Re: 911:: Opinions needed

[Guest guest]

Hindsight is always a wonderful tool.....I do believe that it is better to

think the worst...act on it..then go and " disregard " from there......I cannot

begin to think that I was the dispatcher taking the call...(we all know that

depending on the call...we can read into...believe...and percieve what we

think is going on).....that is part of our job. Some people (callers) cannot

articulate what they mean....beyond the screaming and yelling and vagueness

that is interpreted into a call....we gotta do what we are paid to do.....if

it pulls someone off a break, etc...so be it.

If that Sgt has a problem with it....he will see the light when the truly bad

call comes in...vague-ness...etc....and when they...patrol....rolls into a

b/e, bankrobbery..etc...in progress....you can bet your sweeta$$ that

dispatch will not be awarded the cudos that are needed.....(unless you have a

great shift patrol ....I have one...<grin>)...go with the gut instinct...it

proved to be correct as far as response is concerned...unless your patrol was

slammed with other emergency calls...it gottem there..gottem off of

it...kinda quick...just my thoughts and meanderings....great day...cin

[Guest guest]

Sara,,,,,, he's saying you over reacted with the full fire response to the

odor investigation? Does your policy say to send a full response to this

type of call?

Don't beat yourself over this. Given your message, sounds like you sent the

right amount of help for the 3 different scenarios as they presented

themselves.

Kathy

[Guest guest]

The police Sgt should keep his mouth shut. He's a cop, not a firefighter,

and if the dispatchers are doing what the dept said, then the Sgt was out of

line, joking or not it was not his place to

say. And he should be told so. Maybe he should sit in the dispatchers

chair for a while to learn what our job is. That way his mouth won't be so

eager to spew garbage.

Joe Fehr

______________________________________________________

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[Guest guest]

...........just LOVE your responses....

I sure do appreciate such words as yours...and can understand

them....heheheheehe... " with those swords that swing...do those swipe

me? " ....LOL...

Cin in good ole Ohio

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 04/11/2000 12:13:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

cindyt@... writes:

<<

I have never, in my 11 .5 years of fire dispatching, been reprimanded for

sending too many units. you can't send too many

units, but you can send too

few. Better to blow things out of proportion than to not take things

seriously.

>>

Here here, I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. We are trained the

same way. You can NEVER send too much.

Peggy

Beverly Ma, FD

[Guest guest]

Our motto is unofficially when in doubt , page'em out. I would rather err

on the safety side for the public and units rather than not send enough help.

Freda P.

Cherokee 911, ga

[Guest guest]

Our dept. would have also sent out all the same equipment. Injury accidents

automatically get 2 officers, ambulance, paramedics, and pumper. An accident

involving a building also gets our heavy rescue unit and the fire chief. One

other thing is that our fire dept. would have had to check the building for

structural damage. I agree it's always better to send too much equipment,

than not enough.

> When the officer marked on the scene he told us that this was an injury

> accident, a

> car had hit the house and there was a strong smell of gas in the area.

>

[Guest guest]

At 10:30 PM 04/10/2000 -0500, Aryn wrote:

>Better too much than not enough eh? I have been on the phones for about a

>week and I ask callers for eveything short of Aunt Edna's Snickerdoodle

>Cookie recipe.

MY aunt Edna would NEVER share her recipe for Snickerdoodles, anyway. Ya'd

think it was a state secret! She's gonna take it to the grave with her and

then we'll never get any as good as those she makes.... dang it.

But yes, in response to the original post, I ask a lot of clarifying

questions, myself. I do this because I learned to do it, subsequent those

instances when I didn't ask 'em and got surprised, later.

Remember that pithy homily: " Oh, joy! ANOTHER learning experience! "

Happy to be here, proud to serve.

Olmstead

Communications Supervisor

~on the Central California coastline~

" Not presumed to be an official statement of my employing agency. "

Home E-mail: mailto:gryeyes@...

http://www.gryeyes.com/

[Guest guest]

Our unwritten policy is, if you don't know what you

have, send everything. You can always call units back

if not needed but if you haven't sent them and they

are needed you have waisted time by being caucious.

The only thing I could think is if you kept the woman

on the phone and tried to keep a current location of

the " person/intruder " in her house the answers may

have led to the fact it wasn't a intruder but an

accident. Otherwise from the information given I think

you did the right thing.

=====

**Dispatchers: First to be asked, last to be told.**

To Leave Internet Voice Mail or send Fax (435)309-1836

" The opinions given here are my own opinions and may not reflect the opinions

of my department "

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

> Our unwritten policy is, if you don't know what you

> have, send everything. You can always call units back

> if not needed but if you haven't sent them and they

> are needed you have waisted time by being caucious.

> The only thing I could think is if you kept the woman

> on the phone and tried to keep a current location of

> the " person/intruder " in her house the answers may

> have led to the fact it wasn't a intruder but an

> accident. Otherwise from the information given I think

> you did the right thing.

