The first thing to understand is that we’re talking about hundreds of calls over a few hours, so they dealt with many operators. One is much better than the rest - the one who finally breaks down and says, “i’m trying to help you, honey.”
But holy fuck, has anyone else listened to the second one, “Wamsley1.mp3”? The woman sounds positively fucking EVIL. I’d go as far as to say that she’s just short of verbally assaulting the guy. “Sir, you don’t have to walk very far to get somewhere! It’s not like you’re in the middle of nowhere!” (actually, they were, which is why they FUCKING FROZE TO DEATH), before the ultimately bitchy, should-be job-ending “I can’t help you if you won’t help yourself!” before she slams the phone down.
I think you’re being oversensitive. It sounds to me like she’s talking loudly, and emphasizing some words because she wants Hornickel to hear her. Hornickel and Wamsley are on a cell phone in the middle of nowhere. They’re not getting the best signal, and some of what they’re saying just isn’t getting through. It sounds to me like the dispatcher is trying to work around that. Her voice just sounds loud, really, not mean or rude or anything.
Also, the reason it probably sounds like she’s dealing with a toddler is because Hornickel was on drugs, and hysterical, and she was rambling and saying things that didn’t make any sense. The dispatcher had to become very direct in order to get the information she needed from Hornickel. It’s not every day that a cult of men disassembles cars and puts them into trees. The dispatcher was just trying to figure out what the hell was going on, and she needed certain pieces of information that weren’t exactly clear. You didn’t include what Hornickel said to elicit those responses from the dispatcher. Hornickel wasn’t making sense–“Well, they’re riding them in the trees and breaking them down and stuff.” Does that make sense to you? Do cults of people ride cars in trees and break them down and stuff?
And you don’t necessarily agree with me, because I don’t think it’s a common theme for dispatchers to be rude. I think it’s a common theme for dispatchers to be blunt and concise.
She could have worded it better. She knows that. The director of that county’s system knows that. She got frustrated because they weren’t making any sense. She’s human, not a robot. But I don’t hear how she’s “fucking EVIL.” From the intersection they gave her, it wouldn’t make any sense for them to be in the middle of nowhere (and not being intimately familiar with Omaha and the surrounding areas, I’m going to have to trust that the dispatchers were familiar with this area and that 75th and Poppleton is not out in the middle of nowhere). She knew that pieces of their story weren’t adding up, and she needed Wamsley to calm down and get information that made sense. They had already sent people out to the directions that Wamsley provided, with no luck. The dispatcher has to piece together the ramblings of someone who is hallucinating, and doesn’t know where he is, and can’t even identify landmarks or intersections with accuracy.
She could have phrased it better. But I just don’t hear the EVILness.
Eh, that’s cool. We can agree to disagree on it, but at least we’re hearing the same thing to get started with - it’s just our conclusions that are different.
I’m curious to see what anyone else thinks, esp. after listening to the mp3 clips of the woman (me biasing/framing ;)) verbally assaulting the guy as he freezes to death.
Yeah, I can live with that, despite the way my posts might sound. It was just that I spent 45 minutes slogging through the transcripts and audio files, and damn if I wasn’t going to post about it. The whole story did really bum me out, though. Those poor people. It’s too bad that this had to end that way
(Plus you said something nice about me in the photo thread [I think] and we’re from the same area, so I can’t be mad at you. )
(Yeah, the fact that you’re the cutest girl I’ve seen in about a year worked wonders in getting me to concede the argument to differences of opinion ;))
I had a big long post typed out and the hamsters ate it. Damn hamsters.
Anyway, the short version: I dealt with a similar call not too long ago. Fortunately, my caller managed to drunkenly stumble to a house and get the residents to call 911. Before that, though, I and a dispatcher from a neighboring county spent about 45 minutes alternately being soothing, stern, sympathetic, and demanding, whichever way would get us an answer. She had absolutely no idea where she was or even where she was going before she got lost, and the funny thing about cell phones is, she could have been anywhere in about five counties. But the deputy found her. And then took her someplace warm to sleep for the night.
I couldn’t listen to the tapes (although I’m sure they’ll show up in a training session at some point or other) but from the transcripts it looks like the dispatchers tried everything they could to figure out where these people were. I feel sorry for the dispatchers as well as the victims. Shit like that stays with you. It fucking hurts to listen to someone beg for help and you’re doing everything you can to get them help and it’s still not enough. We had an unresponsive 6 year old a couple of weeks ago…let’s just say I’ve decided that if there is a God he’s a sadistic motherfucking bastard who’s going to have a lot of explaining to do when I get hold of him.
I agree. I’ve heard a decent number of 911 tapes over the years, and these were nothing out of the ordinary or horrifying. Belive me, they’re under a lot of stress, and when some dumb-ass meth-head who got themselves into some stupid situation in the first place is now desperate to have you come save them, you’re under pressure, and having to wade through the bizarre hallucinations about people putting car parts in trees just isn’t going to make anyone sound nice. I think the 911 operators performed well, and there’s no real substance to these criticisms.
What a heartbreaking story.
To think this could have easily happened to me or one of my friends during one of our “vision-quests”.
