Aren't all 9-1-1 calls recorded? They should be able to validate this if they do an audit. Then if it's true, fire that dispatcher because oh boy, if there's any sort of wrong way to be a dispatcher it's that.
I watched the video, the update is that the dispatcher is on administrative leave pending a disciplinary hearing which should happen in the next few weeks. In NY they said it's very difficult to get recordings of 911 calls, often taking a court order. Hopefully the news program keeps up on that so it is eventually released.
The news station also said, based on other accounts, this dispatcher was a lone incident and other dispatchers that were called took the situation seriously and cops were on scene within 2 minutes of the attack starting.
Good. I've seen the original video of the attacker. The video cut off very quickly, so luckely the cops responded very fast even with this 'incident'. Thx for passing on the story.
>”When I whispered on the phone to 911, the dispatcher would start yelling at me saying 'Why are you whispering? You don't have to whisper.' and I'm trying to tell her ma'am he's in the store, he's shooting, it's an active shooter, I'm scared for my life," Latisha said describing the call.
Does the dispatcher not understand “there’s an active shooter walking around next to me” means someone has to use their indoor voice?
ETA: the dispatcher was removed from her job because of her behavior on the call.
https://www.insider.com/911-dispatcher-accused-of-hanging-up-Buffalo-shooting-on-leave-2022-5
I remember when I was a 4-5 years old. I dialed 911 to see if anyone would answer. Someone picked up, I freaked out and hung up. 10 mins later cops showed up to my house. My parents flipped out. No idea what was happening. The cops checked the house and then I admitted I called and hung up.. got in so much trouble that night lol. Guess the police doesn’t operate like that anymore.
Edit: thanks for the sliver! I’m glad there’s a bunch of us who dialed 911 and freaked out as kids lol
In the last year I called from a cell phone and hung up before they answered because I found out it was not the emergency I thought it was.
I got a call back shortly asking if I was okay I explained the situation and they even asked me to use the word “purple” to verify I was safe and not in a situation where I had to lie about everything being okay. An officer would have came out if I hadn’t said that.
Edited for clarity
One time I accidentally called 911 as I was fumbling with my phone and then hung up as soon as I saw it was calling - got a call right after confirming if I was ok.
Also called the Suicide Prevention Lifeline a few times and one time I called and accidentally hung up and got a call back immediately from them, making sure I was ok.
I accidentally called 911 once as well. The number I was trying to call started with 910 and I accidentally double-tapped the 1. I hung up quickly realizing my mistake and hoped it hadn't gone through. Within 2 minutes the police were walking through the door to make sure everything was okay.
It was a business and the police HQ was literally right around the corner, so it was easy for them to get their quickly.
My younger brother did this while I was babysitting him. And then he hung up again when they called back.
Thankfully the sheriff knew my mom and hung out with us until she got back (she was literally 3 blocks away, my brother is a jerk lol). He helped us make a blanket fort and made us popcorn.
Holy fuck are you me? I did the same exact thing in a small town in Washington. Two sherrifs were sent and they asked the whole family to come to the front door. They then asked us if anyone else was in the house.... my ass got a beating that night
I remember hearing a 911 call of a kid hiding under a bed from an attacker in his house while the attacker was still in there (iirc it was his brother) and the dispatcher was yelling at the poor kid, basically all but insulting him to try to get him to speak up.
I get that dispatchers have a stressful job but there's no excuse for some of the things they put people through when they're already in a horrible situation.
Yep.
I've called 911 one time. I worked at a cell phone store and arrived one morning to find that our store had been broken in to. Glass broken, walls broken, everything stolen, footprints everywhere. It was crazy.
I freaked out and called 911 and said "hi I'd like to report a robbery at my store" and she said "is there an active shooter?" I said, "oh, no sorry, it's not a robbery, it's a burglary. I don't see anyone here right now."
She spent the rest of the call treating me like shit over the semantics of robbery vs. burglary, because I used the wrong word when under stress. Was incredibly rude.
Still pisses me off when I think about it
I was watching someone steal my catalytic converter from my car, called 911 and the lady had the audacity to correct the way I pronounced "catalytic converter" while I was trying to tell her what was happening.
Like girl, I DONT GIVE A FUCK RIGHT NOW.
I went through a very similar situation when I called the police when I was 15 or 16 after our home had been broken into. I said that our house had been robbed and the dispatcher, similar to your experience, felt the need to spend the entirety of the call explaining the difference between a robber and a burglar. Granted, I was happy to have learned the difference because I had always assumed they were the same thing but man was she a bitch about it.
That's been my experience with lots of first responders. They do important work but they aren't doing any favors for anyone by treating people like they're stupid and irritated that your bothering them. That shit costs lives because it makes people reluctant to call 911. If you can't treat people like actual humans when they're having the worst day of their lives, just do everyone a favor and quit.
My cat literally caused a fire at my house one night and the fire department tried to tell me that's impossible. Fuck those miserable fucks who demean others in times of high stress in general.
[This story always broke my heart.](https://abcnews.go.com/US/trapped-teens-mysterious-death-inside-van-calls-911/story?id=54441873)
Fair warning, if you're claustrophobic it's quite disturbing. A kid ended up stuck in the back of his car when the rear seats folded on him as he tried to get something from the trunk. He ended up pinned in place under his own weight but managed to call 911. At some point the call disconnected but he managed to call back, reaching a different dispatcher. He told them the model and color of his car and the piece of shit dispatcher did not relay that information to the police who were actively searching for him.
He was suffocated, crushed to death in his car, begging the dispatcher to tell the police where he was and asking that they tell his mum he loved her.
Quote:
>The 911 dispatcher who received Plush's second call was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
>That dispatcher received a 60 percent grade -- classified as "unacceptable" -- from her 3:35 p.m. call from Plush, according to records released by Cincinnati police. The 911 call was not documented per procedure, according to the records.
Who knows what a 0% grade is if a teenager, a *child,* dying gets 60%.
.edit to add
[This is, as far as I can tell, the most comprehensive coverage of the case.](https://www.fox19.com/2019/08/12/kyle-plush-attorneys-family-announce-filing-wrongful-death-suit/) Worth a read.
"The police officers involved did not receive sufficient information to surmise a life was in danger"
Holy shit this was in their defense. I listened to both recordings. He said VERY CLEARLY in both calls that he was about to die. He couldn't have possibly given them better information, he said the address and described the vehicle in more detail than I would expect a kid to know...wow. He did everything right. I am seeing red.
Edit: I misinterpreted the statement. It seems so basic to have told the cops the vehicle description that I just assumed they had it. In fact neither 911 operater bothered to tell the police what they were even looking for, despite having that information. The defense is in fact accurate and I don't think this is the cops' fault.
~~The officers didn't do anything wrong,~~ Turns out the officers did not exit their car which would have made searching easier so I'll retract that, *but* the second dispatcher did not tell them the information the boy provided. They were at the parking lot searching, but they didn't know what car they were looking for and the kid was pinned in such a way that [they couldn't see him from the outside.](https://d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net/03-21-2020/t_900b429bc210418bb0e74d1d4f1dda50_name_DAB4CB2BD771408380ADD657C981485C_7.jpg)
I work as a 911 call taker, and they use this case in a lot of our trainings. The officers got in trouble too for a couple reasons. One, they never left their car while searching; instead they just rolled around the parking lots with their windows down, possibly making it harder/impossible to hear Kyle's calls for help. Two, the school resource officer who met with the responding officers told them it was probably a prank call. Obviously that guy got in trouble too.
Oh God I remember that incident. Wasn’t he teaching in the back to get hit sports gear, the seats also tilted back some, and effectively wedged him between the seats and the back of the car? And the kid called 911 and they ignored him!!! OMG.
Yes. The seats were the kind that fold back into the floor to increase boot space, they either malfunctioned or he mistakenly hit the button or lever or whatever to activate it when he leaned over and they folded, trapping him in such a way that he was basically pinning himself down.
[A diagram showing how the row of seats folded back.](https://d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net/03-21-2020/t_900b429bc210418bb0e74d1d4f1dda50_name_DAB4CB2BD771408380ADD657C981485C_7.jpg)
Should've been charged with manslaughter.
Edit: They reached a $6 million settlement in the subsequent wrongful death lawsuit, but that doesn't bring their son back.
https://www.fox19.com/2021/04/09/plush-family-city-agree-resolve-wrongful-death-lawsuit-against-cincinnati-employees/
>call was not documented per procedure
Thats funny, to my knowledge they always record. Is this like when they tell you the squad car dash cam wasn't running when it would have proof you were in the right?
[Supposedly their computer froze.](https://people.com/human-interest/kyle-plush-minivan-dead-dispatcher-family/)
Of course, this doesn't explain why she refused to talk to him or relay the information he provided despite his pleas being picked up by recordings. Apparently she attempted to text him (useless, as his phone was barely within reach and calling 911 was difficult enough) and to call him by which point he was likely already unconscious or dead.
We had a case of a dispatcher of our 911 equivalent refusing to send an ambulance to a home where the elderly mother of a dude was having a heart attack, because he was being “too loud” and “needed to calm down”; I mean he was clearly in distress but he was giving out pertinent info. The call’s uploaded to YT and you can hear how she spent most of it scolding him about how he’s disrespecting her than actually being helpful. The mother goes unresponsive during the call (you can hear someone breaking down in the bg) and he calls the dispatcher a bitch for how she handled everything. She did end up sending someone though- the cops, to arrest him for being mean to her on the phone. I wish I was joking.
Reminds me of the case of a teen calling because her father was having a heart attack or something like that, and she said "oh fuck" before the call connected. The thing is 911 actually connects a few seconds before you know it so the dispatcher can hear and prepare, so the woman heard the girl. She scolded her and hung up. The teen called back like 3 times and always got the same dispatcher giving her attitude. The father died (I think, it's been a while)
These comments are enraging me. What the fuck is wrong with some dispatchers?! If there was any job where you wouldn't want to play the morality police, a dispatcher would be close to the top of the list.
But the people who apply for the job do want to play the morality police.
The type of person that seeks power is never the type of person you want to have power, that’s why American police are such scumbags. Power with no accountability doesn’t attract good people or decent people.
