Ask the 911 dispatcher

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

SkipMagic wrote:

Until we get geographic location on cellphones, they route to your HOME area. (Many of you know that the FCC has mandated that location-finding be put in cellphones but it hasn’t happened yet.)

The most-amusing cases are pilots traveling across the country. They might be in Cleveland, but when they call Flight Service for weather, they find that they are talking to their home area in Seattle, for example. Flight Service can usually help them but without the detailed local knowledge that you like to see from weather briefers.

So, if you’re on vacation in Florida and call 911 – expect to get your home 911 service.

Best regards,

Mooney252

22

oh shit. Jehovah Jiwhad is back. Why didn’t you tell us?

Are you rude ever? I’ve had to call 911 more than I would like, and a few times I’ve been met with a rude operator. If you aren’t, are people you work with ever? I usually will call 911 if there’s any doubt that they haven’t been called. I feel it’s better off to have a dozen people calling 911 assuming nobody else called, than nobody calling 911 assuming everybody else called. It’s usually these cases where I’m met with a dispatcher that replies with a snooty tone “yesssss, we know about that already” (I can almost hear the sheesh) I have actually been the first one to call a couple times where I would have figured someone MUST have called by now, so I’m not gonna stop callin.

23

**Mooney252 ** that may be the case in your area, but I can say with certainty that it is not the case in Virginia at least.

I was a 911 Dispatcher for 4 years and I have been the Director of my center for 1 year, my job is to implement cellular 911. I have never had (or heard of) a case where the call got routed to the HOME area. Cell calls are routed based on what tower they are getting their signal from, not the customers home location. That explains why sometimes you can be in one jurisdiction and get the 911 center for another jurisdiction. Cell signals don’t follow county boundaries. Phase II wireless, which I am currently implementing, routes the call based on the callers actual location. This is generally acurate to within 20 meters. Cell companies can choose how to get the location, either by traingulating your position based on signal strength (less acurate) or by using small GPS chips in your phone (more accurate). At least in Virginia this is pretty standard now, there is a big push by the state to have all 911 centers Phase II complaint.

24

What’s the burnout rate for 911 operators?

Is counseling offered after the more upsetting calls?

Has there ever been a time when help did not arrive in time?

Oh, and someone told me once that when you move, you should always call the 911 operator to make sure that your address comes up on their screen. Is this true?

Do you ever get the “rest of the story” from the cops?

Is it true if someone calls 911 and the operator hears nothing, they are required to send out a police officer to check on the situation?

25

I don’t know if that’s true everywhere, but I can tell you from experience that’s whay happens in our particular neck of the woods.

My wife frequently makes calls to the UK (which involves entering a long string of numbers, the first of which are ‘011’). One day she appempted to make one of these calls while not wearing her reading glasses, heard a ring after entering a few digits, hung up and tried again.

In less than three minutes there was a police car in our driveway and a friendly police officer ringing our doorbell. He asked my wife if anyone had attempted to dial 911, at which my wife recalled that earlier incident and explained what must have happened.

The friendly policemen thanked her - and then asked politely if he could enter our house and look around. We said sure, he performed a quick but thorough search, then thanked us again and left.

I was later told that the looking-around part was to ensure that we didn’t have a bad guy in the house holding one of the kids hostage until we’d gotten rid of the policeman.

Seems like a good strategy to me.

26

I certainly try not to be. Sometimes I’m rushed, and I find myself having to repeatedly interrupt a caller to get him to stick to the point and quit rambling, but I try to be as polite as possible. Most of my co-workers are the same way, but there have been times when someone’s mouth gets away from them. And you’re right, we’d rather have a dozen calls reporting the same thing than not receive any.

Well, according to this, 50% of new operators in Oakland, CA drop out before ever going on active duty; I don’t think it’s anywhere near that bad at my agency. Although we deal with some gang violence and spousal abuse and a murder here and there, along with all the usual medical emergencies, these calls are outnumbered by livestock-on-the-road calls. According to this, the turnover rate is 2 years. Our most senior operator has been there 18 years. I believe they’re basing their numbers on large cities with high call volume.

