Your Facilitator
Meet your First Contact 9-1-1 Instructor
DAVE LARTON, COML
Operations Section Chief Dave Larton has more than thirty-five years of emergency services experience, including thirteen as a Dispatcher / Trainer for the Gilroy, (CA) 9-1-1 Communications Center. He was named the 1999 recipient of the Ramona Raymond Pillar of Excellence Training Award by the Santa Clara County Public Safety Communications Managers Association, and was twice named the Department's Dispatcher of the Year.
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A nine-year veteran of the Department’s Hostage Negotiation Team, Dave has served as a Tactical Dispatcher, a certified Basic and Advanced Hostage Negotiator and Technical Specialist. He is a certified S-258 Communications Incident Technician (COM-T) as well as an Incident Communications Center Manager (INCM) and a Type 3 Communications Unit Leader (COML). He is also a certified Basic Law Enforcement Instructor with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE).
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As a Communications Specialist with California’s Urban Search & Rescue Task Force 3, Dave responded to the World Trade Center in September of 2001. Dave also served with the Olympic Public Safety Command at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is rated as a Weapons of Mass Destruction First Responder, and is a graduate of the Federal Department of Homeland Security’s 'COBRA' WMD School in Anniston, Alabama.
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Dave is a Founding Member of the National Incident Dispatchers Association, a member of the California Association of Hostage Negotiators, NENA, APCO, a former Vice President of the California Fire Chiefs Association (Communications Section, Northern Division), the California Tactical Dispatchers Association, the California Association of Police Training Officers, and the National Association of Field Training Officers. Dave is a former Commercial Vice President for NENA's California State Chapter, CALNENA.
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He is the Editor of 9-1-1 Magazine, and has been a contributing author for Homeland Protection Professional magazine.
Dave is the co-author of "Incident Dispatcher: A Guide for the Professional Tactical and Incident Dispatcher". He has been a technical consultant to the media, including script preparation for the ‘Ally McBeal’ television show and the History Channel.