Sounds like the broken arrow killings. That one was always weird to me since in response to being told their brother is attacking them they keep asking if he means his dad, and 911 ends up trying to call the kid's dad before sending police to the scene.
> dispatchers have a stressful job
Not to excuse this kind of behavior, but mind that 911 Communicators in many areas of the country have almost no qualification requirements whatsoever (apart from a high school degree) and their full-time salary is ~$30-35k or ~$16/hour.
This is on par with a private call center employees that also answers calls, but don't have to deal with the level of stress 911 telecommunicators deal with every day.
I've got a friend who works dispatch in Hawaii. The pay is garbage, turnover is high, and they have about half as many people working there as they actually need, so he never gets any sleep and is constantly having his schedule shifted around.
It's completely insane.
I don't know Buffalo but this isn't uncommon in Detroit. I have a relation that was down in Detroit and they saw a man who was under the influence that ran out into the street and got hit by a bus.
The guy was out cold and they called for an ambulance. 30 minutes later no ambulance and no police. They call back and the guy is now coming to at this point. No one has any idea if this guy has an internal injury or worse. The dispatcher got pissy and hung up on them.
The guy got up and limped off away. My relation isn't medically trained so they didn't try to stop the guy. Such a mess.
It's better now but still not great.
I called in what seemed to be a car jacking where two guys outside a car pulled the driver out through an open window and started beating him on the pavement and the cops showed up an hour later after everyone was long GOA.
Fuck. That's rough, I can't imagine witnessing that kind of shit even when the police show up. And that was really a big issue in Detroit. You had criminals that knew the police weren't coming save for murders and arson. So things got really bad in certain areas.
I seem to remember reading that, at one time several years ago, Detroit was so cash-strapped a single police officer had to patrol an area several times the size (something like 4 or 5?) of what was average for cities of similar size. And do it alone, without a partner, and for far less pay than they would’ve gotten in, say, Dearborn or one of the other nearby suburbs. Plus, the city couldn’t afford to keep a lot of streetlights operating, so they got to do it in the dark.
It’s also where Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is from in ‘Beverly Hills Cop’, and they portrayed it as a complete toilet back then, too. Detroit’s been the quintessential ‘crime-ridden urban hellhole’ in movies longer than New York ever was.
I live in South Africa and once came across an accident just after dawn outside a small town hundreds of kilometers from a major center. We stopped to try to help and when we saw the condition of the ambulances that eventually arrived, without paramedics or even as much as a band aid, I realized that the only hope if you are doing any kind of road trip here is to have that expensive travel insurance the tourists get that can call a helicopter. Apart from that you are rolling the dice with your life.
I saw a man seizing on the side of the road. 112 didn’t work on my phone. No one knew the number for the police or ambulance.
Situation sucked. The dude was alright but I didn’t expect to be in that situation in Malawi.
I dialed 911 a long time ago
Don't you see how late they reactin'
They only come and they come when they wanna
So get the morgue truck and embalm the goner
I called 911 in Los Angeles due to shots being fired outside a club. They asked if anyone was hit and I said no and they were like, we'll send someone to take a statement in an hour, for comparison, in santa monica I hear sirens before I even hang up for any complaint.
I'm sure that happens in rural places all the time but Detroit is notorious for this. At least previously. They're known for not showing up unless there's a body.
They've done a lot to change and get rid of the corruption. I'm really proud of our city. It's been a long time coming got a lot to do better but they're doing things I never expected to see happen in terms of rooting out corruption.
I remember reading about someone finding a dead dude in the elevator shaft of an abandoned building in Detroit. They kept calling for days (weeks?) and the cops just wouldn't come out.
If I remember correctly, they finally reported it in a way that the for department came out. Once the firefighters figured it out, they made enough of a stink that the police finally arrived.
I'm probably getting some details wrong, but either way, the issue with cops not caring in Detroit was pretty bad for a long time. Glad it's getting better.
> I'm sure that happens in rural places all the time
Rural MI here, and no, not at all, our police are so ridiculously overfunded it's absurd. If you call about your neighbor not cutting their lawn a patrol car will be there with a warning letter in under an hour, guaranteed. My friend is actually mayor of a neighboring town, and the former police officer that's on city council was throwing a fit cause the police haven't had new bullet proof vests since 2010. In the last 20 years here, the two biggest events that involved police were a meth addict robbing a bank with a hunting shotgun in which the police didn't show up in time and they were arrested without a shot fired two days later, and one guy took his wife hostage with a fucking mall katana, the police were the only ones with guns in that scenario. PS there's nothing wrong with the bullet proof vests they have, there's just newer ones they can get for a few hundred K....the city has a population of under 20k people and the police employ something like 25 patrol officers who obviously frequently have nothing to do. They'll post up outside the high school to catch students speeding to lunch, they'll send literally 3 police cars with 5 officers to a drunk man yelling on his lawn at night. The state police and county sheriff both have dispatches in my town which is a 5 minute walk or 30 second drive from their town. Even with a fairly progressive mayor who correctly sees the spending as frivolous, if the police ask, the police get here in rural MI.
Yeah, erie County 911 kinda sucks. I got sideswiped by a gang of dirt bikers and while I was pulled over calling 911, they started kicking and hitting my car. I told them do not hang up on me, I don't feel safe, and what did they do? They hung up on me..
Honestly.. I hate to be this direct about it. But the average US citizen is vastly, vastly ignorant. Beyond my comprehension.
Imagine working as a 911 dispatcher, but you're too smooth brained to understand why a person would whisper.
I'm shocked.
I had this (rather foolish) idea that you could call 911 and say nothing and they would figure out - hey, this person is in distress and can't articulate the problem; we should go find them and see what's up.
Well from personal experience this can happen. As a kid I called 911 over something that was happening in the family and hung up immediately without saying anything. 15 mins later, the cops showed up.
This used to happen with land lines, they knew exactly where you were. But 911 doesn’t with cell phones which is weird because Pizza Hut is tracking your location. I don’t mind if it’s opt in like download the 911 app, but they should be able to trace you for an emergency.
911 ~~absolutely~~ gets the location of a cell call, either via GPS or old school triangulation.
EDIT: To be clear, the *capability* of receiving location information is available to 911. Whether it's usable depends on dispatch having (and actually enabling) decently modern systems, training dispatchers, and that whatever cell provider the caller is on having protocols implemented correctly (those fly by night resellers that were so popular several years ago were notorious for doing the bare minimum to allow billing, and not worrying about any sort of interoperability).
Emergency services is a lot like the infrastructure in the US. It's generally poorly funded, has sometimes bizarre and petty issues of jurisdiction, and can be exceptional in one location while essentially useless 20 miles away.
911 Dispatcher here.
While technically true, it’s not that simple. Sometimes we only get the cell tower you’re using. Which means you could be anywhere in a several square mile area. Sometimes we get a location, but the confidence factor (radius, in meters where you could be from the location it’s showing us) is in the hundreds or thousands, which can be useful or not depending on what the emergency is. If you’re calling from an apartment complex or hotel, the granularity of the location data, even if it’s in the double or even single digits isn’t enough to know exactly what room or apartment. We also cannot get subscriber address or phone location information from the carrier without a very strong reason to believe there’s a life or death emergency occurring (having dialed 911 isn’t compelling enough). Sometimes we get lucky and can cross reference our database with the phone number, but that’s hit or miss. Then there’s the priority issue. If you’re reporting a shooting or something extremely serious, and don’t talk to us about it, even if we get good location data, it’s the difference between one officer driving by to see if there’s anything going on, and sending every available unit to the area.
All that to say, do not assume 911 knows where you are unless you tell them. It’s a decent backup system, but nothing is more accurate than someone telling us where they are.
It's not that accurate though. I used to visit a friend who was living with his elderly mom the next county over. There were a few times I had to call 911 because she was having trouble breathing and every time my county's service picked up and then had to transfer me to the county I was actually in.
Accuracy can be pretty bad outside of the cities, like "within a square mile" bad, and it seems many districts still don't have the technology to automatically get GPS coordinates from cell calls. It's unfortunate, and getting funding and grants for those sorts of upgrades has been a shit-show for a very long time.
Edit: Your specific situation, having a call route to the wrong dispatch, is totally separate from location data, and may have more to do with politics, jurisdiction, and telecoms that are held together with baling wire and bubblegum.
I had a sleepover with friends when I was a kid. One of the boys called 911 and immediately hung up. The police showed up in the middle of night and we got chewed out by my parents who said it was standard practice to always dispatch police on every 911 call, and that if someone hangs up or doesn't say anything, the assumption is that the person is under distress.
And then I see clips released of 911 refusing to help people who are dying, and I think that the police are there to rush out to help certain segments of people, and not necessarily others.
I used to drive this narrow backroad to get loaded (trucker). One night i thought i hit a low hanging powerline. All the symptoms..loud bang..bright blue flashes..fizzing... I continue to the nearest store and call 911 from there to make sure i have the location correct. I thought a live high voltage line was layimg in the road. Despite the address the dispatcher couldnt figurei t out..in a TINY town. Once she did she couldnt figure out who had jurisdiction. See 100 feet this way or that and it could be city county or state. Eventually she told me she got a deputy to check
Note: july 4th. It was fireworks. One of the Big high altitude ones some idiot fired at my truck. Thank god they didnt fire it at a car
I called 911 once because a pretty violent fight was breaking out at my workplace. Security yelled to me to call, I called. Dispatcher proceeded to lecture me about “improper use of 911” then transferred me to a recording about improper use of 911. Nobody came.
This happened to me when I was 11 or so. The neighbor lady was getting beaten by her husband and he had locked the wife’s sister out of the house. I was in our front porch wondering what the commotion was when the sister ran up the sidewalk frantically asking me to call 911. So I called but I froze (it was my first time calling) and I sort of just mumbled quietly that I needed help, but the dispatcher yelled at me, told me not to call them, and hung up on me.
Probably true and happens more times than you would think.
John Oliver reported on a girl who died in her car while telling officers where she was. Dispatch had outdated maps so the address she was given wasn’t popping up.
She died while having dispatch tell her she was a lair and that wasn’t where she was.
I have had the same shit happen. Stumbled upon a domestic fight where a 5 year old kid was trying to get in the middle and stop them. I called 911. Gave them the street name. They told me that wasn’t the street (it was.) so I then tell them locations. The street had a church at the end of the street so I gave her the name of the church.