They tell me crisis counseling is available, but I’ve never seen anyone use it. We’re a pretty close group; if we get upset we talk with each other, or to our director.

There’s been lots of times help didn’t arrive in time. It’s not like Rescue 911, where they spend a week filming at a 911 center to get enough “good” calls to edit into a 1 hour show. All we can do is our best.

Please don’t call 911 to check your phone! If you have any doubts, contact whatever agency handles assigning addresses for your area; in some places it’s the post office, in our area it’s actually the 911 addressing office. We do occasionally get people doing this, and it’s kind of irritating, although we mind less if they call the non-emergency number first and check with us to see if it’s a good time.

We quite often get to hear the rest of the story from the cops; some of them like to come and hang our in the dispatch room.

Generally, yes, on a 911 hang-up, a cop gets sent out, unless we call it back and get an answer we’re satisfied with. Funny story, though; a few months ago my 5 year old was playing with the phone and dialed 911. My best friend, who also works there, answered it. After instructing mini-Marli to give me the phone, and making sure we were okay, she laughed with me and I thought the matter was finished. Until a sergeant came knocking on my door a few minutes later.

27

I trained last summer to do Dispatching at a local paid EMS company. They run a Paramedic and an EMT on their ambulances. Unlike public 911 Dispatching, we are also responsible for System Status updates- we have to balance crews around 2 counties incessantly, as crews take calls.

I could not do it. I’ve been in EMS since 1996, and an EMT since 2001 and I simply could not juggle the data stream. When they were really getting their butt’s kicked, the two dispatchers ( at matched consoles ) would handle multiple calls, 911 County calls from our county of residence that come in on the CAD System ( computer info ) AND the overhead speaker that gave us audio dispatch from the county next door. All at once.

I just couldn’t juggle it all and catch on fast enough. I’d done work as an EMT for these guys, and they tried very hard to get me up to speed. I admire the work you do, that all Dispatchers do. It’s high pressure and merciless.

At this company, they used both EMT’s and Paramedics with field experience AND “civillians” who had never been on an ambulance. As a part of orientation however, new trainees did ride a few shifts with a crew so they would truly understand what happend in an ambulance when the crews deal with Dispatch.

Folks, it is a precision, high-speed, critically important job. Yes, there is serious stress and some calls really rock the Dispatch Center. Typically child related calls, most others slide off our backs because we can’t linger on them, there are three more calls hitting that take our heads out of that one awful call. Huge Mass Casualty Incidents tend to get to people of course.

In the town where I live, I am friendly with an EMT who was the first on scene to a bus accident. A school bus accident. She was in her bathrobe, and heard the call hit and ran. She had her jump bag and O2, and radio. ( A sight, that specific situation aside, I’d pay money to see… :slight_smile: ). Her first transmission was apparently, " This is Jane Doe, I am at 1200 Oak Drive, there is a school bus on it’s side with the roof peeled off the length of the vehicle. You need to send everybody. Just…send everybody you can ". It happened more than 12 years ago, they still talk about it.

Because you are not ON scene, and detached- there is a weird schism. You as the Dispatcher are in the hot seat, you coordinate personnel and feed the resources to help out a bad situation. You are powerless because you aren’t THERE, but you do the vital job of getting everyone else there.

As Badge said, from the other end of the radio ( and, having dispatched for roughly 6 weeks ), I salute your efforts.

Cartooniverse

28

I have a question. At my job there are frequently tresspassers and rather than confront them I’ve been told to call the police. The first time I had to I discovered that I had no idea what the non-emergency numbers were so I just called 911, apologizing profusely for taking up the emergency line with something non-life threatening. The woman answering told me that since she answers the non-emergency lines too, it doesn’t matter, and that I should just call 911 whenever there are creepy guys passing around a bottle out on the lawn, or someone sleeping in the bushes (both very common occurrances).

