Law Dispatcher

Once again, I have been made to face my shortcomings…better yet,…my short patience. It really came to light when I read two articles in The Journal Of Emergency Dispatch. Let me explain what happened. I received a 911 call today from a lady who was very angry over an incident that had just occurred and she was on a rant. I only tolerate so much of this before I will cut you off and try to obtain the information I need in order send help. There are a couple of reasons for my rudeness: 1. It’s a 911 line. Don’t tie it up unnecessarily. Say what needs to be said and hang up. 2. I don’t need to hear your whole story. I’ve been around the block enough times to pretty much figure out what has transpired before you even tell me…so keep it short and sweet. Anyways, this chick failed to verify her address for me. After several times of inquiring what it was and not getting an answer, I asked her when the incident occurred. “It just happened, just now.” And she continues on with her rant. I interrupt again to try to obtain the address and she gives me the house number and continues on ranting. I interrupt again with a curt response of 389 (the house number she gave) doesn’t tell me where you live. What’s the street name? Obviously, she detected my attitude and became more frustrated with a “Oh, just forget it!” and the call ended. Fortunately for her, I had an address and most of the story so I was able to send the proper authorities. She later called back and got another operator to whom she admitted she was frustrated and apologized for hanging up.

She was on a rant because she was acting to the situation she was in. I was short with her because she failed to answer my question. As a public servant, I’m expected to bury my short attitude and provide a quality service, which for the most part is what is rendered. Most 911 operators have special traits that allow them to not only want to serve the public but also have the ability to do so. 80-85% of people cannot perform in this job. For whatever reason, they are not wired to do it, and that’s okay. We recognized we are a special breed. 99% of the time, we do a fantastic job at it, but we all (911 operators/dispatchers) have our off moments. We usually recognize them instantly, and we feel horrible about it. It’s part of our nature. It is most unfortunate that about the only stories you hear on the media are negative stories about 911. For every negative story you hear, there are millions more that have a positive response.

Yes, we have our issues, but please afford us the benefit of the doubt that we can do our jobs properly and recognized that many others have been helped because we were there to serve them.

A 911 call came into the center today and the operator answered it. It was a bad cell phone connection to begin with. The operator struggled with great difficulty trying to obtain the location of the caller. After a while, the supervisor tuned into the call and was trying to help the calltaker get the location of the caller. After several minutes had passed, one street was located but the cross street was not. Eventually, with much going back and forth between the caller and the calltaker, the cross street was established and then the connection was lost. Total time spent on that call: about 15 min.

Caller calls back. A more seasoned calltaker get the caller and tries to establish the location and the forementioned hassel repeats. After obtaining the approximate location, she then tried to obtain the nature of the emergency. It was extremely hard to tell. The caller obviously had an accent but she was also screaming as loud as she could…when she had breath. It eventually wound up that the calltaker told the caller when to take a breath because the caller just couldn’t. It was bad. The calltaker coded the call as a respiratory distress call and tried to obtain further information with increasingly great difficulty. As others in the room tried to guess exactly what was the problem to include the possiblity that she may be submerged in water and trapped in her vehicle since her location was within close proximity of many bodies of water. Another possibility was that she was screaming from the pain of childbirth. A number of situations came up.

Meanwhile, rescue was dispatched to the approximate location (and they never do well with approximates. They always want to know exactly what the location of the patient is. For some reason, they just can’t use their eyes and look like cops can.) It took them a while to find the caller, all the while, the calltaker is on the phone trying to get information out of the lady. Finally, the rescue dispatcher stands up and says “They’re x97!” which means, they’re on scene.

The calltaker hung up from the caller.

Now for the rest of the story…..

Some stupid broad ran over a snake and she was hysterical about it.

Talk about a room full of dispatchers wanting to run out and arrest that stupid chick!