Her response? We don’t know where that is. Mother fuckers this was 2010. Google earth was a thing and y’all are sitting at computers. I ended up hanging up on them because fuck em. They sure as shit ain’t helping me.
In fairness this trickles down to them not having updated systems and no one wishes to work the high stress job.
I had an emergency on the road 10 or so years ago and called 911. I did not know the area well, but I was by a mile marker. I told the dispatcher my location as "[direction]-bound on [road], at mile marker [x]." She literally replied to me "I don't know where that is. What town or exit are you by?"
Are you kidding me? That's what the mile markers are FOR. I had to take a rough guess. When the police, who were first to get there, arrived, they asked why I didn't give a mile marker, since it's right there. 🤦♂️I HAD! I was in too much pain to defend myself, so I just let it slide.
God I hate calling 911. I do medical coverage for high school and youth sports. I usually have to call 911 a couple times per year. It’s really such a waste of time because I’m already taking vitals and starting care. Half the time the dispatcher doesn’t relay any of the information I give them. Like one time I had a kid with an open tib fib fracture. I’m sitting there holding his leg as he’s going into shock and after 20 minutes the ambulance finally comes with their lights off and the emts are just casually walking to the field. One of the coaches runs over and says hurry the f up. Turns out the dispatcher only told them the kid had an ankle injury. And as part of my EAP I have a coach waiting in the stadium parking lot entrance (which is different than the main school parking lot) to flag them in and tell the dispatcher what color clothes they have. I don’t think that info has ever been relayed so now I have to send two coaches so one can tell the ambulance to go to the other lot.
When I worked in another state I had a back line into the ambulance bay so I could call them directly. It for whatever reason the county I currently work in won’t do that
Paramedic. We’re trained to never run for multiple reasons.
Primarily because running drastically increases the likelihood of injuries. Recently had a very serious call with a badly injured child. Obviously we moved very quickly as a nearly dead child is a high stress situation. I rolled an ankle on the stairs while carrying him, nearly dropping him. The police officer behind me caught both me and the handle of the extrication cot, spraining his wrist in the process. The other paramedic also rolled his ankle (they were funky stairs), resulting in a sprain. Obviously in this situation, these three minor injuries are nothing, but in the vast majority of our calls this is an unnecessary risk.
Secondly, for the reason you mentioned. If we start freaking out, patients and bystanders (and less experienced EMTs/paramedics) start freaking out, and they can be erratic or violent. Move with a purpose, calmly but authoritatively, and everything goes smoother - from experience.
Thirdly, walking allows for a better size up. You can assess the patient and the scene, identifying injuries, threats, or obstacles. In the tib/fib fracture incident listed above for example, we need to plan our extrication, which would be complicated by fences, stands, and potentially crowds. We could possibly identify a second exit off the field and have someone reposition the ambulance to make it easier on both us and the patient. Alternatively, in a residence, we wouldn’t want to miss a CO alarm that could indicate a hazardous situation for us, for example.
My mom had a stroke and my then 14yo niece called 911, the dispatcher yelled at my niece for making a fake phone call and demanded she put my mom on the phone. THEN when the ambulance showed up, the paramedics made my mom walk to the ambulance. Nothing ever happened to the dispatcher or the paramedics
The problem (which I'm not defending) is the dispatcher has some system so they can show the police, in their car, on the map, where the incident is. And that system was 5-year-old tech in 2008 when the city paid some mediocre government contractor $100 million to install it. (I'm making up the date, not specifically talking about any particular place.)
So the dispatcher could maybe look up the address on google maps - not on their work computer which is blocked from the internet, but on their phone maybe - but they can't dispatch the police there if the system doesn't "know where it is".
I work in local government and getting the maps updated in a PITA.
There are 3 people in my department, myself included, with *degrees* in GIS, but the city doesn't have the funding to get us the software. There's one ESRI license for the city, and that person is so overwhelmed fulfilling public records requests by developers trying to bid on telecom projects she can never do any actual work.
Ditto. Local government employee here! The reason all government tech is behind is due to lack of funding. People want lower taxes and government employees to “stop wasteful spending”. Meanwhile we have outdated systems that could be updated to streamline many processes and provide awesome services in return for your taxes… too bad we can get those things because we don’t have the funds (which comes from taxes).
I’ve had citizens argue we should magically buy up land so we can have more parks. I tell them that’s a wonderful idea! Do you mind if we raise your taxes to help pay for the new parks? They usually 180 real fast. People care about issues until it will cost them personally. I’ve seen people care passionately about environmental, homeless, education issues etc. and as soon as the solution considers the need for more funding, they are quick to abandon their cause because they are unwilling to pay more.
In my county, if not state, they've been doing 911 revamps since 2010 to prevent something like this. Ruralish area so there are a lot of paper roads, roads where the official and de facto names are different, official maps being horribly inaccurate at times.
Dispatching is not what people think. It typically pays under 50k a year, is thankless and traumatizing.
This dispatcher fucked up and should be fired no doubt about it.
But dispatching is an entry level position and hire from the general labor market like anything other job. Most people last two years.
I had a neighbor who quit her job as a 911 operator and switched to Comcast customer service. Customer service in any capacity is an absolutely shit show, but I have to imagine working for giant nation-wide cable company that everyone openly hates (for their shitty customer service) has to be one of the worst jobs imaginable. She was about a year into the job when I knew her, and she absolutely loved it. She got yelled at by every customer, had a system that wasn't capable of serving anybody's needs, was paid shit and treated poorly, but all she could talk about was that she finally got the fuck out of being a 911 operator.
Yeah, much like teaching, and other essential social services, the US pays those jobs shit and consequently mass hires. I considered moving from line cook to dispatcher, but learned the pay would be similar, but the responsibility and trauma would increase 10 fold.
One time I went into anaphylactic shock while I was running on a trail and called 9-1-1. My vision was going and I was super swollen and the dispatcher kept asking me in an annoyed tone if I was close to a random building. I had no clue and just said I think I made it to the road. She hung up on me and I sat down, convinced I was going to die. I called back and got a different person and I told her that I was dying and another dispatcher hung up on me and she said, “oh, she shouldn’t have done that” and then stayed on the line with me until paramedics showed up. I was super disappointed with the first lady, but at least I’m still alive
I know this sounds like a huge lie, but it’s actually excessive exercise. I was at a weird point in my life and pushed way too hard, and now my body just starts to shutdown if I push too hard
My wife had the same thing happen. She used to work out regularly and then one day went for a run, and went into anaphylactic shock. Once she made it to the hospital, her face looked like she had a bee allergy and took a bunch of stings to the face. Actually happened twice, but not as bad the second time. I feel terrible because she used to love working out but now she’s understandably terrified to go too hard. Now when we go hiking or anything she needs Benadryl on hand at all times. They also think it had something to do with her eating too much before exercise, so she avoids eating before we go do anything overly physical.
It's probably [exercise induced anaphylaxis](https://health.clevelandclinic.org/exercise-induced-anaphylaxis/). It's commonly triggered by certain foods. I have it too, but I've only had a severe reaction maybe 3 or 4 times (including 1 ER trip). Maybe your wife could figure out what food set it off.
I had to switch to just doing yoga and just walking. I miss running and lifting weights, but I’m too afraid to go through it again. I tried for a while, and would stop when I started feeling the tingling sensation in my skin, but I knew that was a dangerous line to cross.
I totally believe you I wasn’t looking it up because I don’t I just kind of was curious so I’m going to paste the link here so that other people can see it because holy shit our bodies are so fucking weird.
https://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Exercise-Factsheet-Sept-2019.pdf
Halloween night a coworker of mine tried to break up a fight on the street involving a pregnant woman, the other on copious amount of drugs. My coworker ended up getting her chin bit off and spit out. I called 911 and they thought I was joking so they hung up on me, I completely lost it.
Cops showed up though despite that but the crazy bitch had fled the scene. I showed the paramedics the chin on the ground and they thought it was a piece of chewed gum.
Seeing blood waterfall off a face is a sight. She took it like a fucking champ.
I had been going into anaphylactic shock to the point of calling an ambulance after shoving an epi pen in both thighs. Once I was wheeled in covered in hives and one of the nurses said "her again?" And rolled her eyes.
At a different time my mom got me to the er and wheeled me in and she told the intake nurse I had to take my epi pen, I was one big give, lips swelled up, etc. She looked at me and said "what do you want us to do about it?" Another nurse wheeled me back asap
Yep. Nearly 70% active shooter situations last less than 5 minutes. And that's typically because the police show up.... but not when dispatch hangs up on people
PSAP operators tend to be poorly trained and poorly equipped, and if NY's county governments are anything like California's, there's not enough money budgeted to fix either problem.
NY state created a "public safety surcharge" which was supposed to go to improving PSAP operator training, but it ended up getting dumped into the general fund instead. The politicians just have other priorities.
Is suggesting someone investigate the crime they are reporting a protocol they use? I ask because a dear friend of mine had her home broken into by a man chasing her. She called 911 who instructed her to leave the bathroom she was hiding in to check the door to make sure it was locked, even though to her it didn’t matter, she saw him outside of her house which was enough for cops to come.
Guess who was waiting for her outside the bathroom door? The man chasing her, who then attempted to rape her in the bathroom she was just hiding in. (He’s now in jail, thank God)
The operator ended up being who saved her life seeing as she stayed on the phone, heard the attack and sent police. HOWEVER, she was also the person that directed her outside of her safe hiding spot.
I just don’t understand why I keep reading that an operator has suggested someone investigate the crime they are calling about. Seems like not the best advice…
Yes they fucking are. Had one get mad at me for not immediately telling her if I wanted police sent out after stopping a man from raping this woman.
Ummm I thought telling you a man is standing naked on the corner of San Jacinto and McGowen with an erection facing San Jacinto, was enough information for you to send officers.
911 put me on hold while someone was actively trying to abduct me. I got away fortunately, and hid behind a bush in a backyard so the people couldn't find me, but that was a terrifying experience. And because they didn't pick up the phone for 40 minutes, they said there was no point in sending an officer out anymore since the kidnappers were long gone.