I have never, in my 11 .5 years of fire dispatching, been reprimanded for

sending too many units. Our center dispatches for 5 depts., and every dept

is of the same opinion: you can't send too many units, but you can send too

few. Better to blow things out of proportion than to not take things

seriously.

Central Yavapai Fire Dist.

[Guest guest]

Just wondering. Is this a police sergeant evaluating a fire response?

EJ Stinneford

Fayetteville Communications

--- Original Message ---

>Date:    Tue, Apr 11, 2000, 12:06am (EDT-3)

>From:    " Sara & Winfield "

>

>... As a little background the Sgt. that made

>the comment did so in a joking manner but I

>know he really means it deep down. He thinks

>dispatchers over react to situations and send

>more help than is needed. ....

[Guest guest]

The Sgt. needs to get a life!!. Since he is that concerned and smart why

isn't he a Lt. or Capt.?

Better yet since it is National Telecommunications Week, why don't yall give

him a dime and tell him to call someone who has time for this crap!. Tell

Dick that the car could have started a fire and that we send those big

trucks to put those fires out and they have their response mode and if he

doesn't like it talk to the Fire Chief. Better yet have him write the

International Associate of Fire Chiefs about it and hold his breath while he

waits on the response!. Oh how I miss those days of tossing those silly

people out of my Comm center.

My brother was a Sgt. on the police department we dispatched for, so I heard

all of this stuff over and over.

Marcus

[Guest guest]

..

> The only thing I could think is if you kept the woman

> on the phone and tried to keep a current location of

> the " person/intruder " in her house the answers may

> have led to the fact it wasn't a intruder but an

> accident. Otherwise from the information given I think

> you did the right thing.

>

------------------------------

The other dispatcher did this but the like I said the woman was hysterical.

(Rightfully so a car had just slammed into her back door where her infant

was playing.) The other dispatcher kept asking where the person was, a

description of the person and the woman kept rambling about her children and

her husband being outside. She wouldn't answer the questions. The

dispatcher (being new) was having a hard time getting control of the caller

but otherwise she did a good job with the amount of information she was able

to obtain.

Sara

[Guest guest]

> Sara,,,,,, he's saying you over reacted with the full fire response to

the

> odor investigation? Does your policy say to send a full response to this

> type of call?

>

> Kathy

----------------

Yep it sure does, full fire response on just about everything fire related.

When in doubt send em out was how I was trained. As a little background the

Sgt. that made the comment did so in a joking manner but I know he really

means it deep down. He thinks dispatchers over react to situations and send

more help than is needed. Which may be true in some cases but I would

rather have too much than not enough. It always sucks to back peddle and

try to find more equipment or help when the excrement hits the rotating

blades. By the way my comment to him when he came in the office, " Sorry I

didn't get your runcards done, didn't want to over react, I am trying to

take a more blase approach to my job. " He didn't think that was so funny.

Sara Winfield

[Guest guest]

Well Sara you have to remember that police officers always think that

firefighters blow things out of proportion! They just don't understand. Sounds

to me like everything went alright. You got the things there that needed to be

there just not quite for the same reason. I don't think the burglary in

progress was handled badly. I think that's an assumption that anyone would

make. The important thing is you covered the worst case scenario for all

possible cases and you can't do anymore than that.

Charlottesville, VA Fire Dept.

[Guest guest]

On March 20, we had 4 suspects steal a truck and ram it into a gun shop.

(with citizens help we were able to catch 2 of the suspects, 3rd one turned

self in the next day) So vehicle may be use as a entry tool.

>

>Reply-To: 911consoleegroups

>To: 911consoleegroups

>Subject: Re: 911:: Opinions needed

>Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 08:05:41 -500

>

>And another [after] thought: as far as a burg in progress, were the

>perps using a vehicle as an entry tool? Rather spectacular...

>

>

>Nick Wagner

>Cortland Co. (NY) Sheriff's Dept

>E9-1-1 Center/Sr. Supervisor

>

>mailto:nwagner@...

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Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

[Guest guest]

>She was getting ready to dispatch a burglary in

progress and was following that line of questioning. <

Why? I don't think you have enough informtion to make this a

burglary in progress...

>Now

we realized we had misunderstood the lady reporting this when she said

someone ran in my back door we thought she meant a person not a car.<

You probably needed to ask a few more questions of the caller...

Calm down... what's going on there?.... Is there an accident???

>And

when I questioned the caller I had all they said was the woman was passed

out and never mentioned that the car had hit the house.<

A question needed to be asked here...

Is there an accident there?

>Now I think with the

information we had we sent the appropriate equipment. We ended up needing

the full fire assignment to handle the gas leak anyways, a police officer to

take a report, and the squad to transport the injured person.<

True... " with the information you had " .. you sent appropriate equipment.

