Metro Richmond Regional Emergency Communications Recruitment Initiative

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

The Primary Public Safety Answering Points for Chesterfield County, Hanover County, Henrico County and the City of Richmond requested, and received grant funding for a regional recruitment initiative as a regional effort. This partnership was funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia Wireless E-911 Services Board, and this one of the first times that multiple jurisdictions collaborated to recruit personnel to adequately staff their emergency communication centers. The need for additional staff was critical for the Greater Richmond Metropolitan area. The county had two goals entering into this endeavor. First, officials wanted to entice more qualified and diverse applicants to the four participating jurisdictions. In addition, the county wanted to increase public awareness of the career opportunities in an emergency communications center. Therefore, a plan was developed to utilize the combined abilities of all four jurisdictions to create a comprehensive campaign that included new releases and articles, a recruitment video, multimedia advertisements for the position of Emergency Communications Officer. The elements of the campaign would be applicable to all jurisdictions.