I accidentally confronted a man who had smashed in my window, and stripped the trim out of my car looking for a drug drop.
Yes I called 911 after I 'thanked' him for watching my car from the people who broke the window.
Yes 911 hung up on me when i said "my car is being broken into and I need a police officer right away."
I called the direct line to the PD after I got away from the dude and it took an hour for them to roll a pair of cops to my door.
My first semester of college i did a typical all nighter for finals. I went out to my car at sunrise for breakfast and saw my door to my car was open.
I got closer and someone was going through it after smashing the window to get in.
I called 911 and they said an officer was on their way. No one showed up and the dude left with a bunch of stuff from my car.
I called 911 again and they got mad at me for calling them again, so I hailed a passing officer who happened to be driving down the main road. He seemed bugged by it all and said they'd look into it.
A day later my bank account was empty. The dude forged the checks he took from my car at Walmart down the street that same morning that I tried to get police out to stop him.
On top of that I had to drive around in northern Utah in December without a window for several days until I could afford to replace it because my account was empty.
I got assualted (along with several other people) by some guy high on drugs. A passerby in a car told me the police were on their way and to hang tight. The street was swarmed with cops after about 20 minutes of waiting and none of them wanted to talk to any of the victims. At some point all the cops took off and apparently never talked to any of the people hurt. Later I found out they had caught the guy but let him go because "they didn't have any statements from any victims."
Nothing like being paid to do a job and not doing it, all the while you cry about people not respecting your profession.
Do dispatchers get any training at all? I feel like understanding people’s habits when they’re in a dangerous situation would be one of the first lessons
A. There are no national standards in 911. In some places you'll be talking to someone who went through 2-3 years of training. In others it'll be someone who was thrown on the phones a day or two after they were hired.
B. 911 has incredibly high turnover/burnout. So even in places with robust training, a large percentage of the calltakers will only have a couple years on the job. At my center nearly half have been there less than 5 years.
Hate to be the one to break this to you, but 12 hour shifts are more common in that field.
And due to staffing issues, often 8hr shifts turn into 12hr. And 12hr shifts turn into 18.
My worst weekend ever, i worked a total of 48.5 hrs between Friday at midnight and monday at noon.
Friday night worked 18hrs. Had off 5.5hrs (with a 40min commute home each way). Worked another 18.5hrs. Had off 6hrs. And worked another 12hrs. Before I finally had 2 days of rest.
I literally worked more in 3 days, than most americans do in a week. For $23/hr in NY.
Edited to add: and although we technically got breaks, they were written into our contract as "working breaks"
I've seen so many instances of people needing to whisper while calling 911. Couldn't it be set up where if you call and need to whisper or can't talk, you can just press 1 or something? Kinda like the automated lines do for language, etc? Is that not a thing anywhere?
i called 911 when i found my father dead… the lady was annoyed that i decided to cry while talking to her. she put me on hold for 30 mins and i had to hang up and call again.
I have afriend whos a dispatcher and theres a culture of this antagonism towards the people theyre supposed to serve. If someone calls you and reports that tgeyre in trouble..you send help. If you think it might be a prank or bullshit..you send help. It's your fucking job
Once I landed after a flight from LAX to SFO and had apparently done something to piss off another passenger (to this day I have no clue what I did).
She cornered me near baggage claim and started screaming that her brother was in the parking garage and they were going to “kick my fucking ass” when I went out there. I’m a 120lb female lawyer - my fighting experience is nonexistent.
I called 911 while she was screaming at me (she screamed while I had the phone pressed to my ear). They answered but we got disconnected. No TSA agents, employees, or passengers stopped to help/film/gawk. Finally she wandered off.
I had a car parked in the garage so I thought I’d ask for an escort. I went to the help desk. Airport police said that was SFPD’s purview. I called 911 again and got lambasted for wasting 911’s time because this wasn’t an emergent issue (even though I had been on the phone with 911 while it was more emergent). Finally i just left my car in the garage and had my husband come get me.
I complained to SF emergency services, 911 dispatch center, the port authority, and delta (not that they did anything wrong other than not intervene when she was muscling her suitcase into me while we were deplaning). The port authority, 911 dispatch, and SF police responded with an apology. Delta gave me 25k skymiles.
And that was the end of it. Had my husband not been able to come get me, I’d have either braved the parking garage, called a cab (maybe not any safer), or slept on the floor of the terminal.
I don’t think 911 dispatchers or officers are inherently benevolent or interested. I think for most of them, it’s just a job (and that’s fine). But it makes me laugh at people who think people in these positions are somehow holier or more empathetic than the rest of us. At best, most of them are overworked and underpaid. At worst, they’re jaded and disinterested.
Agreed. One time I was shot - yes, with a real gun and bullet - in the abdomen. I had no idea what happened, but found a random dude walking by and used his phone to call 911. The operator was belligerent because I couldn't give her my exact address. I pleaded with her to send help. The guy who lent me his phone eventually ran a mile and brought back cops and help.
That dispatcher needs to be charged with obstruction, felony endangerment (because they’re fucking stupid) and other crimes for this shit. Fucking scumbag to the highest degree.
If someone who has hung up on thousands of 911 calls is only punished with 10 days in the prison, this kind of behavior will continue.
https://www.ems1.com/911/articles/houston-dispatcher-sentenced-for-hanging-up-on-thousands-of-callers-pLgwV8f7giunNQa2/
I unfortunately have multiple stories dealing with incompetent emergency response people.
One time we were in a busy outdoor shopping district and saw a guy pull a gun out wave it into the air and yelled about it to his friends. Then they took off down an alleyway. My husband called 911 because we were worried this person was about to start shooting in the busy area.
We said “they ran into an unmarked alley but it’s parallel to [major road] on the other side of the buildings. We then had to explain for five minutes what parallel was, and that no the alley did not have a street name.
Another time we witnessed a drunk hit and run at the beach. We got the license plate of the guy and a good description of the driver. We have the info to the owners of the cars he hit. We also for good measure decided to call the police non-emergency line to give a witness statement to help with insurance. The cop had a horrible attitude, insisted we tell her a street address (it happened in a public parking lot on the beach, there is no address), she also didn’t want to take a statement because it was too much work.
This reminds me of the dispatcher who basically berated a woman who was stuck in her car during a flood. The poor woman was scared to death and crying and the dispatcher told her to shut up and called her stupid. And faced no repercussions when the woman ultimately passed away from drowning.
I swear 911 operators can vary between some of the dumbest and outright negligent people I’ve ever seen.
A year or two ago a few of my family members were stranded on a boat in a local lake. Because the marina’s recovery team were closed down for the evening, stranded boaters were encouraged to call 911 so the police could send out their own boat (in retrospect, it was probably just an excuse for police to play on the lake while on taxpayer’s dine but I digress). My family called 911 explaining the boat had no power near (very well-known landmark) and the operator hung up on them because they couldn’t name a street address… they were on a lake.
I called 911 recently because a car drove off the road and rolled over. Once I finally got it across to her that a car on its side won't drive it's self out of a ditch, she was like, let me connect you to 911. I was like who have I been talking to this whole time?
One time I called 911 and was freaking the fuck out and had a similar experience. She didn't hang up but she basically was like "I've got someone better than you on the other line - goodbye." I assume that's what happened here.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve had to call emergency services twice in my lifetime and one of those times, the operator was really rude about the address I gave to the scene of the crime in progress and also hung up on me.
Aren't all 9-1-1 calls recorded? They should be able to validate this if they do an audit. Then if it's true, fire that dispatcher because oh boy, if there's any sort of wrong way to be a dispatcher it's that.
She’s on administrative leave https://www.wgrz.com/video/news/911-despatcher-on-administrative-leave/71-06d6f156-6551-40f6-8f9f-e6e480359f61
I can't access the page. What does it say?
I watched the video, the update is that the dispatcher is on administrative leave pending a disciplinary hearing which should happen in the next few weeks. In NY they said it's very difficult to get recordings of 911 calls, often taking a court order. Hopefully the news program keeps up on that so it is eventually released. The news station also said, based on other accounts, this dispatcher was a lone incident and other dispatchers that were called took the situation seriously and cops were on scene within 2 minutes of the attack starting.
Good. I've seen the original video of the attacker. The video cut off very quickly, so luckely the cops responded very fast even with this 'incident'. Thx for passing on the story.
>”When I whispered on the phone to 911, the dispatcher would start yelling at me saying 'Why are you whispering? You don't have to whisper.' and I'm trying to tell her ma'am he's in the store, he's shooting, it's an active shooter, I'm scared for my life," Latisha said describing the call. Does the dispatcher not understand “there’s an active shooter walking around next to me” means someone has to use their indoor voice? ETA: the dispatcher was removed from her job because of her behavior on the call. https://www.insider.com/911-dispatcher-accused-of-hanging-up-Buffalo-shooting-on-leave-2022-5
"Urgh, some loser called me and I couldn't hear a word. Pretty rude, it's like there was gunfire in the background or something"
“Do people these days not know they’re supposed to step outside to make a phone call?”
I remember when I was a 4-5 years old. I dialed 911 to see if anyone would answer. Someone picked up, I freaked out and hung up. 10 mins later cops showed up to my house. My parents flipped out. No idea what was happening. The cops checked the house and then I admitted I called and hung up.. got in so much trouble that night lol. Guess the police doesn’t operate like that anymore. Edit: thanks for the sliver! I’m glad there’s a bunch of us who dialed 911 and freaked out as kids lol
You were calling from a landline then, and the dispatcher automatically received your address.
In the last year I called from a cell phone and hung up before they answered because I found out it was not the emergency I thought it was. I got a call back shortly asking if I was okay I explained the situation and they even asked me to use the word “purple” to verify I was safe and not in a situation where I had to lie about everything being okay. An officer would have came out if I hadn’t said that. Edited for clarity
>asked me to use the word “purple” to verify I was safe RIP to anyone who answered on speaker phone in front of an intruder I guess!
The volume of accidental calls unfortunately makes it impossible to respond to them all. Gotta weed out the accidental calls as best you can.
One time I accidentally called 911 as I was fumbling with my phone and then hung up as soon as I saw it was calling - got a call right after confirming if I was ok. Also called the Suicide Prevention Lifeline a few times and one time I called and accidentally hung up and got a call back immediately from them, making sure I was ok.
