Walker County, Texas

One of the important abilities needed by a public safety communications employee is the ability to make decisions based upon structured rules. To test your ability to make decisions during a computerized test, you will be asked to quickly and accurately indicate which type of agency (i.e. Police, Fire, Emergency Medical Service, or Public Utility Company) should be dispatched to the scene of an incident according to the rules listed below.

 

You should read and learn these rules before taking the test. Experience has shown that the better an applicant knows these rules, the better they will do during the decision making portions of the test.

 

It should be noted that these rules were developed specifically for the CritiCall test and do not reflect the official policy of this or any other public safety agency. You should not rely upon your prior knowledge about either this agency or any other agency when making your decisions.

 

Use ONLY the below decision rules to make your decisions during the test.

Based upon the attached rules, if you were given the scenario of:

 

"Man throwing rocks in an attempt to hurt children walking nearby," you should select POLICE as the correct response since the man was attempting to physically harm another person.

 

"Electrical power lines knocked down during a severe hail storm," you should select UTILITY as the correct response because there is a problem with broken or malfunctioning electrical power lines.

 

"Child cuts hand on sharp knife," you should select EMS as the correct response because this is an emergency medical condition requiring intervention by medically trained personnel.

 

"Smoke seen coming out of day-care school's windows." you should select FIRE as the correct response because there are immediate signs of a fire in progress, such as flames or smoke.

 

 

Police Department should be dispatched when someone is attempting or threatening to physically harm another person. Or, has actually physically harmed another person, or when a person causes or is in the process of causing harm to another person's property.

 

Fire Department should be dispatched when there are the immediate signs of a fire in progress (such as flames or smoke), when a fire alarm is sounded, or when a person who is trapped or confined, needs to be rescued or released.

 

Emergency Medical Service should be dispatched when there is an emergency medical condition requiring intervention by medically trained personnel.

 

Public utility should be dispatched when there is a problem associated with malfunctioning or broken public water systems, electrical power systems (including, but not limited to, electrical power lines, streetlights, and traffic signals), natural gas systems used for home heating, or blocked sewer drainpipes.

Attached below is the complete Pre-Employment Test Preparation Guide for all applicants.