Just reading the transcripts almost brings tears to my eyes.
What an absolute horrible way to go.
By the way I think most of the operators did a wonderful job, and I am very sorry that they have to live with this, but that second one needs to be sacked.
I don’t care if somebody is not making sense, being rude and combatative does nobody any good.
Uhh… it’s a statement of fact. They were directing the authorities to places they weren’t actually at. That is “misdirection.” Of course they didn’t want to freeze to death, but they were still misdirecting the authorities. Due to drugs. How in the name of God’s left nut did you get the idea I said they wanted to freeze to death?
This wasn’t nearly as bad as the one I heard before where this kid got beaten to death, and there were a bunch of calls to 911 by various people and nobody showed up to help him.
There are very good examples out there of 911 dispatchers being rude, combatative, and unhelpful. This is not one of them.
Look, it’s not like you’re calling customer service. Dispatchers are not there to be nice and sweet to you. Dispatchers are trained to empathize or antagonize in order to get the information that they need to help you. They are trained to be very assertive, repetitive, and demanding because people tend to respond to this and give them information.
I don’t think you can accuse these dispatchers of not trying anything to help. I did this job (for a few months) and I would have screamed obscenities at someone, or any other verbal abuse, if I had a reason to believe that this would give me the information to save their life.
Would you criticize an EMT for pushing someone aside in an emergency, rather than standing behind them and quietly asking “Excuse me? Can I pretty please get through to save this person’s life?”
The quality on the audio files made it pretty hard to hear, but it sounded to me like a reasonable person in a stressful situation trying to help someone who obviously wasn’t making sense. Some of the responses were very frustrated and testy, but I wouldn’t say “evil.”
I don’t think the dispatchers acted inappropriately here. They’re dispatchers, not therapists, after all.
Even the second one, though I agree the tone was harsh at times. But how was this dispatcher supposed to determine where these people, obviously stoned and hallucinating, were? For all the dispatcher knew, they could have been sitting in their fucking apartment at 75th and Poppleton. They had already sent officers to where they said they were and didn’t find anyone. I’m sure dispatchers have never before gotten prank calls or calls from people who are stoned and hallucinating and freaking out because of it. :rolleyes:
And yes, they did misdirect the authorities. Intentionally, no, but misdirection nonetheless. First they said they had gone south from 75th and Poppleton. Then they said they went north. Then no, south again. They took a left, er, uh, right, uh, I don’t know … they’re near a gravel pit. No wait, a pond. With pontoon boats! There’s a shack there, but no, wait, it’s a toll booth. They took his pickup and flipped it. Then a few minutes later they say they took her car and were looking for his truck, which someone had taken. (Perhaps the people who were riding cars in the trees?) And don’t forget the tents and the people who don’t speak English and won’t help them. I’d like to see how those who think the dispatchers’ behavior was inappropriate would handle this situation and sort out the information any better!
Maybe the real pitting here should be this: How in the fuck did two nice young people such as these get messed up in crystal meth? That’s what really killed them, because if they hadn’t been on it, they would have known better than to go out in a snowstorm. And even if they had gone out in the snowstorm, they would have had at least some inkling of where they were.
~applaudes~ I fully agree with you here. Why AREN’T we pitting people for using ice/meth/whatever? Drugs are a victimless crime, right? :dubious: [/soapbox]
This is a terrible tragedy, and something I fully intend to share with my teenage daughters as yet another example of why drugs aren’t worth the “high”. I cannot imagine what their parents must have gone through in those days while the police searched for their bodies…knowing that if they really were out in the cold - and obviously on drugs - that they would be looking for corpses, not survivors.
Reading the transcripts brought tears to my eyes, but not because the 911 operator was “mean”. The 911 operator isn’t paid to be nice, he or she is paid to help people in desperate situations. Each call is going to take a different tone. It’s unfortunate that the woman in question became frustrated but completely understandable to me.
6, my darling, yes…it was misdirection, even if it wasn’t intentional. No one would have found them given those directions…the directions didn’t make sense. I don’t think RickJay was saying that they were being less than helpful intentionally…
I concur with yellowval. What the fuck were they thinking doing Crystal Meth in the middle of a snowstorm? Any clue as to why they were out in the middle of nowhere in the first place?
They stopped their car and got out and walked away apparently. I saw this on SA and I have zero sympathy for these idiots. They gave wrong address information (the cell they were on located their general area but that’s a 2 mile radius in the middle of no where).
Ok. So here’s the picture I’m getting: they were out in the middle of nowhere. It’s freezing cold. They decide to stop and do Crystal Meth and then afterwards decide to get out of their car and walk away until their car is out of sight.
Jooky That “bitchy” tone of voice is experience talking. As some have pointed out, TCO’s (telecommunications operators) aren’t paid to be nice, sweet, or kind. They have an important job to do, under mentally stressful conditions. This is just an example of that.
Sometimes, the only way to talk to people in situations like that IS forcefully, that’s the only way you can get the information to get the help to where it needs to go.
Remember, you’re trying to control an uncontrollable situation from what could be miles away, using your wits, protocol and a telephone. These TCO’s did everything they could, but Darwin won the day.
)