This is just so horrible-
You are right MoonChild they are suppose to send 1 cruiser out if a child calls or if a return call goes unanswered and when there is a sudden hang up in the middle... (usually means someone is stopping the caller from getting help)
There are problems with a few dispatchers across the nation. I hear it more and more over the past few years. On the whole most dispatchers do thier job well.... but for a few that are lazy, angry, and undertrained and not doing thier jobs and it's a deadly and costly mistake.
Like in Chattanooga, TN where 3 out of 4 dispatchers were on a break at the same time, leaving 1 dispatcher to handle all the calls.
911 calls in Chattanooga go unanswered it also states that the office is undermanned for the size of the city. Totally unacceptable.
It's a stressful job to say the least.... I can't imagine being on the other end of the line while someone panics or dying day after day.
We are talking about life and death being in these people's hands. I remember a story where 2 dispatchers hung up on a teen because his tone was disrespectful. The kid that they were trying to save bled to death. If the dispatchers did thier jobs... there was a good chance the kid may had made it. It is a thankless job, literally you can't have everyone talk with great politeness and remember manners and keep thier voices at an even tone when someone is dying in front of them or in danger. A thank you is not as important as the emergency at the time and getting the dispatchers name in memory is not a priority. Also I have yet to hear a sobbing scared child always sound audiable. IMHO this is where the city needs to make sure these dispatchers are appreciated and to make sure they are trained.
It should not a dispatchers job to disipline a kid that is pranking... let the officers do that - That is what my hometown use to do. When my son was in Kindergarden they learned about 911 safetly and sure enough... my son called that afternoon... there was no note from the school preparing us for the lesson and sure enough the cops suddenly were at my door .... They already knew that the school was going to teach it that day and had extra officers there for the afternoon. They had a speech ready for him and I made him listen to it. (Then my daughter did it herself but a week after the lessons.) The officer told me that they get a flood of calls from kids a couple of days after that kind of lessons... it's like the kids want to make sure it works. They appreciated the school for letting them know prior to the lesson and usually had a cop teaching it.
My heart goes out to that kid..
Home 
