Would You Have Called 911?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Yes, I’d have called. I might have said something like “I think he’s having a stroke or a seizure, you’d better get to him fast, he could die.” Do speak with the supervisor about this. Maybe they were skeptical because you were reporting an incident at a gas station, from your home? Did you use your cell phone to call 911, or your home phone?

Eats_Crayons Good lord! :eek: Was it an escaped convict, or just a deranged person? That blows my mind. I’d have gone into the station asking to speak with the shift manager, and given that person the info I’d just given the dispatcher, informing them of the dispatcher’s error. That, and the accounts of the officers who were annoyed until they found blood and a body, not to mention the accounts of people getting shot in a panic, make me wonder about the hiring practices of police precints nationwide.

22

There’s an NYC campaign with the slogan “If you see something, say something.” I cannot believe 911 operators get snarly over a legitimate call. The police’s job is to check out these things.

I once had to call 911 when a guy broke into the Big Boss’s car and was sitting in the front seat with a threatening pit bull. While the 911 operator had difficulty understanding the situation and had to repeat it back to me (“You’re saying that a total stranger and his dog are in the front seat of the car?” “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”) the police came, got the crackhead out of the car and called animal rescue for the dog.

23

Thanks everyone. I called the store right after I posted here, and the store owner went outside and the man was still there in the same place, same condition, and no police or paramedics had responded. She approached him and spoke to him and offered help and his eyes moved kind of in her direction (but not looking right at her) but he didn’t move or speak. She called 911 herself and asked for paramedics.

The medics came and got the man onto a gurney and found that his heartbeat was erratic and blood pressure was so low that it was barely readable. He was definitely having some kind of cardiovascular event. One of the medics recognized him, so he has probably had emergency health problems in the past. The medic also noted that the man lived rather far away from the store and that leads us to believe that he may have had a stroke or something in the past and had indeed wandered away from home, maybe in an effort to get help, we don’t know.

It was nearly 45 minutes from my call to the point when the paramedics finally arrived on scene. The man could certainly have died in that interval, as it was he may well have suffered (additional?) brain damage or heart damage because of the delay in getting treatment. The paramedics did peel out with lights and sirens when they took him, so they certainly considered the situation emergent. I’m drafting a letter to send to the department of public safety, just to put the incident on record.

Thanks for all of your opinions. Keep a good thought for the older man, if you would, I think he could use some.

24

You did the right thing by calling the cops. I also think a good thing to do (although not something I think you’re obligated to do in any sense of the word) is to follow up on any letter you write and also to get in touch with the man’s family to see if they’re considering legal action (especially if nothing comes of your letter). IMHO (IANAL, etc) that operator was negligent…

25

I don’t know how widespread this is, but here in Baltimore the non-emergency number for the police is 311.

26

Oh, and don’t bother calling 911 any more…here’s the real number:912

[sub]Mums the word.[/sub]

27

The only one I know of in Albuquerque is 242-COPS. I’ve had to call the non-emergency number several times because of work.

28

You did the right thing. If I were having some sort of medical occurance, I’d certainly want someone to take the time to pick up the phone.

Thank you for behaving like a decent human being.

29

I hope that man’s going to be okay. Or at least, not any less okay. :frowning:

I’d like to take a moment to suggest that everyone reading this thread take the time to find out the non-emergency police phone numbers for the city they live in, the city they work/go to school in, and any other cities they spend significant amounts of time in. Put the numbers in your cel phone, write them in your organizer, jot them on a card and keep it in your wallet. A lot of them are not easy to remember but you never know when you might need them. And it may help in situations where calling 911 is either not really appropriate or doesn’t get you anywhere.

I have the police numbers for the city I live in, the city I park in to take the train to school, campus police, LAPD, and the CHP. This last one is important because it can take a very, very, VERY long time to get through using 911 on a cel phone, as I discovered when my friends and I called to report a bush on fire by the freeway (I will admit, I was tempted to say “I’d like to report a manifesting deity on the northbound 5 …”).