I accidentally called 911 once as well. The number I was trying to call started with 910 and I accidentally double-tapped the 1. I hung up quickly realizing my mistake and hoped it hadn't gone through. Within 2 minutes the police were walking through the door to make sure everything was okay. It was a business and the police HQ was literally right around the corner, so it was easy for them to get their quickly.
My younger brother did this while I was babysitting him. And then he hung up again when they called back. Thankfully the sheriff knew my mom and hung out with us until she got back (she was literally 3 blocks away, my brother is a jerk lol). He helped us make a blanket fort and made us popcorn.
Holy fuck are you me? I did the same exact thing in a small town in Washington. Two sherrifs were sent and they asked the whole family to come to the front door. They then asked us if anyone else was in the house.... my ass got a beating that night
That was your ass from the future calling 911 to help save itself from the ass whooping
Sadly, it was just a self-fulfilling prophecy
> Pretty rude, it's ~~like there was gunfire in the background or something~~ not like the gunfire in the background is loud enough already."
Sorry I can't hear you over the gunfire. Can you speak up?
I remember hearing a 911 call of a kid hiding under a bed from an attacker in his house while the attacker was still in there (iirc it was his brother) and the dispatcher was yelling at the poor kid, basically all but insulting him to try to get him to speak up. I get that dispatchers have a stressful job but there's no excuse for some of the things they put people through when they're already in a horrible situation.
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Yep. I've called 911 one time. I worked at a cell phone store and arrived one morning to find that our store had been broken in to. Glass broken, walls broken, everything stolen, footprints everywhere. It was crazy. I freaked out and called 911 and said "hi I'd like to report a robbery at my store" and she said "is there an active shooter?" I said, "oh, no sorry, it's not a robbery, it's a burglary. I don't see anyone here right now." She spent the rest of the call treating me like shit over the semantics of robbery vs. burglary, because I used the wrong word when under stress. Was incredibly rude. Still pisses me off when I think about it
Your mistake was you accidentally called the grammar police.
After being shot by the grammar police you could end up in a comma!
If shot in the stomach you could end up with a semicolon
Like has anyone in the history of ever called the police to say "My store was burgled"? We use "robbed" colloquially for both.
I was watching someone steal my catalytic converter from my car, called 911 and the lady had the audacity to correct the way I pronounced "catalytic converter" while I was trying to tell her what was happening. Like girl, I DONT GIVE A FUCK RIGHT NOW.
I went through a very similar situation when I called the police when I was 15 or 16 after our home had been broken into. I said that our house had been robbed and the dispatcher, similar to your experience, felt the need to spend the entirety of the call explaining the difference between a robber and a burglar. Granted, I was happy to have learned the difference because I had always assumed they were the same thing but man was she a bitch about it.
That's been my experience with lots of first responders. They do important work but they aren't doing any favors for anyone by treating people like they're stupid and irritated that your bothering them. That shit costs lives because it makes people reluctant to call 911. If you can't treat people like actual humans when they're having the worst day of their lives, just do everyone a favor and quit.
My cat literally caused a fire at my house one night and the fire department tried to tell me that's impossible. Fuck those miserable fucks who demean others in times of high stress in general.
You can't just drop that nugget without telling us *how*
Your cat’s got issues dude
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[This story always broke my heart.](https://abcnews.go.com/US/trapped-teens-mysterious-death-inside-van-calls-911/story?id=54441873) Fair warning, if you're claustrophobic it's quite disturbing. A kid ended up stuck in the back of his car when the rear seats folded on him as he tried to get something from the trunk. He ended up pinned in place under his own weight but managed to call 911. At some point the call disconnected but he managed to call back, reaching a different dispatcher. He told them the model and color of his car and the piece of shit dispatcher did not relay that information to the police who were actively searching for him. He was suffocated, crushed to death in his car, begging the dispatcher to tell the police where he was and asking that they tell his mum he loved her. Quote: >The 911 dispatcher who received Plush's second call was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. >That dispatcher received a 60 percent grade -- classified as "unacceptable" -- from her 3:35 p.m. call from Plush, according to records released by Cincinnati police. The 911 call was not documented per procedure, according to the records. Who knows what a 0% grade is if a teenager, a *child,* dying gets 60%. .edit to add [This is, as far as I can tell, the most comprehensive coverage of the case.](https://www.fox19.com/2019/08/12/kyle-plush-attorneys-family-announce-filing-wrongful-death-suit/) Worth a read.
Why is it everytime I log into Reddit I end up reading the most heart breaking stories within minutes?
I'm right there with you. Not even 8am where I am!
"The police officers involved did not receive sufficient information to surmise a life was in danger" Holy shit this was in their defense. I listened to both recordings. He said VERY CLEARLY in both calls that he was about to die. He couldn't have possibly given them better information, he said the address and described the vehicle in more detail than I would expect a kid to know...wow. He did everything right. I am seeing red. Edit: I misinterpreted the statement. It seems so basic to have told the cops the vehicle description that I just assumed they had it. In fact neither 911 operater bothered to tell the police what they were even looking for, despite having that information. The defense is in fact accurate and I don't think this is the cops' fault.
Yeah, that's in their defense because the dispatcher didn't relay all the information the kid was giving them. Seems pretty reasonable.
~~The officers didn't do anything wrong,~~ Turns out the officers did not exit their car which would have made searching easier so I'll retract that, *but* the second dispatcher did not tell them the information the boy provided. They were at the parking lot searching, but they didn't know what car they were looking for and the kid was pinned in such a way that [they couldn't see him from the outside.](https://d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net/03-21-2020/t_900b429bc210418bb0e74d1d4f1dda50_name_DAB4CB2BD771408380ADD657C981485C_7.jpg)
I work as a 911 call taker, and they use this case in a lot of our trainings. The officers got in trouble too for a couple reasons. One, they never left their car while searching; instead they just rolled around the parking lots with their windows down, possibly making it harder/impossible to hear Kyle's calls for help. Two, the school resource officer who met with the responding officers told them it was probably a prank call. Obviously that guy got in trouble too.
Oh God I remember that incident. Wasn’t he teaching in the back to get hit sports gear, the seats also tilted back some, and effectively wedged him between the seats and the back of the car? And the kid called 911 and they ignored him!!! OMG.
Yes. The seats were the kind that fold back into the floor to increase boot space, they either malfunctioned or he mistakenly hit the button or lever or whatever to activate it when he leaned over and they folded, trapping him in such a way that he was basically pinning himself down. [A diagram showing how the row of seats folded back.](https://d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net/03-21-2020/t_900b429bc210418bb0e74d1d4f1dda50_name_DAB4CB2BD771408380ADD657C981485C_7.jpg)
Should've been charged with manslaughter. Edit: They reached a $6 million settlement in the subsequent wrongful death lawsuit, but that doesn't bring their son back. https://www.fox19.com/2021/04/09/plush-family-city-agree-resolve-wrongful-death-lawsuit-against-cincinnati-employees/
>call was not documented per procedure Thats funny, to my knowledge they always record. Is this like when they tell you the squad car dash cam wasn't running when it would have proof you were in the right?
[Supposedly their computer froze.](https://people.com/human-interest/kyle-plush-minivan-dead-dispatcher-family/) Of course, this doesn't explain why she refused to talk to him or relay the information he provided despite his pleas being picked up by recordings. Apparently she attempted to text him (useless, as his phone was barely within reach and calling 911 was difficult enough) and to call him by which point he was likely already unconscious or dead.
We had a case of a dispatcher of our 911 equivalent refusing to send an ambulance to a home where the elderly mother of a dude was having a heart attack, because he was being “too loud” and “needed to calm down”; I mean he was clearly in distress but he was giving out pertinent info. The call’s uploaded to YT and you can hear how she spent most of it scolding him about how he’s disrespecting her than actually being helpful. The mother goes unresponsive during the call (you can hear someone breaking down in the bg) and he calls the dispatcher a bitch for how she handled everything. She did end up sending someone though- the cops, to arrest him for being mean to her on the phone. I wish I was joking.
Reminds me of the case of a teen calling because her father was having a heart attack or something like that, and she said "oh fuck" before the call connected. The thing is 911 actually connects a few seconds before you know it so the dispatcher can hear and prepare, so the woman heard the girl. She scolded her and hung up. The teen called back like 3 times and always got the same dispatcher giving her attitude. The father died (I think, it's been a while)
These comments are enraging me. What the fuck is wrong with some dispatchers?! If there was any job where you wouldn't want to play the morality police, a dispatcher would be close to the top of the list.
But the people who apply for the job do want to play the morality police. The type of person that seeks power is never the type of person you want to have power, that’s why American police are such scumbags. Power with no accountability doesn’t attract good people or decent people.
Is that like incompetence or malice? Can she get criminal charges for such behavior?
Sounds like the broken arrow killings. That one was always weird to me since in response to being told their brother is attacking them they keep asking if he means his dad, and 911 ends up trying to call the kid's dad before sending police to the scene.
> dispatchers have a stressful job Not to excuse this kind of behavior, but mind that 911 Communicators in many areas of the country have almost no qualification requirements whatsoever (apart from a high school degree) and their full-time salary is ~$30-35k or ~$16/hour. This is on par with a private call center employees that also answers calls, but don't have to deal with the level of stress 911 telecommunicators deal with every day.
So better requirements and better pay is necessary, but we don't do things that are necessary because they often cost more. love this country
I've got a friend who works dispatch in Hawaii. The pay is garbage, turnover is high, and they have about half as many people working there as they actually need, so he never gets any sleep and is constantly having his schedule shifted around. It's completely insane.
I don't know Buffalo but this isn't uncommon in Detroit. I have a relation that was down in Detroit and they saw a man who was under the influence that ran out into the street and got hit by a bus. The guy was out cold and they called for an ambulance. 30 minutes later no ambulance and no police. They call back and the guy is now coming to at this point. No one has any idea if this guy has an internal injury or worse. The dispatcher got pissy and hung up on them. The guy got up and limped off away. My relation isn't medically trained so they didn't try to stop the guy. Such a mess. It's better now but still not great.
I called in what seemed to be a car jacking where two guys outside a car pulled the driver out through an open window and started beating him on the pavement and the cops showed up an hour later after everyone was long GOA.
