[Crvtte65]

Who has gone through the Powerphone course here? I have tried to get my dept to sponsor but they said no because of other reasons. Anyways, I was using one of the books during a call to see what they wanted me to ask etc and thought, maybe they just have the books for sale. I went to www.powerphone.com and looked up the books...$130.00!!! Can they rape us anymore?? I can understand the training to be $600 because its training but $130 is way way WAY too expensive for those books. My books for school don't even cost that much and are 10 times bigger with 100 times more info with all kinds of other free stuff. Opp, rambling. Yea so I've heard good stuff about the course? What did you guys think?

(And I know about the possible state academy etc etc)

 

[MCOA41]

Never used Powerphone, but I hear there product quality stinks. Well at least for the EMD and law enforcement and fire dispatch course. I would like to check out one of their one day courses and see how they are. But if you look at what they offer and when they started offering it it looks to me that they just copy from another company.

Example: Public Safety Training Consultants (PSTC) has been doing a homeland security course for dispatchers since just before the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah now Powerphone is jumping on the band wagon.

Just my thoughts. Like I said I would like to check out one of their one day course. Oh and the EMD and law enforcement and fire dispatch courses that the 2-3 agencies use in this state will probably go away now that the state offers the 5 week dispatch academy for free and none of the courses in the acaemy are Powerphone.

 

[MCOA41]

I have noticed that IL hosts alot of the Powerphone classes. Maybe MrJim has some input on them.

 

[Coops320]

Well my opinion is that all dispatchers and police officers should be at least EMT's. I went to an accredited college to take the EMT course,it counted as 7 science/elective college credits. The course is only 3 months worth of learning at 3 nights a week. Just very worthwhile IMHO. Powerphone is very limited in emergency situations. However, I would think it would make the individual less open to lawsuits, as you can claim that you were following department policy.

 

[Guest]

I went through the Powerphone class a little over a month ago. In short, it was great. It really is a great course and I even recommended that more people should take part in it. It was simple, used basic language and real life scenarios. I highly recommend it.

 

[MCOA41]

What PowerPhone course was it?

 

[Crvtte65]

Holy old thread batman!

 

[reno911_2004]

 

[MrJim911]

This is an old thread!

Anyway, Powerphone is very popular nationwide. I've been to a few of their classes and thought they were pretty good. But as with any company I've heard bad things as well. It will depend on the subject matter and the instructor. If I had my choice I'd rather attend an APCO or PSTC class.

As far as the EMT thing, we have EMD for medical calls. Having advanced knowledge in the medical field can actually interfere with those instructions and serves no real purpose as we cannot deviate from the EMD instructions.

 

[82PSTSB]

I'm about to take a powerphone course in the next couple of months, I hear it can be helpful, but some say that it is a waste of time. I'll just take it and see how it is, if it's a waste of time, oh well, it was easy OT anyway.

 

[ecpd402]

I took the Powerphone Emergancy Crime Scene Responder course back in 1996. I thought they did a good job

 

[bluesamurai22]

I took EMD and LE dispatch with Powerphone several years ago and thought they were great.

I also took the crime scene responder class and that was a good time - the instructor was a former Chicago PD homicide investigator with lots of pictures. Way too many of those pictures involved strange and unique auto-erotic deaths.

If any department is not doing EMD then they are not living up to the standard of care that they should. If someone dies due to a lack of pre-arrival instructions their family would definately have a valid lawsuit.