Thank goodness the crime of kidnapping is not an everyday occurrence in the American society.  I am of the belief that this is because America has such strict laws on the books with reference to the crime, that it has been a major deterrent.  It’s too bad some of our other laws aren’t so strict.  Nevertheless, kidnapping, although rare, still occurs.  If you happened to witness or be the victim of such a dastardly deed, please call 911 immediately and tell them what you know about the situation.  You may be asked the following questions:  Did you witness the kidnapping and if so, where?  Any weapons involved?  How many people were involved?  Can you give descriptions of them?  Are they still in the area?  Did anyone confront them?  What are they driving?  Are there any suspicious vehicles in the area?  Did you see or hear any suspicious vehicles leave the area?  Are you armed?

Any information you can provide will provide that much more help to law enforcement to work the case and hopefully come to a quick and happy ending.

It’s another one of those dreaded call types.  No operator enjoys taking drowning calls.  It’s a gut wrenching call type even without knowing the details.  The biggest question that passes through the operators mind…Are they still alive…can they make it?  If you live in an area that has a lot of swimming pools or water bodies, these types of calls come in more frequently.  Here’s how you can help.  Of course, know your location.    Even if it’s a body of water that has no address.  Know the nearest cross streets.  If you know the name of the body of water, that helps.  As an operator, I do not feel comfortable telling the caller to jump in and try to save the person, especially if it’s in a natural body of water such as a lake, river, stream, or etc.  If it’s a swimming pool, and the caller is a good swimmer, go for it.  Try your best to rescue that person if at all possible.  911 operators are willing to give you instructions on CPR if you’re willing to perform it.  By the way…most of the newer CPR instructions have done away with the mouth-to-mouth breathing part.  Studies have found that most people were not willing to give mouth-to-mouth, and it isn’t necessary provided that the person down has not been too long without oxygen.  The most important part of CPR is the chest compressions.  Right now, (and this is going to change in the near future) we are asking callers to perform 600 chest compressions per minute.  Yep, that means pump that chest hard and fast…as fast as you can go.  Keep doing it until EMS arrives on scene.  You will be exhausted by the time they get there, but you will have had the satisfaction of knowing that you did all you could do.

Please know that when you call 911 for a drowning, it is a law and EMS response.

Way too many drownings are little kids that fall into pools, buckets of water, or wander off into a ditch.  Just be aware of the situation when little ones are present.  Watch them  like a hawk every minute.  Nothing is as heart-wrenching as the drowning of a child both for the operator and the parent.   I recall as a young child myself sitting in a wading pool where a baby who was barely able to sit up was placed in front of me.  A wave produced by some other kids at the other end of the pool knocked the baby over, and she was laying on the pool bottom gurgling water.  I looked at the baby and then at the mother who was busily chatting away to a friend next to her and never once looked up to check on the baby.  After some time and trying to get the mother’s attention, I couldn’t help myself but quickly pulled that baby up, turn her over and slapped her on the back.  Of course, water spewed out, and she was fine, but my utter disgust for the mother still remains with me to this day.  I still recall my exact words to that mother:  “I think you better watch your baby.”  Of course, she was all concerned over her baby and what had just happened, but I don’t think she ever got the point that her daughter nearly drowned because she failed to pay attention to her.

Drownings are common unfortuantely.  Don’t hesitate to call 911 for such incidents.