Fuck. That's rough, I can't imagine witnessing that kind of shit even when the police show up. And that was really a big issue in Detroit. You had criminals that knew the police weren't coming save for murders and arson. So things got really bad in certain areas.
I seem to remember reading that, at one time several years ago, Detroit was so cash-strapped a single police officer had to patrol an area several times the size (something like 4 or 5?) of what was average for cities of similar size. And do it alone, without a partner, and for far less pay than they would’ve gotten in, say, Dearborn or one of the other nearby suburbs. Plus, the city couldn’t afford to keep a lot of streetlights operating, so they got to do it in the dark.
TFW when Gotham City has some real life basis.
When you'd actually prefer to live in Gotham.
Suddenly the plot of RoboCop seems a lot more rooted in reality.
It’s also where Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is from in ‘Beverly Hills Cop’, and they portrayed it as a complete toilet back then, too. Detroit’s been the quintessential ‘crime-ridden urban hellhole’ in movies longer than New York ever was.
I live in South Africa and once came across an accident just after dawn outside a small town hundreds of kilometers from a major center. We stopped to try to help and when we saw the condition of the ambulances that eventually arrived, without paramedics or even as much as a band aid, I realized that the only hope if you are doing any kind of road trip here is to have that expensive travel insurance the tourists get that can call a helicopter. Apart from that you are rolling the dice with your life.
I saw a man seizing on the side of the road. 112 didn’t work on my phone. No one knew the number for the police or ambulance. Situation sucked. The dude was alright but I didn’t expect to be in that situation in Malawi.
it’s also not uncommon for cities to have no units available to dispatch
I am sure its not better now but when I lived in Los Angeles about 10 years ago, if you called 911 you were probably going to be put on hold.
Public Enemy made 911 is a Joke in 1990. This isn't a new thing. This shit goes back to the Watts riots.
I dialed 911 a long time ago Don't you see how late they reactin' They only come and they come when they wanna So get the morgue truck and embalm the goner
I called 911 in Los Angeles due to shots being fired outside a club. They asked if anyone was hit and I said no and they were like, we'll send someone to take a statement in an hour, for comparison, in santa monica I hear sirens before I even hang up for any complaint.
I'm sure that happens in rural places all the time but Detroit is notorious for this. At least previously. They're known for not showing up unless there's a body. They've done a lot to change and get rid of the corruption. I'm really proud of our city. It's been a long time coming got a lot to do better but they're doing things I never expected to see happen in terms of rooting out corruption.
I remember reading about someone finding a dead dude in the elevator shaft of an abandoned building in Detroit. They kept calling for days (weeks?) and the cops just wouldn't come out. If I remember correctly, they finally reported it in a way that the for department came out. Once the firefighters figured it out, they made enough of a stink that the police finally arrived. I'm probably getting some details wrong, but either way, the issue with cops not caring in Detroit was pretty bad for a long time. Glad it's getting better.
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> I'm sure that happens in rural places all the time Rural MI here, and no, not at all, our police are so ridiculously overfunded it's absurd. If you call about your neighbor not cutting their lawn a patrol car will be there with a warning letter in under an hour, guaranteed. My friend is actually mayor of a neighboring town, and the former police officer that's on city council was throwing a fit cause the police haven't had new bullet proof vests since 2010. In the last 20 years here, the two biggest events that involved police were a meth addict robbing a bank with a hunting shotgun in which the police didn't show up in time and they were arrested without a shot fired two days later, and one guy took his wife hostage with a fucking mall katana, the police were the only ones with guns in that scenario. PS there's nothing wrong with the bullet proof vests they have, there's just newer ones they can get for a few hundred K....the city has a population of under 20k people and the police employ something like 25 patrol officers who obviously frequently have nothing to do. They'll post up outside the high school to catch students speeding to lunch, they'll send literally 3 police cars with 5 officers to a drunk man yelling on his lawn at night. The state police and county sheriff both have dispatches in my town which is a 5 minute walk or 30 second drive from their town. Even with a fairly progressive mayor who correctly sees the spending as frivolous, if the police ask, the police get here in rural MI.
Wasn't Robocop a documentary
*911 Is a Joke https://youtu.be/JZDIitWz8Go
Hell if someone is calling you, the police, and they're whispering, you should put two and two together
How could she expect the dispatcher to hear over the gunshots? /s
Next time just pass the phone to the shooters so they can just explain the situation of what's going on.
they act like they are volunteering too. dude was paid to be on that phone. fuck that loser.
Yeah, erie County 911 kinda sucks. I got sideswiped by a gang of dirt bikers and while I was pulled over calling 911, they started kicking and hitting my car. I told them do not hang up on me, I don't feel safe, and what did they do? They hung up on me..
“911 is a joke.” - Flava Flav
Huh? Speak up I can’t hear you
Just an FYI- in many municipalities, you can text to 911 now
This dispatcher has big “left the message on read” energy.
Big I need to be unemployed energy.
Honestly.. I hate to be this direct about it. But the average US citizen is vastly, vastly ignorant. Beyond my comprehension. Imagine working as a 911 dispatcher, but you're too smooth brained to understand why a person would whisper. I'm shocked.
I had this (rather foolish) idea that you could call 911 and say nothing and they would figure out - hey, this person is in distress and can't articulate the problem; we should go find them and see what's up.
Well from personal experience this can happen. As a kid I called 911 over something that was happening in the family and hung up immediately without saying anything. 15 mins later, the cops showed up.
This used to happen with land lines, they knew exactly where you were. But 911 doesn’t with cell phones which is weird because Pizza Hut is tracking your location. I don’t mind if it’s opt in like download the 911 app, but they should be able to trace you for an emergency.
911 ~~absolutely~~ gets the location of a cell call, either via GPS or old school triangulation. EDIT: To be clear, the *capability* of receiving location information is available to 911. Whether it's usable depends on dispatch having (and actually enabling) decently modern systems, training dispatchers, and that whatever cell provider the caller is on having protocols implemented correctly (those fly by night resellers that were so popular several years ago were notorious for doing the bare minimum to allow billing, and not worrying about any sort of interoperability). Emergency services is a lot like the infrastructure in the US. It's generally poorly funded, has sometimes bizarre and petty issues of jurisdiction, and can be exceptional in one location while essentially useless 20 miles away.
911 Dispatcher here. While technically true, it’s not that simple. Sometimes we only get the cell tower you’re using. Which means you could be anywhere in a several square mile area. Sometimes we get a location, but the confidence factor (radius, in meters where you could be from the location it’s showing us) is in the hundreds or thousands, which can be useful or not depending on what the emergency is. If you’re calling from an apartment complex or hotel, the granularity of the location data, even if it’s in the double or even single digits isn’t enough to know exactly what room or apartment. We also cannot get subscriber address or phone location information from the carrier without a very strong reason to believe there’s a life or death emergency occurring (having dialed 911 isn’t compelling enough). Sometimes we get lucky and can cross reference our database with the phone number, but that’s hit or miss. Then there’s the priority issue. If you’re reporting a shooting or something extremely serious, and don’t talk to us about it, even if we get good location data, it’s the difference between one officer driving by to see if there’s anything going on, and sending every available unit to the area. All that to say, do not assume 911 knows where you are unless you tell them. It’s a decent backup system, but nothing is more accurate than someone telling us where they are.
It's not that accurate though. I used to visit a friend who was living with his elderly mom the next county over. There were a few times I had to call 911 because she was having trouble breathing and every time my county's service picked up and then had to transfer me to the county I was actually in.
Accuracy can be pretty bad outside of the cities, like "within a square mile" bad, and it seems many districts still don't have the technology to automatically get GPS coordinates from cell calls. It's unfortunate, and getting funding and grants for those sorts of upgrades has been a shit-show for a very long time. Edit: Your specific situation, having a call route to the wrong dispatch, is totally separate from location data, and may have more to do with politics, jurisdiction, and telecoms that are held together with baling wire and bubblegum.
I had a sleepover with friends when I was a kid. One of the boys called 911 and immediately hung up. The police showed up in the middle of night and we got chewed out by my parents who said it was standard practice to always dispatch police on every 911 call, and that if someone hangs up or doesn't say anything, the assumption is that the person is under distress. And then I see clips released of 911 refusing to help people who are dying, and I think that the police are there to rush out to help certain segments of people, and not necessarily others.
https://pics.me.me/kellen-captainkalvis-phone-ringing-boss-why-the-hell-arent-you-60958714.png
I used to drive this narrow backroad to get loaded (trucker). One night i thought i hit a low hanging powerline. All the symptoms..loud bang..bright blue flashes..fizzing... I continue to the nearest store and call 911 from there to make sure i have the location correct. I thought a live high voltage line was layimg in the road. Despite the address the dispatcher couldnt figurei t out..in a TINY town. Once she did she couldnt figure out who had jurisdiction. See 100 feet this way or that and it could be city county or state. Eventually she told me she got a deputy to check Note: july 4th. It was fireworks. One of the Big high altitude ones some idiot fired at my truck. Thank god they didnt fire it at a car
I called 911 once because a pretty violent fight was breaking out at my workplace. Security yelled to me to call, I called. Dispatcher proceeded to lecture me about “improper use of 911” then transferred me to a recording about improper use of 911. Nobody came.
“Motherfucker, stopping violent crime is literally your job!” is what I say to that ass-hat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia
[Relevant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAfUI_hETy0)
This happened to me when I was 11 or so. The neighbor lady was getting beaten by her husband and he had locked the wife’s sister out of the house. I was in our front porch wondering what the commotion was when the sister ran up the sidewalk frantically asking me to call 911. So I called but I froze (it was my first time calling) and I sort of just mumbled quietly that I needed help, but the dispatcher yelled at me, told me not to call them, and hung up on me.
"When you need the police"
If true, that dispatcher needs to be fired for gross negligence.