My question is: is there a real difference between 911 and non-emergency? Am I tying up the line with my non-emergency problems? Or is trespassing a 911 worthy situation?

Thank you, and thanks for starting this thread; it’s very interesting.

ZJ

29

Cartooniverse - thanks. It’s definitely stressful, and it’s challenging, but it’s also very rewarding. Was anyone hurt badly in the school bus accident?

Zjestika: Depends on where you live. Some areas have a joint communications center, like the one I work in, where the same dispatchers are answering both 911 and non-emergency calls. Other areas have a dedicated 911 center, where 911 is the only thing they deal with. If the operator told you it wasn’t a problem, then it wasn’t. If it was she’d have given you another number to call. Trespassing probably wouldn’t be considered an emergency, but if you just can’t find the non-emergency number and there’s a crime in progress, by all means dial 911. YMMV, but I’m usually more interested in gathering the information and dispatching the call than fussing about which line the call came in on.

On the other hand, please don’t call 911 because your power went out and all your clocks have stopped and you need to know what time it is. And don’t call 911 because your friends ditched you at a party and you need a ride home. Or you locked your keys in your car. Or your dog ran out the door when you tried to leave for work. Or your toilet backed up. Or you need the phone number to the county jail in West Plains, Indiana (that’s what 411 is for). I mean, we’d rather people err on the side of caution when it comes to calling 911, but calls like that are just ridiculous.

30

After recently calling the cops on my upstairs neighbor(s?) and watching plenty of episodes of Cops, I gotta ask:

Are domestic violence calls the most common police-related calls you receive? If not, what is?

31

More thanks from the other side of the radio. :slight_smile:

St. Urho
Paramedic

32

Do you have any tips for people calling 911, as to what information you’d like? Not that I’m sure I would remember them in an emergency, but you never know.

33

I don’t know if they’re the most common, but we certainly get a lot of them. They’re right up there with stealing and property damage. If I have time at work tonight I’ll look up the numbers.

Well, we need a phone number and address. Even though that information pops up as soon as we answer the phone, it was entered into the computer by people, and people sometimes make mistakes, so we need to verify. And we need a clear picture of what’s going on. Other than that, just try to stay as calm as possible and follow directions; it may seem like we’re keeping you on the phone forever and a day, but units have already been dispatched, and the more information we can give them, the more efficiently they’ll be able to work.

Incidentally, a CPR and first-aid course is a good thing to have no matter who you are. In one of the articles I linked to earlier, it mentions that not all agencies authorize their dispatchers to give pre-arrival instructions for medical emergencies, meaning they can’t talk you through CPR or the Heimlich maneuver or even basic wound care due to worries about being sued (stupid worries, in my opinion). Help is coming as fast as possible, but in some backwoods areas it may take 15-20 minutes. Sometimes ambulances get into wrecks while enroute, as well, due to people who’ve apparently just arrived from Planet Dumbass and don’t know you’re supposed to get out of the way of the big white truck with the pretty flashing lights and loud “WOO-WOO” mating call.

Sorry. Got a little bitter there. Anyway, my point is just stay calm and let the dispatcher help you. And if you by some stroke of bad luck get a rude or nasty or extremely unhelpful dispatcher, by all means complain. That’s someone who needs to be moved to data entry.

Por nada. If I can help you guys or the cops save a life or solve a crime, it’s made my day awesome.

34

A few years ago, I came home at about 2 a.m. My husband was nowhere to be found. He’s got serious health issues, and had no car, so I was worried.

I picked up the phone and hit redial. It dialed 911 and Iasked the dispatcher if they’d sent an ambulance. They had.

Was that a reasonable use of the 911 system? I’ve felt rather guilty about it ever since.

Julie

35

From where I sit, it was an absolutely acceptable use of the 911 system. You were understandably worried and did a logical thing. And, it connected you to people with knowledge of his status. I can’t imagine how that would be seen as an abuse of the system. No worries.

