY COMMUNICATIONS QUALITY ASSURANCE
COMPLAINT PERCENTAGES
DATE	NUMBER OF CALLS MONITORED	NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS SUBMITTED TO SUPERVISOR	PERCENTAGE OF COMPLAINTS














Notes: Length of time taken to monitor an employee can be 5 to 30 minutes per call. This is based on the time taken to locate the call, listening to the call more than once to ensure nothing was missed, amount of time it takes to download the call to be listened to, and the making of the audio CD.

COMMUNICATIONS FIRE MONITORING WITH AUDIO

SUPV NAME	EMPLOYEE NAME	DATE OF INCIDENT	INCIDENT NUMBER	TIME OF INCIDENT	MONITOR 911	MONITOR DISPATCH	RELEASE DATE	ERRORS

COMMUNICATIONS POLICE MONITORING WITH AUDIO

SUPV NAME	EMPLOYEE NAME	DATE OF INCIDENT	INCIDENT NUMBER	TIME OF INCIDENT	MONITOR 911	MONITOR DISPATCH	RELEASE DATE	ERRORS

QA Error Recording Request Form

Supervisor

Employee

Incident#

Date

Time of Inc

911

Police Dispatch

Fire Dispatch

(EX) J. Doe

J. Doe

111111111

4/4/2011

14:22

Comments: ____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Date Request was received: _____________________________________________________

Date Completed: _______________________________________________________________

QA Signature: __________________________________________________________________

QA FIRE WEEKLY STAT SHEET


			911 Calls
Week	MON	TUES	WED	THURS	FRI	Weekly Totals
Day Watch
Evening Watch
Morning Watch

			Dispatch Calls
Week	MON	TUES	WED	THURS	FRI	Weekly Totals
Day Watch
Evening Watch
Morning Watch

			Tactical Channel Calls
Week	MON	TUES	WED	THURS	FRI	Weekly Totals
Day Watch
Evening Watch
Morning Watch

QA POLICE WEEKLY STAT SHEET


			911 Calls
Week	MON	TUES	WED	THURS	FRI	Weekly Totals
Day Watch
Evening Watch
Morning Watch

			Dispatch Calls
Week	MON	TUES	WED	THURS	FRI	Weekly Totals
Day Watch
Evening Watch
Morning Watch

			Tactical Channel Calls
Week	MON	TUES	WED	THURS	FRI	Weekly Totals
Day Watch
Evening Watch
Morning Watch

QUALITY ASSURANCE ERROR FEEDBACK FORM

Dispatcher/ Operator No.______________________________ Date: ___________________________

Incident Number: ___________________________________ Incident Date: ___________________

Summary: ___________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

Action Taken by Supervisor: _____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

Please check if this is the employees first review, second review, third review, or more:

First Review	Second Review	Third Review	Fourth Or More

Employee Signature & Date: __________________________________________________

Supervisor Signature & Date: _________________________________________________

Senior Supervisor Signature & Date: ____________________________________________