Behind the Badge
The Tustin Police Department is hiring!
Currently the department is seeking applicants for the position of Police Support Services Supervisor. This position is a civilian supervisor position in the communications unit.
The 12-person team fields approximately 100,000 calls annually, including about 25,000 911 calls for police, fire, and paramedic. The communications center is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Dispatch is a critical unit in the department and dispatchers often are relied upon to create order amid chaos in moments of distress and danger.
As the Tustin Police Department writes in its literature, “Dispatchers are the first, and sometimes only, contact the public will ever have with the Police Department.”
Eric Nelson, dispatcher for Tustin Police Department, in a file photo from 2020.
File photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge
Under the general supervision of Police Support Services Manager Thao Nguyen and Captain Stephanie Nichols, the supervisor is responsible for day-to-day operations, planning, assigning and coordination of the unit.
Although this current opening is for a supervisor in the communications unit, the position of a civilian supervisor can rotate and be reassigned to a supervisor position in one of the department’s other civilian units. The Communications, Police Services, Property and Evidence, and Records units are all supervised by a Police Support Services Supervisor.
While experience in a communications unit is not required for this supervision position it likely would be helpful. Although not required, the following education and experience qualities would also be beneficial: Graduation from high school, supplemented by successful completion of POST certified police support services training or college level coursework in criminal justice and five years of increasingly responsible experience performing police support services duties, including some experience in a lead or training capacity.
The current position opened when Kristin Fetterling left the department after holding the job since 2017. Fetterling had been promoted from the job of dispatcher where she had worked since 2008.
“She was phenomenal leading that crew,” Officer Mark Sauerwein said, “Absolutely that will be a tough loss.”
Applications are being accepted through 5 p.m. Thursday, March 10.
Interviews are tentatively scheduled for the week of March 28. Candidates who pass the panel interview will be put on an eligible list for the job and future vacancies in the same classification.