But, it doesn't really sound like you had a good understanding of the

call before you sent the equipment. ( Just my opinion )

You did end up needing the equipment & personnel... but with a few more

questions... a little more time... it might have went a little smoother...

>, but I don't think the other

dispatcher did anything wrong, I don't think I would of understood what the

woman meant either.<

I don't know that anyone did anything " wrong " .. but if you don't understand

" what the woman meant " ... you need to be asking more questions...

Every hysterical call we receive is not an emergency.... in fact many are

not... sometimes an extra question or two... taking only a minute... will

make all the difference...

If you did " overreact " as your Sgt. says.. you did it on the side

of safety....

I guess I'm " second guessing " your call.... but when you ask for opinions..

that's all I can do...

And keep in mind... that's all these are... my opinions... I wasn't there...

just remembering similar calls I've had over the years.

Weintraut

[Guest guest]

To Sara and the list...... Isn't 20/20 hindsight such a blessing? I can

remember many years ago when I actually worked for a living (dispatched), I

took a call from a lady reporting a fire " out back " . It took me several

questions to get around to the fact that " out back " was not in the backyard,

but " out back " in the warehouse.

[Guest guest]

>I do believe that it is better to

think the worst...act on it..then go and " disregard " from there......<

Keep in mind... when you send people red lights & siren.. you are

putting peoples lives in danger..

>...(we all know that

depending on the call...we can read into...believe...and percieve what we

think is going on).....that is part of our job.<

Maybe a little " intuition " or experience comes into play here... after many

years of taking the calls.... but we better not " read into " ... too much.. it

can cause lots of problems..

We have to handle these difficult callers.. and obtain the very best

information we can... very difficult.. sometimes impossible.. but like

you said.. that is part of our job..

Again.. just my opinions... many times wrong... but always there...(grin)

Weintraut

[Guest guest]

>The police Sgt should keep his mouth shut. He's a cop,

Come on now... keep in mind... this was a " someone has run into my

house call " .... going to be dispatched as a burglary in progress....

So it starts out as a police call.

Then there's a " woman passed out " situation same area... that's

EMS/Fire depending on the agency.... And depending why she

is passed out...

This is a police call....

And finally we find out that it's a vehicle crash with fire implications..

Which is also a police call....

The Sgt. opinion may be wrong... but he certainly has a right to the

opinion... if it involves his agency....

Weintraut

[Guest guest]

> To: <911consoleegroups>

> Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 06:07:59 -0400

>

> Reply-to: 911consoleegroups

> Subject: Re: 911:: Opinions needed

You're right, again. At my house, any motor vehicle accident is a

police call -- fire and EMS go to some and not to others.

> This is a police call....

>

> And finally we find out that it's a vehicle crash with fire implications..

>

> Which is also a police call....

>

Nick Wagner

Cortland Co. (NY) Sheriff's Dept

E9-1-1 Center/Sr. Supervisor

mailto:nwagner@...

[Guest guest]

And another [after] thought: as far as a burg in progress, were the

perps using a vehicle as an entry tool? Rather spectacular...

Nick Wagner

Cortland Co. (NY) Sheriff's Dept

E9-1-1 Center/Sr. Supervisor

mailto:nwagner@...

[Guest guest]

<<snip>>

Better yet since it is National Telecommunications Week, why don't yall give

him a dime and tell him to call someone who has time for this crap!.

Marcus

<<snip>>

Uh, Marcus, it costs 30 cents to make a phone call now. Although, that

would be the ultimate insult, make him borrow the other 20 cents! :-)

annette

[Guest guest]

911:: Opinions needed

She said

> and I quote " Someone ran into my back door " . The other dispatcher started

> confirming the address etc. Then started making sure the woman and her

> children were safe etc.

Reasonable assumption, not a car ran into by back door but " someone " .

But thou shalt not assume.

Send the Police.

. About a second later I

> get a call of a woman passed out in a car next to the same address. The

lady

> on 9-1-1 told the dispatcher she smelled smoke in her house and something

> burning.

Send the fire dpt.

I was just hanging up with the people reporting the woman passed

> out

Send the ambulance.

. But my Sgt.

> seems to think we blew it out of proportion (he always thinks this

I have learned that sometimes overreaction is the best reaction.

Unneeded equiptment can be turned around a whole lot quicker than they get

en rte. In a county of my size this can be very important on response

times.

Ya'll done good.

Sgt Currey

Rutherford County SO, Tn

My thoughts, my feelings, my foot in my mouth

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 04/11/2000 12:41:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

Smoky1Ga@... writes:

<< Our motto is unofficially when in doubt , page'em out. I would rather

err

on the safety side for the public and units rather than not send enough help.

Freda P.

Cherokee 911, ga >>

Same here Freda...You can always turn them around quicker than you can start

them...if ya know what I mean !!

Kristy Rohm

Supervisor, Clayton Co 911

boro, Ga.

NitePrey2@...