Situation fairly normal -Reply

January 2, 2001

I think all the people who stayed home (convinced that the world would end)

last New Years Eve came out with a vengeance this year. By the time I left

work at 0800hrs, we had dispatched almost 320 calls. This was on a night of

very low staffing levels. We start Monday mornings dismally short of our

minimum staffing to begin with, throw in no one wanting to work the holiday,

and it gets ugly!!! Maximum number of employees between 0000-0800 - 12,

minimum - 9 (and this is with 5 radio channels to dispatch which means at

times only 4 calltakers [only calltaking OR dispatching - too much radio

traffic to do both]).

We had a smash and grab burglary immediately followed by a carjacking (with

a car wreck, bail out, helicopter search, etc), a stabbing, numerous

assaults, robberies, DUIs, collisions w/ injury (one may prove fatal), 4

teenagers from 4 seperate underage parties sent to the hospital for alcohol

poisoning (one 15yr old was left, by her friends, passed out for 2 hours

before 911 was called - she had aspirated vomit and is still in critical

condition), a 10-50 (officer in trouble) - 2 ofcs -vs- 100 drunk party-goers

[no injuries to OFFICERS ], an assault (minor) on a police officer with a

foot pursuit, too many noise complaints, disorderly subjects, suspicious

vehs/subjs/sits to even talk about, our first DOA of the new year (natural

causes), vandalisms (one was a guy punching out a plate glass window -

duh!!), and everything else you can imagine. Basically, the only things we

managed to avoid were homicides or rapes.

It was truly crazy. I have to say I had an absolute blast!! Haven't had that

much fun dispatching in a long time. 8 hours of insanity!! Whooo hooo!!! 8-)

Gotta love this job!

Hope 2001 brings everyone love, health, and happiness.

Amy G, Montgomery County Police, MD

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

Well, we were kinda nuts here with the first night celebration. We had a

few

windows broken (one from a man being thrown through it), a couple DUI

reports, and within 25 minutes, we had our first major event (large fight

with a stabbing). A suspect was arrested after invest., and at this point,

we are still waiting to find out if it will be A & B Dangerous Weapon or

Homicide.

_________________________________________________________________

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