Richard Behr
Richard is entering his 41st year in serving the public. He has worked in the
field as an EMT/Firefighter and spent time at the console as both a law enforcement dispatcher and as a fire/EMS dispatcher. Richard currently is part of the Quality Assurance Team as an EMD-Q for Confire, JPA (San Bernardino County Fire Communications, CA). He is a Peace Officer Standards and Training instructor in the State of California and teaches for Riverside County Sheriff’s Office Ben Clark Training Center and Riverside Community College and is a certified CTO.
Richard is the author of “Under the Headset, Surviving Dispatcher Stress”, a book about the subject of 9-1-1 dispatcher stress. He is the author of numerous articles on dispatcher stress and how to cope with the stressors of the dispatch profession. He has performed numerous debriefings for 9-1-1 professionals around the country, including the dispatchers who handled the Columbine school shooting; several agency dispatchers from NYPD and FDNY and the Washington, D.C. area that were working the morning of September 11th; debriefed dispatchers from New Orleans and several Gulf
Port communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; the Northern Illinois University shooting and several other incidents from around the nation.
He has been awarded numerous campaign ribbons, commendations and citations throughout his career, including the Medal of Valor and the Meritorious Serve Medal. Richard has been a presenter for numerous APCO, NENA and Navigator conferences over the past 15 years. One the most memorable highlights of his career was being chosen as a dispatcher for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
