Test and adjust communication and alarm systems, and report malfunctions to maintenance units.

“Test and adjust communication and alarm systems, and report malfunctions to maintenance units.” is a supplemental task performed by Public Safety Telecommunicators. Among the occupation's 18 rated tasks, workers place it 1st by importance (#18 most important). About 72% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Monitor equipment operation. in Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings
• Adjust equipment to ensure adequate performance. in Handling and Moving Objects
• Notify others of emergencies or problems. in Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E1. Direct exposure — a language model could plausibly cut the time to do this task by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 1.00. Automation potential label: T1.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Provide emergency medical instructions to callers. · importance 4.9
• Question callers to determine their locations and the nature of their problems to determine type of response needed. · importance 4.9
• Determine response requirements and relative priorities of situations, and dispatch units in accordance with established procedures. · importance 4.8
• Receive incoming telephone or alarm system calls regarding emergency and non-emergency police and fire service, emergency ambulance service, information, and after-hours calls for departments within a city. · importance 4.8
• Relay information and messages to and from emergency sites, to law enforcement agencies, and to all other individuals or groups requiring notification. · importance 4.7
• Record details of calls, dispatches, and messages. · importance 4.7
• Monitor various radio frequencies, such as those used by public works departments, school security, and civil defense, to stay apprised of developing situations. · importance 4.7
• Read and effectively interpret small-scale maps and information from a computer screen to determine locations and provide directions. · importance 4.6
• Maintain access to, and security of, highly sensitive materials. · importance 4.6
• Operate and maintain mobile dispatch vehicles and equipment. · importance 4.6
• Enter, update, and retrieve information from teletype networks and computerized data systems regarding such things as wanted persons, stolen property, vehicle registration, and stolen vehicles. · importance 4.6
• Scan status charts and computer screens, and contact emergency response field units to determine emergency units available for dispatch. · importance 4.5
• Answer routine inquiries, and refer calls not requiring dispatches to appropriate departments and agencies. · importance 4.5
• Learn material and pass required tests for certification. · importance 4.4

See all tasks on the Public Safety Telecommunicators page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-2721,
  title  = {Test and adjust communication and alarm systems, and report malfunctions to maintenance units.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-2721}
}