On May 1, 2014, Senate Bill 1025, sponsored and supported by the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA), passed the State Senate 36-0.  SB 1025 would update CHP public safety dispatcher & public safety operator job titles in state statute.

As a result of collective bargaining agreements more than a decade ago, the job title of CHP communications operators was changed to public safety dispatchers and public safety operators.  Legislation has never updated state statute to reflect that.

Under current law,  when setting compensation for communications operators in the CHP, the Department of Human Resources may consider the total compensation for communications operators in comparable positions in the police departments of the cities of Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Jose, and the City and County of San Francisco.

SB 1025 replaces the title “communications operators” with “public safety dispatchers and public safety operators.”

“In 2001, our collective bargaining agreement with the state was modified to correctly describe our dispatcher members as ‘public safety dispatchers’ and ‘public safety operators’ as opposed to ‘communication operators,'” said CSLEA President Alan Barcelona.  “While the change was formalized in the state’s personnel system a few years later, it was never changed in the state’s statutory description and these critically important employees are deserving of that.”

SB 1025 now moves to the Assembly Transportation Committee.