No degree needed: The SPVM is hiring 911 dispatchers and it pays up to $73K a year

Work well under pressure? Want a job where no two shifts are ever the same? If you’d answer yes to both, the SPVM has an opening worth knowing about.

The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal is currently recruiting full-time emergency communications officers for its 911 Central dispatch centre, with a salary ranging from $55,627 to $73,578 per year. The six-week training program is fully paid, and a secondary school diploma is all that’s required to apply (no college or university degree needed).

What the job involves

Emergency communications officers are the first voice Montrealers hear when they call 911, around the clock, 365 days a year. The team of roughly 200 officers handles approximately 1.4 million calls annually, with about 430,000 of those routed directly to SPVM patrol units.

When a call comes in, the officer has to quickly assess the situation and direct it to the right resource — whether that’s the Montreal fire department, Urgences-Santé, the STM, the Sûreté du Québec, the Canadian Coast Guard, Hydro-Québec or a handful of other city and provincial services. For calls that fall under police jurisdiction, the officer gathers the relevant information and transmits it to field teams, with incidents classified by urgency level and dispatched to the appropriate patrol sector.

Who they’re looking for

The SPVM is looking for candidates who have strong analytical skills and a high tolerance for stress. The requirements are a secondary school diploma, advanced bilingualism in French and English, and at least two years of experience in a demanding environment such as a 911 call centre, airport, alarm centre or comparable setting.

Schedule and pay

The position requires availability across all shifts — days, evenings, nights, weekdays and weekends. A 10% premium applies to evening and weekend shifts. The salary scale runs from $55,627 to $73,578, depending on experience.

How to apply

Candidates who move forward in the process will go through a video interview, a spoken English test at the advanced level, a medical questionnaire and a security investigation, as SPVM security accreditation is required for the role.

The application deadline is June 30, 2026, with a September start date. You can apply directly through the SPVM’s website.

This story was inspired by the article “Le SPVM recrute des répartiteurs au 911 et ça paie jusqu’à 73 578 $/an avec un sec.5” which was originally published on Narcity.