Dispatch Priming
Incorrect information provided to officers can cause them to make tragic shooting errors. Learn how you can control dispatch priming.
An intensive 8-hour course for public safety dispatchers.
However, as a dispatcher, you can’t simply omit that the caller mentioned the suspect had a gun. So what are you supposed to do?
Researchers have only recently begun to study this complex phenomenon. One study noted that “priming officers with incorrect dispatched information about what a subject was holding significantly increased the likelihood for a shooting error while priming officers with the correct information…significantly decreased the likelihood for error.” 1
Join us for an in-depth look into dispatch priming and learn why most people don’t understand this complex phenomenon. The instructor for this course is an active-duty senior dispatcher for a busy agency. She’ll share a behind the scenes look at this issue along with the specific tools you can use to avoid the negative outcomes of dispatch priming.
- Learn to understand priming: the good and the bad
- Learn what you can control and what you can’t
- Examine real-world dispatch priming incidents
- Examine the positive and negative aspects of bias and heuristics
- Learn about the science of decision-making & the psychology of communication

Your Instructor

Kristy Dorton
Instructor Kristy Dorton is an active-duty Public Safety Dispatcher II and Communications Training Officer with the Sacramento Police Department. She is also a California POST Master Instructor. Kristy has studied the complexities of dispatch priming and designed this course to help fellow dispatchers avoid it.