Probably one of my most dreaded types of 911 calls are fire related calls.  The only reason I suppose this has become my most hated type of call is because of the complexity of how the call is handled.  Let me take you through a brief synopsis of what a 911 operator goes through when training for fire type calls.  Initially, the operator will start off with learning to take the basic information…name, location, telephone number, and type of call.  Based upon the type of call, the operator then knows that since he or she doesn’t have emergency fire dispatch training, they transfer the call to someone who does.  I can hear you asking “What is emergency fire dispatch training?”  Glad you asked.  To sum it up in one word - HEADACHE!  You see, 911 operation centers are now seeking accreditation from agencies on dispatch training so that they can relieve some of the burden of liability.  To obtain the accreditation, each dispatcher must undergo extensive training.  For me, it was a very very long weekend of training with many more hours to come to keep my certification.   When an agency becomes accredited, they have to follow certain guidelines that are established by the accrediting agency.  These agencies have taken a vast variety of situations and tried to pigeon hole that call into a certain category but asking every question in the book except if the caller is willing to give their credit card number for processing.  Let me demonstrate:  911 call comes in.  The caller states that there is a vehicle on fire at a certain location on the interstate.    He tells the operator that the vehicle has pulled off onto the shoulder of the roadway, and everyone is out of the car.  He has told the operator all of this information is a time span of about 15 seconds.  The caller did not stop and is now 2 miles down the road from where the vehicle that is on fire is located.    Here’s where the headache begins.  Because a vehicle can be on fire in just about any setting, and because the operator is bound by policy to ask certain questions in an exact and precise manner, the 911 operator must now ask if the caller is safe and out of danger.  EH????  He just told you that he is 2 to 3 miles down the road past the incident location, and he didn’t get there by being in danger.  So you see where the operators frustration comes into play, and that is just the beginning.  I’ll be upfront and honest with you.  I HATE fire and anything that has to do with it.  I certainly don’t wish it upon anyone but when you deal with fire in any aspect…it becomes a hassle.   The headache continues through an onslaught of what seems to the caller as absolutely stupid questions and instructions such as “keep everyone away from the vehicle and do not try to retrieve personal items from the vehicle.”…Well DUH!  By now the caller into the next county and couldn’t care less about the situation.  And this is my all-time favorite instruction “Assign someone to guide the emergency crews to the fire.”  I can hear the caller thinking “Sure!  No Problem!  I’ll just do that telepathically!”

That’s just one part of the nightmare.  Another part is that my particular agency has about 35-40 different codes for fire based upon the situation.  We have a code for a boat fire in the dock or shoreline, another for boat fire on land, and another for boat fire on the water.  Do you get where I’m going with this?  It’s absolutely crazy.  No operator in their sane mind can keep all these codes straight along with all the other codes for law and medical that they need to know.  You know…you can only put so much stuff into my brain, and then somewhere along the way, some of the other stuff is going to start leaking out because you’ve filled up all the space I have for storing such useless information.

Then there is that fear of fire that a 911 operator has to get the caller past.  It is almost unheard of to have a 911 fire call come in and the caller is not in some kind of a panic or a trance.  Usually it’s the panic phase.  They are high strung on anxiety of the situation and with all the questions that we are required to ask, it appears to the caller that we are just insensitive and trying to waste their time.  Please know this….When you call 911 for a fire, the call taker should get your location and telephone number and the reason for the call.  Once that information has been obtained, there is no reason why the firecrew can’t be dispatched.  Normal protocol states that we dispatch once the call has been coded and the pertinent information is obtained (such as the location and telephone number).  All of the other questions asked should be information gathered and voiced over the radio to the responding units as it becomes available.  If this protocol is followed, it allows to responders to be on their way  to the incident, thus enabling a quicker response time.  Many many times I have been in the middle of my questioning when the crews reach the scene and that is great!    Then there is the caller who is completely overwhelmed by the situation and has gone into a trance and won’t give out any extra information than what is required of them.  They find it physically impossible to relay what is going on and can only answer basic questions.  It is because of those people, that the line of questioning has become extensive and sometimes not relative.

Here’s what you need to know.  When it invovles fire, BE SPECIFIC.  If it involves the structure or vehicle or any other type of entrapment, give the 911 operator very basic information….Address, telephone number, what’s on fire, and hang up.  Get out of danger.  911 will always try calling you back.  Answer when you have reached safety.  It’s a whole lot better that responders arrive on scene to a situation that they have no information about, than to arrive on scene to an entrapped dead person because they were stuck on the line with the 911 operator.  Use your commonscense.  Do not reenter that house or vehicle or any other structure when there is a fire.  Once you’re out…stay out.  Safety of all is our number one priority.  Always call 911 for any fire emergencies.