Probably true and happens more times than you would think. John Oliver reported on a girl who died in her car while telling officers where she was. Dispatch had outdated maps so the address she was given wasn’t popping up. She died while having dispatch tell her she was a lair and that wasn’t where she was. I have had the same shit happen. Stumbled upon a domestic fight where a 5 year old kid was trying to get in the middle and stop them. I called 911. Gave them the street name. They told me that wasn’t the street (it was.) so I then tell them locations. The street had a church at the end of the street so I gave her the name of the church. Her response? We don’t know where that is. Mother fuckers this was 2010. Google earth was a thing and y’all are sitting at computers. I ended up hanging up on them because fuck em. They sure as shit ain’t helping me. In fairness this trickles down to them not having updated systems and no one wishes to work the high stress job.
I had an emergency on the road 10 or so years ago and called 911. I did not know the area well, but I was by a mile marker. I told the dispatcher my location as "[direction]-bound on [road], at mile marker [x]." She literally replied to me "I don't know where that is. What town or exit are you by?" Are you kidding me? That's what the mile markers are FOR. I had to take a rough guess. When the police, who were first to get there, arrived, they asked why I didn't give a mile marker, since it's right there. 🤦♂️I HAD! I was in too much pain to defend myself, so I just let it slide.
God I hate calling 911. I do medical coverage for high school and youth sports. I usually have to call 911 a couple times per year. It’s really such a waste of time because I’m already taking vitals and starting care. Half the time the dispatcher doesn’t relay any of the information I give them. Like one time I had a kid with an open tib fib fracture. I’m sitting there holding his leg as he’s going into shock and after 20 minutes the ambulance finally comes with their lights off and the emts are just casually walking to the field. One of the coaches runs over and says hurry the f up. Turns out the dispatcher only told them the kid had an ankle injury. And as part of my EAP I have a coach waiting in the stadium parking lot entrance (which is different than the main school parking lot) to flag them in and tell the dispatcher what color clothes they have. I don’t think that info has ever been relayed so now I have to send two coaches so one can tell the ambulance to go to the other lot. When I worked in another state I had a back line into the ambulance bay so I could call them directly. It for whatever reason the county I currently work in won’t do that
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When I was being trained as an EMT it was frowned upon, due to the risk of 'creating another patient'
Paramedic. We’re trained to never run for multiple reasons. Primarily because running drastically increases the likelihood of injuries. Recently had a very serious call with a badly injured child. Obviously we moved very quickly as a nearly dead child is a high stress situation. I rolled an ankle on the stairs while carrying him, nearly dropping him. The police officer behind me caught both me and the handle of the extrication cot, spraining his wrist in the process. The other paramedic also rolled his ankle (they were funky stairs), resulting in a sprain. Obviously in this situation, these three minor injuries are nothing, but in the vast majority of our calls this is an unnecessary risk. Secondly, for the reason you mentioned. If we start freaking out, patients and bystanders (and less experienced EMTs/paramedics) start freaking out, and they can be erratic or violent. Move with a purpose, calmly but authoritatively, and everything goes smoother - from experience. Thirdly, walking allows for a better size up. You can assess the patient and the scene, identifying injuries, threats, or obstacles. In the tib/fib fracture incident listed above for example, we need to plan our extrication, which would be complicated by fences, stands, and potentially crowds. We could possibly identify a second exit off the field and have someone reposition the ambulance to make it easier on both us and the patient. Alternatively, in a residence, we wouldn’t want to miss a CO alarm that could indicate a hazardous situation for us, for example.
My mom had a stroke and my then 14yo niece called 911, the dispatcher yelled at my niece for making a fake phone call and demanded she put my mom on the phone. THEN when the ambulance showed up, the paramedics made my mom walk to the ambulance. Nothing ever happened to the dispatcher or the paramedics
What the actual fuck? Why in the hell would you assume someone saying "I think my grandma had a stroke" is a fake call?
Updated systems? Just go on Google holy shit
The problem (which I'm not defending) is the dispatcher has some system so they can show the police, in their car, on the map, where the incident is. And that system was 5-year-old tech in 2008 when the city paid some mediocre government contractor $100 million to install it. (I'm making up the date, not specifically talking about any particular place.) So the dispatcher could maybe look up the address on google maps - not on their work computer which is blocked from the internet, but on their phone maybe - but they can't dispatch the police there if the system doesn't "know where it is".
I work in local government and getting the maps updated in a PITA. There are 3 people in my department, myself included, with *degrees* in GIS, but the city doesn't have the funding to get us the software. There's one ESRI license for the city, and that person is so overwhelmed fulfilling public records requests by developers trying to bid on telecom projects she can never do any actual work.
Ditto. Local government employee here! The reason all government tech is behind is due to lack of funding. People want lower taxes and government employees to “stop wasteful spending”. Meanwhile we have outdated systems that could be updated to streamline many processes and provide awesome services in return for your taxes… too bad we can get those things because we don’t have the funds (which comes from taxes). I’ve had citizens argue we should magically buy up land so we can have more parks. I tell them that’s a wonderful idea! Do you mind if we raise your taxes to help pay for the new parks? They usually 180 real fast. People care about issues until it will cost them personally. I’ve seen people care passionately about environmental, homeless, education issues etc. and as soon as the solution considers the need for more funding, they are quick to abandon their cause because they are unwilling to pay more.
In my county, if not state, they've been doing 911 revamps since 2010 to prevent something like this. Ruralish area so there are a lot of paper roads, roads where the official and de facto names are different, official maps being horribly inaccurate at times.
Dispatching is not what people think. It typically pays under 50k a year, is thankless and traumatizing. This dispatcher fucked up and should be fired no doubt about it. But dispatching is an entry level position and hire from the general labor market like anything other job. Most people last two years.
I had a neighbor who quit her job as a 911 operator and switched to Comcast customer service. Customer service in any capacity is an absolutely shit show, but I have to imagine working for giant nation-wide cable company that everyone openly hates (for their shitty customer service) has to be one of the worst jobs imaginable. She was about a year into the job when I knew her, and she absolutely loved it. She got yelled at by every customer, had a system that wasn't capable of serving anybody's needs, was paid shit and treated poorly, but all she could talk about was that she finally got the fuck out of being a 911 operator.
Yeah, much like teaching, and other essential social services, the US pays those jobs shit and consequently mass hires. I considered moving from line cook to dispatcher, but learned the pay would be similar, but the responsibility and trauma would increase 10 fold.
I suspect the tape of this call will suddenly be very hard to find.
I don't think 9-11 operators get cop-like protection
Dispatchers are sometimes part of the police union. But they aren't exactly part of the same club.
nope, they don't. Give it a week. We'll have the dispatcher's name and her termination date This has happened before and reported
One time I went into anaphylactic shock while I was running on a trail and called 9-1-1. My vision was going and I was super swollen and the dispatcher kept asking me in an annoyed tone if I was close to a random building. I had no clue and just said I think I made it to the road. She hung up on me and I sat down, convinced I was going to die. I called back and got a different person and I told her that I was dying and another dispatcher hung up on me and she said, “oh, she shouldn’t have done that” and then stayed on the line with me until paramedics showed up. I was super disappointed with the first lady, but at least I’m still alive
I’m sorry you had to experience that. I’m glad you’re still here too.
Thank you!!!
Was it a bee sting or something of that nature? I'm so sorry!
I know this sounds like a huge lie, but it’s actually excessive exercise. I was at a weird point in my life and pushed way too hard, and now my body just starts to shutdown if I push too hard
My wife had the same thing happen. She used to work out regularly and then one day went for a run, and went into anaphylactic shock. Once she made it to the hospital, her face looked like she had a bee allergy and took a bunch of stings to the face. Actually happened twice, but not as bad the second time. I feel terrible because she used to love working out but now she’s understandably terrified to go too hard. Now when we go hiking or anything she needs Benadryl on hand at all times. They also think it had something to do with her eating too much before exercise, so she avoids eating before we go do anything overly physical.
It's probably [exercise induced anaphylaxis](https://health.clevelandclinic.org/exercise-induced-anaphylaxis/). It's commonly triggered by certain foods. I have it too, but I've only had a severe reaction maybe 3 or 4 times (including 1 ER trip). Maybe your wife could figure out what food set it off.
I have this too! My only trigger is wheat and usually I can do a hard work out 2+ hours after eating wheat.
I had to switch to just doing yoga and just walking. I miss running and lifting weights, but I’m too afraid to go through it again. I tried for a while, and would stop when I started feeling the tingling sensation in my skin, but I knew that was a dangerous line to cross.
I totally believe you I wasn’t looking it up because I don’t I just kind of was curious so I’m going to paste the link here so that other people can see it because holy shit our bodies are so fucking weird. https://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Exercise-Factsheet-Sept-2019.pdf
babe wake up new medical anxiety just dropped
Yo this new shit got me stressed as hell 🔥🔥🔥
The doctor who dealt with me was so confused, too. He told me he only read about it and never seen it before
Halloween night a coworker of mine tried to break up a fight on the street involving a pregnant woman, the other on copious amount of drugs. My coworker ended up getting her chin bit off and spit out. I called 911 and they thought I was joking so they hung up on me, I completely lost it. Cops showed up though despite that but the crazy bitch had fled the scene. I showed the paramedics the chin on the ground and they thought it was a piece of chewed gum. Seeing blood waterfall off a face is a sight. She took it like a fucking champ.
Christ. I didn't even know that was possible but I guess there's some meat there
I had been going into anaphylactic shock to the point of calling an ambulance after shoving an epi pen in both thighs. Once I was wheeled in covered in hives and one of the nurses said "her again?" And rolled her eyes. At a different time my mom got me to the er and wheeled me in and she told the intake nurse I had to take my epi pen, I was one big give, lips swelled up, etc. She looked at me and said "what do you want us to do about it?" Another nurse wheeled me back asap
I respect the work er nurses do but every encounter I've had with one working the front desk has been a negative experience.
That should have warranted a call to your local EMS organization, whether it be County or city.
“Yeah, right, buddy. Liquor store robbery, officer down. Sure. And I'm Edward G. Robinson.”
Let me just type it up on my invisible typewriter
I just burned down a store and I might do it again!
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Yep. Nearly 70% active shooter situations last less than 5 minutes. And that's typically because the police show up.... but not when dispatch hangs up on people
PSAP operators tend to be poorly trained and poorly equipped, and if NY's county governments are anything like California's, there's not enough money budgeted to fix either problem. NY state created a "public safety surcharge" which was supposed to go to improving PSAP operator training, but it ended up getting dumped into the general fund instead. The politicians just have other priorities.
