Public safety dispatchers or public safety telecommunicators play a vital role in emergency response. They routinely communicate with individuals in great distress, harm, fear, or injury, including during active shooter situations. Dispatchers are trained to coach callers through first aid, collect vital information for officers, and negotiate in a variety of hostile situations.
There are currently over 6,000 dispatchers employed in California who responded to over 27 million 9-1-1 calls in 2018 alone. Additionally, these dispatchers responded to 28,014 emergency text messages which is up 10,000 from 2017.
Fore more information on Assembly Bill 1945: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1945