How to become a 911 dispatcher in Kentucky

Pay at the Louisville Metro Emergency Services (MetroSafe 911)

Each city and county sets its own pay. This is the official scale of the Louisville Metro Emergency Services (MetroSafe 911), the largest city's agency.

Louisville Metro class specs (single hourly rates shown): Public Safety Telecommunicator I U27 $30.06/hr (x 2080 = $62,524.80); Public Safety Telecommunicator II $33.45/hr (x 2080 = $69,576). New hires without certification start as 911 Telecommunicator Trainee at $22.31/hr (x 2080 = $46,404.80) while completing the state academy. No range maximum or effective date shown.

Source:[governmentjobs.com]

Pay for this work across Kentucky

Federal survey figures for public safety telecommunicators in Kentucky, counting every employer in the state, public and private, so they differ from any one agency's pay scale above.

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, state estimates (all employers)[bls.gov]

Requirements

• Minimum age: 18
• Education: High school graduate or High School Equivalency Diploma
• Citizenship: U.S. citizen
• KRS 15.540: hiring agency certifies to the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council within 120 days of hire that the applicant is a U.S. citizen who has reached the age of majority, has a high school diploma or equivalency, has no felony or crime of moral turpitude (state and FBI fingerprint check), and has taken a council-approved psychological suitability screening, polygraph examination and drug screening
• Full-time telecommunicators must complete the full-time public safety telecommunicator academy within 12 months of hire (part-time: telecommunicator overview training); extension up to 180 days for extenuating circumstances; failure means termination and a one-year bar (KRS 15.560)
• Basic course: at least 40 hours, including T-CPR for anyone who receives or dispatches EMS calls and PTSD recognition (KRS 15.550)
• Annual in-service: 8 hours each calendar year with a mental health / PTSD component (KRS 15.560(2))
• CJIS online training program (or CJIS security and privacy training) before delivering CJIS data (KRS 15.540(3)-(5))

Source:[apps.legislature.ky.gov]

Hiring process

1. Online application
2. Job shadow before conditional offer
3. Pre-employment suitability assessment
4. Polygraph test
5. Fingerprinting and criminal history check
6. Drug screening and audiogram
7. Kentucky telecommunicator academy and certification (trainee class)

Source:[governmentjobs.com]

Required training

164 hours minimum, 4 weeks. DOCJT Public Safety Dispatch Academy: four-week course of 164 hours of classroom and practical instruction in Richmond; trainees live in the DOCJT dorms; must be hired by a Kentucky dispatch agency to attend. Statutory floor for the basic course is 40 hours (KRS 15.550); completion required within 12 months of hire (KRS 15.560).[docjt.ky.gov]

Pension and retirement

• Plan: County Employees Retirement System (CERS), Tier 3 hybrid cash balance (Kentucky Public Pensions Authority)
• Benefit formula: Cash balance: nonhazardous member contributes 5% (+1% non-refundable health insurance contribution); 4% Employer Pay Credit; 4% base interest plus upside sharing interest (75% of the 5-year geometric average net investment return above 4%, not guaranteed); account annuitized at retirement
• When you can retire: Nonhazardous: age 65 with at least 60 months of service credit, or age 57+ when age plus years of service equal 87

FY 2026 interest credited for CERS Nonhazardous: 4.00% base + 2.80% upside sharing = 6.80%.

Source:[kyret.ky.gov]