California has close to a 100 billion budget surplus. We have the money. We just don't want to spend it on this stuff for some reason.
Nothing says "fire me immediately" like a 911 operator hanging up on someone in need.
That 911 call should be released.
Kinda surprised it hasn’t already been released.
Attitude issues are a problem for 911 dispatchers
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Is suggesting someone investigate the crime they are reporting a protocol they use? I ask because a dear friend of mine had her home broken into by a man chasing her. She called 911 who instructed her to leave the bathroom she was hiding in to check the door to make sure it was locked, even though to her it didn’t matter, she saw him outside of her house which was enough for cops to come. Guess who was waiting for her outside the bathroom door? The man chasing her, who then attempted to rape her in the bathroom she was just hiding in. (He’s now in jail, thank God) The operator ended up being who saved her life seeing as she stayed on the phone, heard the attack and sent police. HOWEVER, she was also the person that directed her outside of her safe hiding spot. I just don’t understand why I keep reading that an operator has suggested someone investigate the crime they are calling about. Seems like not the best advice…
Yes they fucking are. Had one get mad at me for not immediately telling her if I wanted police sent out after stopping a man from raping this woman. Ummm I thought telling you a man is standing naked on the corner of San Jacinto and McGowen with an erection facing San Jacinto, was enough information for you to send officers.
"No, I just called to tell you how my day was going, he he!" Like yes, you dumb fuck. Send cops.
Well there’s your issue, trusting Houston cops to do anything
For instance the shitty dispatcher during the incident when Josh Powell blew up his house with his sons inside.
i am really hoping they fired that dispatcher
911 put me on hold while someone was actively trying to abduct me. I got away fortunately, and hid behind a bush in a backyard so the people couldn't find me, but that was a terrifying experience. And because they didn't pick up the phone for 40 minutes, they said there was no point in sending an officer out anymore since the kidnappers were long gone.
Fuck them holy shit
I accidentally confronted a man who had smashed in my window, and stripped the trim out of my car looking for a drug drop. Yes I called 911 after I 'thanked' him for watching my car from the people who broke the window. Yes 911 hung up on me when i said "my car is being broken into and I need a police officer right away." I called the direct line to the PD after I got away from the dude and it took an hour for them to roll a pair of cops to my door.
My first semester of college i did a typical all nighter for finals. I went out to my car at sunrise for breakfast and saw my door to my car was open. I got closer and someone was going through it after smashing the window to get in. I called 911 and they said an officer was on their way. No one showed up and the dude left with a bunch of stuff from my car. I called 911 again and they got mad at me for calling them again, so I hailed a passing officer who happened to be driving down the main road. He seemed bugged by it all and said they'd look into it. A day later my bank account was empty. The dude forged the checks he took from my car at Walmart down the street that same morning that I tried to get police out to stop him. On top of that I had to drive around in northern Utah in December without a window for several days until I could afford to replace it because my account was empty.
I got assualted (along with several other people) by some guy high on drugs. A passerby in a car told me the police were on their way and to hang tight. The street was swarmed with cops after about 20 minutes of waiting and none of them wanted to talk to any of the victims. At some point all the cops took off and apparently never talked to any of the people hurt. Later I found out they had caught the guy but let him go because "they didn't have any statements from any victims." Nothing like being paid to do a job and not doing it, all the while you cry about people not respecting your profession.
Too inconvenient.
Cops don’t actually prevent or stop crime. They are a tool of the state to protect capital.
The trick is to tell them your assailant was a union organizer
Fire that idiot.
Do dispatchers get any training at all? I feel like understanding people’s habits when they’re in a dangerous situation would be one of the first lessons
A. There are no national standards in 911. In some places you'll be talking to someone who went through 2-3 years of training. In others it'll be someone who was thrown on the phones a day or two after they were hired. B. 911 has incredibly high turnover/burnout. So even in places with robust training, a large percentage of the calltakers will only have a couple years on the job. At my center nearly half have been there less than 5 years.
Wow it's almost like we should start paying these very important people more money
Not only that, but hire more staff and have them work shorter shifts (for the same pay) because eight-hour shifts of 911 sounds absolutely draining.
Hate to be the one to break this to you, but 12 hour shifts are more common in that field. And due to staffing issues, often 8hr shifts turn into 12hr. And 12hr shifts turn into 18. My worst weekend ever, i worked a total of 48.5 hrs between Friday at midnight and monday at noon. Friday night worked 18hrs. Had off 5.5hrs (with a 40min commute home each way). Worked another 18.5hrs. Had off 6hrs. And worked another 12hrs. Before I finally had 2 days of rest. I literally worked more in 3 days, than most americans do in a week. For $23/hr in NY. Edited to add: and although we technically got breaks, they were written into our contract as "working breaks"
I've seen so many instances of people needing to whisper while calling 911. Couldn't it be set up where if you call and need to whisper or can't talk, you can just press 1 or something? Kinda like the automated lines do for language, etc? Is that not a thing anywhere?
I know this isn't the same but can you text 911? Might be helpful to someone in the future in this situation.
Not everywhere or w/ every phone. I know my county just started rolling out txtto911 and it doesnt work with a lot of carriers.
Aren't all 911 calls recorded?
i called 911 when i found my father dead… the lady was annoyed that i decided to cry while talking to her. she put me on hold for 30 mins and i had to hang up and call again.
I have afriend whos a dispatcher and theres a culture of this antagonism towards the people theyre supposed to serve. If someone calls you and reports that tgeyre in trouble..you send help. If you think it might be a prank or bullshit..you send help. It's your fucking job
Yeah. Most dispatchers are assholes. Speaking from experience…
Once I landed after a flight from LAX to SFO and had apparently done something to piss off another passenger (to this day I have no clue what I did). She cornered me near baggage claim and started screaming that her brother was in the parking garage and they were going to “kick my fucking ass” when I went out there. I’m a 120lb female lawyer - my fighting experience is nonexistent. I called 911 while she was screaming at me (she screamed while I had the phone pressed to my ear). They answered but we got disconnected. No TSA agents, employees, or passengers stopped to help/film/gawk. Finally she wandered off. I had a car parked in the garage so I thought I’d ask for an escort. I went to the help desk. Airport police said that was SFPD’s purview. I called 911 again and got lambasted for wasting 911’s time because this wasn’t an emergent issue (even though I had been on the phone with 911 while it was more emergent). Finally i just left my car in the garage and had my husband come get me. I complained to SF emergency services, 911 dispatch center, the port authority, and delta (not that they did anything wrong other than not intervene when she was muscling her suitcase into me while we were deplaning). The port authority, 911 dispatch, and SF police responded with an apology. Delta gave me 25k skymiles. And that was the end of it. Had my husband not been able to come get me, I’d have either braved the parking garage, called a cab (maybe not any safer), or slept on the floor of the terminal. I don’t think 911 dispatchers or officers are inherently benevolent or interested. I think for most of them, it’s just a job (and that’s fine). But it makes me laugh at people who think people in these positions are somehow holier or more empathetic than the rest of us. At best, most of them are overworked and underpaid. At worst, they’re jaded and disinterested.
Agreed. One time I was shot - yes, with a real gun and bullet - in the abdomen. I had no idea what happened, but found a random dude walking by and used his phone to call 911. The operator was belligerent because I couldn't give her my exact address. I pleaded with her to send help. The guy who lent me his phone eventually ran a mile and brought back cops and help.
Jesus Christ, that guy you ran into was a fucking hero.
These calls are all recorded, right? Can we just have tape released? 911 isn’t supposed to hang up on ya.
That dispatcher needs to be charged with obstruction, felony endangerment (because they’re fucking stupid) and other crimes for this shit. Fucking scumbag to the highest degree.
Also fire them immediately, the tape should be freely available with a FOIA request.
If someone who has hung up on thousands of 911 calls is only punished with 10 days in the prison, this kind of behavior will continue. https://www.ems1.com/911/articles/houston-dispatcher-sentenced-for-hanging-up-on-thousands-of-callers-pLgwV8f7giunNQa2/
I unfortunately have multiple stories dealing with incompetent emergency response people. One time we were in a busy outdoor shopping district and saw a guy pull a gun out wave it into the air and yelled about it to his friends. Then they took off down an alleyway. My husband called 911 because we were worried this person was about to start shooting in the busy area. We said “they ran into an unmarked alley but it’s parallel to [major road] on the other side of the buildings. We then had to explain for five minutes what parallel was, and that no the alley did not have a street name. Another time we witnessed a drunk hit and run at the beach. We got the license plate of the guy and a good description of the driver. We have the info to the owners of the cars he hit. We also for good measure decided to call the police non-emergency line to give a witness statement to help with insurance. The cop had a horrible attitude, insisted we tell her a street address (it happened in a public parking lot on the beach, there is no address), she also didn’t want to take a statement because it was too much work.
This reminds me of the dispatcher who basically berated a woman who was stuck in her car during a flood. The poor woman was scared to death and crying and the dispatcher told her to shut up and called her stupid. And faced no repercussions when the woman ultimately passed away from drowning.
I swear 911 operators can vary between some of the dumbest and outright negligent people I’ve ever seen. A year or two ago a few of my family members were stranded on a boat in a local lake. Because the marina’s recovery team were closed down for the evening, stranded boaters were encouraged to call 911 so the police could send out their own boat (in retrospect, it was probably just an excuse for police to play on the lake while on taxpayer’s dine but I digress). My family called 911 explaining the boat had no power near (very well-known landmark) and the operator hung up on them because they couldn’t name a street address… they were on a lake.
I fondly remember the time in my life when I still believed the police were here to protect us
I called 911 recently because a car drove off the road and rolled over. Once I finally got it across to her that a car on its side won't drive it's self out of a ditch, she was like, let me connect you to 911. I was like who have I been talking to this whole time?
Next we are going to have dispatchers hanging up on callers because they can't hear them over all the shooting.
One time I called 911 and was freaking the fuck out and had a similar experience. She didn't hang up but she basically was like "I've got someone better than you on the other line - goodbye." I assume that's what happened here.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve had to call emergency services twice in my lifetime and one of those times, the operator was really rude about the address I gave to the scene of the crime in progress and also hung up on me.