Marlitharn, you will know what I mean when I say that there were not enough helicopters available to do what needed to be done. :frowning: At an M.C.I., there rarely are.

36

Okay, stealing came in first, with domestics running a distant 2nd and property damage way down the list. Accidents way outdistance all three, but those numbers include calls dispatched to fire and ambulance as well as the ones we give to the officers.

jsgoddess, that’s a perfectly legitimate use of 911. In fact, I’m impressed; I don’t think it would ever occur to me to hit redial to see who my missing spouse was last talking to.

Cartooniverse: Yeah. I hate accidents.

37

I worked for the ambulance service for two years, and I’d like to say that it takes a special kind of person to be a dispatcher. I tried for a month and it wasn’t for me; the radio, the phones, the continuous pressure - it’s really a very difficult, stressful position.

My talents lie in other areas, but I respect anyone who can handle it. Good on you Marlitharn.

38

In college, I worked for 9 months in a job that was sort of a catch-all position. We managed the student union building, did a couple different security patrols through academic and dorm buildings from time to time, and were evening and weekend dispatchers at campus police. It was an interesting job, and I saw the inside of how a police station worked. One story that I always liked:

A co-worker was on the counter one night, when a student came in to complain about a parking ticket. “Everyone knows that parking behind the IM building was OK without a permit on weekends”, he said. No - it wasn’t OK. The kid kept arguing about it, and getting hotter and hotter. He finally started to climb over the counter.

Meanwhile, in an office just behind the dispatcher’s station, out of view of the front counter, there sat Sgt. D. The sgt. was a good ole boy from Texas, and he was about 55-60 years old then. He once told me he was 16 before he knew that “damn yankee” was 2 words. He could be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when he needed to be, but I’m guessing that he was also the best grandpa that a boy ever had. Sgt. D. walked out of the office and into view of the front desk, and growled, “Can I help you?”. A hungry bear with a trap clamped onto its foot couldn’t have sounded more menacing. The student took one look, got down off the desk, and walked out the door, never to be seen again.
And on the topic of cell phones: we have one sitting around the house somewhere that is no longer in service. Missus Coder got a new one, and we put this one on the shelf in the closet. A year or so later, Ralf. Jr was playing with it one day, and all of a sudden he got a voice on the other end. He had accidently dialed 911 with it, and it rang thru. I talked to the dispatcher, and assured her that it was an accident, and there was no emergency there. We never did get a personal visit to confirm that, though.

The moral of the story is, you may be able to call for help even on a phone that is no longer in service.

39

In the U.K. all phones can dial 999, regardless of lack of payment.

40

Hi Marlitharn,

Thanks for doing this; I suspect that this thread will be very interesting, thanks to your kind sharing. I have a few questions:

  1. Are there general rules or tips you would give to people in reporting a real emergency. Any order in which information should be communicated? I realise not all jurisdictions have the same process.

  2. This is a hypothetical scenario I was playing around in my head while trying to get our 18 month old to sleep. It can be a lengthy process with him, so I had lots of time to kill that night… Here goes:

Scenario: call to 911 with hangup. When 911 (you, in this case) calls back, the person answers the following: * Oh, 911, sorry, No, nothing wrong going on, I was just trying to call my aunt in Stockholm. She has a strange medical syndrome… No need to send any police or anything…*

Your caller is speaking rather fast, and sound a little out of breath, but otherwise pretty normal…

What do you do? Say ok, and think no more of it, or send someone to check it out, or do you do something else. I realise this will vary from operator to operator…

My scenario was a caller trying to communicate that they were in a home invasion hostage situation with the bad guys listening on the call. Hoping that they wouldn’t catch onto the Stokhom syndrome(*) reference but that you would…

Thanks for playing along…

Do you have any ohter suggestions on how to tip off 911 operators surreptitiously that one is not at liberty to speak without tipping off the bad guys?

*: Stockhom Syndrome: situation when hostages become positively emotionally attached to hostage takers after a prolonged stand-off, after a bank robbery went wrong in Stokholm Sweded, many years ago.