Anchorage cab dispatchers should be required to be certified as a dispatcher

I have been directly involved with Anchorage's industry since June 2004 when Alaska Cab hired me as a telephone representative.  Then on Christmas Day, 2004 I was promoted to dispatcher now during those seven years til February 2011.  I put a human element to the folks at Alaska Yellow Cab dispatch.  In November 2004 Alaska Cab purchase of Anchorage Yellow Cab was finalized.  Due to my past jobs at a Bill Collector at three different collection agencies I knew the geography of Anchorage very well.  In order to serve someone in Anchorage municipality our Collections legal department required the collectors to get a complete physical address.  The dispatcher was much more they are the lifeline between cab driver and cab dispatcher.  They must also cooperate with law enforcement.  I was the only dispatcher due to my lifetime training in dealing with first heroes to completely cooperate with law enforcement due to father being a volunteer firefighter with North Bend and Kittitas County District 7 Volunteer Fire Departments.  This resulted in a few things in March 2010 a police detective called me asked me if Rafael Martinez was working he was in Alaska Yellow Cab 15.  I called Rafael told him I was going to re dispatch his trip he was in the Airport Heights area please head to dispatch I need to talk to him.  The detective came to Alaska Yellow Cab dispatch were I was working.  Then where Cab 15 showed up at dispatch he was arrested my boss had no idea I was the architect of this arrest.  Here is an example of an inexperience dispatcher when a cab driver named Dale Pokarney was killed by a drunk driver on January 30th, 2010 when he was driving on Fireweed Lane and Arctic Boulevard called me said a cab driver was killed.  I spoke to the APD officer gave Susie Taylor's personal cell phone number I had at the time.  I told the dispatcher that we are not to put anything to the fleet until we get the official communication from Alaska Yellow Cab dispatch office.  Very few dispatchers wrote on the incident log like they were supposed according to Title 11 regulation. I wrote it down that day in the log book.  Cab dispatchers are not required to have a criminal background check and they also not required to have a geography test neither are cab driver for that matter since Jackie Ransom made it an open book test in her classes also commented why the cab industry should be the way it is in her classes.  You current have dispatchers at Alaska Yellow Cab and possibly Anchorage Checker Cab who have criminal records dispatching.  This was not covered in the recent AO 2013-109 overhaul.  I would recommend that dispatch companies for all vehicle for hires be required to be certified by the Anchorage Fire and Police Department go through not just drug testing but also a criminal background check they must also be required to take geography test administered by the Municipal Transportation Inspection Department.  I support loosening Anchorage Title 11 we must keep safety for all vehicles for hire including taxicabs.  I have been following the Anchorage Transportation Commission since July 2011 when I made my first appearance.