Public Safety Telecommunicators

Low Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (3)

Lower estimated automation risk

Emergency Management Directors
9% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better
27.9 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Incident coordination, emergency protocols, public safety systems, after-action review, and interagency communication overlap.

Training and Development Specialists
19% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
18.3 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Protocol training, call review, scenario practice, coaching, and certification support are reusable.

Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
15% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better More jobs
22.5 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Law enforcement procedures, public safety incidents, radio discipline, and crisis judgment overlap with academy training.

Compare this job with others
or search for another job
Share your results with friends and family.

Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
5.3/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

37% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
Jobs that also use this strength

Communicating with people outside the organization

Very important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
Jobs that also use this strength

Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
Jobs that also use this strength

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength
Show 5 more strengths

Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
Jobs that also use this strength

Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
Jobs that also use this strength

Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
Jobs that also use this strength

Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
Jobs that also use this strength

Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 311 votes

35% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 37% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Public Safety Telecommunicators will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

View sentiment trend

Pay & outlook

Wages

Low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Public Safety Telecommunicators was $50,730 ($24 per hour).

The median annual wage for Public Safety Telecommunicators was 2.5% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Public Safety Telecommunicators' job openings is expected to rise 3.5% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 101,140 people employed as 'Public Safety Telecommunicators' within the United States.

This represents around 0.07% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 1 thousand people are employed as 'Public Safety Telecommunicators'.

People also viewed

Lawyers Computer Programmers Web Developers Accountants and Auditors Actors

What people are saying (22)

Leave a comment
Dan/911 Dispatcher (Highly likely)
10 Jun 2023 07:49
Protocol based yes/no programs are becoming the norm in this industry. An AI program that can have a conversation with a 911 caller and interpret the results will replace 911 calltakers. Field units can input requests into an AI interface in their vehicle resulting in very little need for radio operators.
Maria (Low)
20 Apr 2023 14:32
As a police Dispatcher, no matter how intelligent AI may become, in my opinion, there will always be a need for the human factor to communicate with people in distress.
Alex (Low)
01 Aug 2021 17:24
Robots might not be able to filter out prank calls and if there are too many calls the system might break down.
Noname
01 Mar 2021 05:11
Some people die being police so robots will take over the job for safety reasons
주연재
06 Nov 2020 08:43
My future job is a police officer and I don't think this job can be handled by artificial earthworks in the future. The reason is that errors occur in the process of reasoning, or that they are not accurate and specific, and that the actual criminal cannot be caught.
Hyewon
02 Sep 2020 03:37
Because it is only human beings who can help and soothe someone who is in danger without having feelings.
feeeek (Low)
11 Aug 2020 11:30
Maybe in 2050 they'd have robot dispatchers but no robot is climbing a tree or going into a active bank robbery with hostages.
no, no name for me (No chance)
15 May 2020 01:57
i don't personally believe so, because i don't think that a robot would be able to adapt to a situation as possibly complicated as that. "911, press 1 for kidnapping, press 2 for..." sure it would be better than that but you get the idea. I also believe that if someone is in crisis who can relate more and help calm someone down? The human can that's who.
Keji Alex (No chance)
19 Feb 2020 20:18
Robots can't do what humans do.
Warwick
04 Feb 2020 06:44
I don't think the people who work as dispatchers are going to be easily replaced. They perform a complex job, integrating a heap of different inputs, often working with incomplete information (for example a phone call that's initially just silent, or someone who can't talk freely due to injury or duress). They have to highly developed interpersonal skills both in working with the public and working with the front-line staff (e.g. the police on the beat). I can't see something like Siri replacing them.
Olivia (Moderate)
17 Dec 2019 17:23
Because robots can't die in which cases humans can
Shaneika (No chance)
11 Nov 2019 17:26
Because then what is the point of being around or some people won’t like robots and they could be scared of them because they have no feelings and they are just programmed
hannie (Low)
25 Oct 2019 09:04
because robots don't see everything and robots don't compare to humans. also robots can get broken and cant do things humans can.
Bob (Low)
16 Aug 2019 20:51
I can't see the average citizen being perfectly fine being subvert to robot overlords.
Hope Pringle (Uncertain)
14 Aug 2019 23:31
It could go either way we might have robots that take this job which I don't want because robots have no emotion for the community like the men in blue do who everyday care for us. And I want to serve the community I care about every day and protect them when the robots can't and can't feel emotion for the people who are victims every day.
Somebody (Highly likely)
09 Jul 2019 19:10
With AI and machine learning, the need for cops will be minimal as a lot of what could happen can be predicted and prevented. Look at minority report.
Spencer
04 Apr 2025 01:06
Cops never be replaced EMTs firenfighters won't u got things help but it won't never take cops away there union and that never happen there nothing can prevent pepe form. Doing crime
connor cathcart (No chance)
04 Jul 2019 03:05
robots cant do what people do
not gonna say (No chance)
28 Apr 2019 22:10
They are not likely to take jobs from police, they can't run or tackle
Khan
06 Apr 2020 15:03
This is about call dispatchers for police, NOT cops.
Spencerww
04 Apr 2025 01:04
No they can't need radios or card system did that for EMS lot times cash breaks. And they got automation were they type it dispatches wajt ur talking about is automation still goes to person but it seems us it emgenrcgy or not if isn't it sends it to person at table desk or 911 so people can dispatch it it helps break the calls
Khan
07 Apr 2020 18:01
call dispatchers are not police officers they hear the calls and send them to the police. They are already automated in Chicago.
Leave a reply about this occupation
0/8000

Job description

Operate telephone, radio, or other communication systems to receive and communicate requests for emergency assistance at 9-1-1 public safety answering points and emergency operations centers. Take information from the public and other sources regarding crimes, threats, disturbances, acts of terrorism, fires, medical emergencies, and other public safety matters. May coordinate and provide information to law enforcement and emergency response personnel. May access sensitive databases and other information sources as needed. May provide additional instructions to callers based on knowledge of and certification in law enforcement, fire, or emergency medical procedures.

O*NET-SOC code: 43-5031.00