On June 28, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 1025.  SB 1025,  sponsored and supported by the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA), updates CHP public safety dispatcher & CHP public safety operator job titles in state statute.

This is a language change only.   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.

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 CHP 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 public safety employees are deserving of that.”