30

I live in the city, and one Saturday night, at around 3 am, I was woken by a car running in the alley behind my house. I could hear two men arguing, and a woman, begging with them to stop. Due to the nature of the hour (and that it I was pissed because it had woken me up), I called 911 to report the two men, who were by now, screaming obsenities at each other. “Are they physically fighting?” the 911 dispatcher asked me. “It’s dark, and I can’t tell, but they’re screaming at each other, and a woman is crying and begging them to stop fighting,” I told her. “We’ll send a car out,” said the dispatcher. Her tone was equivilent to what it might have been had I called to tell her that I was going to the grocery store.

I kept an eye to the back window, timing how long it would be until the police arrived. I was counting up to four minutes (arguing going on all along, only getting louder), when I heard, “Go ahead and shoot me, mother fcker! What are you going to do, mother fcker? You gonna shoot me?” So, I called 911 again. “Um, yep, they’re threating to shoot each other,” I told the dispatcher (the same one I’d just talked to four minutes earlier. “Do you see a gun?” she asked. Ha, like I was going to go out into the yard to see if they were armed? What was she, nuts? “I have no clue,” I told her.

No sooner that it would have taken me to snap my fingers, police cars pulled up from both ends of the alley, with lights flashing (lighting up the alley), and all of the sudden, there were cops, with weapons drawn, crouched behind car doors, yelling, "Put your hands above your head! NOW!’ Just like in the movies.

Never found out of there was actually a gun involved or not, but they took both men away in the back of the cars.

It makes me wonder though, if the dispatcher was actually listening to what I was saying…until I mentioned “shooting each other”.

31

Lovely. Fist fight here between a guy and a girl, her running, him pulling at her sweater to keep her from leaving, both of them screaming and waving their arms. He was hodling her agains another person’s car. THe owner of that car was gassing it up, trying to ignore the fight and suppressing grins.
I got outvoted for dialling the cops (there is 911, 311 is a dating line and 211 is a depression hotline) so I went inside the business to report it. The clerks were staring out the window, but hadn’t seen the fight (I guess they weren’t watching the security cameras, either.

No one moved to call the cops, even when she punched the guy. They were busy listening to another customer in the store who was waiting for the fighters to get distracted enough so that the female wouldn’t noticed that the customer was sneaking back into the car (the one the woman had been held up against).

No frikin one called 911. Finally everyone got back in their respective cars and sped off.

We don’t have a non-emergency easy number - you have to figure out the network of stupid small town cops (though this is frikkin metro area with no distance between towns).

On the highway, though, we do … 511 for traffic information or to request a “road ranger” for a blow out or small car problem or tow, and *347 for highway patrol. To either number you can report an accident or problem on the highway (ladders in the road, high chairs in the road, cars on fire …).

32

Yes. You did exactly the right thing. Especially the follow up with the store.

And writing a letter to the public safety people is an excellent idea. When it works, 911 and the non-emergency number (often 311), are great. When they don’t work they can be the most bollixed up garbage in the world.

IIRC there was a famous case back in the 80’s when 911 was first beginning to take off, with an obviously agitated teen girl calling for help, and it was put off to a practical joke. I wonder how that dispatcher lives with him or herself, now that it is known the call was legit, and the girl was murdered after being cut off the phone.

The work of a dispatcher isn’t easy, but you and Eats_Crayons both seem to have been the model callers - offering as much detail as you know, and polite.

33

If it had been me, I probably would have just called the police, but only because the city I live in is so small that I’d be sure a police officer would have responded within a few minutes. In a larger, more metropolitan area, I would have called 911.

The 911 operator was being a jerk, IMHO.

34

I agree. Write a letter.

Being a 911 dispatcher was easily the most joy-crushing, soul-destroying, horrible job I’ve ever done. I don’t know if it’s the work itself that changes people, or if only horrible bastards can put up with it as a career, but working there was a respite of the most hateful and sick people I’ve ever known. The reason I left was because this attitude was so prevalent in my supervisor – completely uncaring and negative with me, even to the point of being abusive.

There were a few good apples, sure, but even they were often rude and dismissive of callers. I hated the attitude that the dispatchers gave to people, but understand that they’ve heard about the most horrible things in the world. You consistently deal with the lowest dregs of society – the people who just can’t abide by society’s rules about not screaming in the street, not physically beating each other up, keeping excrement in toilets, and all of those things that we take for granted from each other. A letter with a little kick in the ass about it could only help.

Kudos to you dispatchers out there who could put up with this. I sure couldn’t.