911 Hang up/Open Line Procedure

[Guest guest]

(Length Warning - if you don't care about this issue - delete this now)

April,

Please excuse any typos - it's late and my eyes are crossing!

Our agency's Operations Board decided that they (the officers) didn't

want to respond to all 911 calls and that we could call back and if we

could determine to our satisfaction that there was no problem, a record

would be made but no police response required. We asked, " what if we

are busy and can't get to the callback right away? " . The response was

that if we thought we could get to it in about 5 minutes or so we could

wait until then to enter the call. Well, needless to say, (being the

butt-puckering kind of group we are) we were not overly comfortable with

this kind of up in the air arrangement. We asked them to put it in

writing and they did. Here's what they came up with and it has been

working pretty good for us. (Also see foot note at the bottom.)

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A call shall be created for any 911 hang-up call. The call may be a

call-for-service or an advised call depending on the circumstances.

If the call taker thinks the call processing procedure, including call

back to residence and call entry for dispatch, is going to take more

than 5 minutes, a call will be created using the " d " command (for

details to follow) with a notation of the call status.

If the call taker determines a response is probably not needed, he/she

may get the call ready for entry but wait until the information is

confirmed with the call back. After confirmation of no response needed,

the call would be advised or the call type changed to " ref " .

The call taker may take the call and enter it with a " d " and note that

a call back is being made and then " can " it if it doesn't need to be

dispatched. The dispatcher in this case may wait to dispatch the call

until an update is provided by the call taker.

In any case, the call taker and/or dispatcher may override the usual

procedure to send police/fire/aid if they feel there is a reason, such

as familiar with residents or known previous problems at location.

The call taker may do a line interrupt which, if done, must be logged in

the Supervisor's Log.

The call taker is responsible for the call back but others may assist

time permitting. Call taker should advise the supervisor if unable to

make the call due to call volume on their console.

Time limit of 5 minutes may be exceeded if the call is obviously

children playing and the workload requires the dispatcher to prioritize

the call back at a lower level.

OPEN LINE WITH SOUND OF MOANING OR WHISPERING

Law Enforcement shall be dispatched. Aid may be dispatched, depending

on the circumstances.

9-1-1 Hang ups need to have a CAD call created - ALWAYS! If the call is

handled prior to dispatch, note the outcome on the call.

Any time a silent call is received on 911 lines or non emergency 7 digit

phone lines the call taker should attempt to determine if it is a " TTY "

caller. This may be done by pressing the " TDD " button twice which will

automatically relay a message " Grays Harbor 911, what is your

emergency? " to the calling party if using a TTY machine. Once

determined it is not a " TTY " caller the call taker may disconnect the

phone line.

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A couple of notes on this:

Anytime the call taker thinks there is the possibility of a problem - a

call is entered, sent and dispatched - prior to or during the call back

process.

Also - we train that if you do a call back and everything seems to be ok

but you have " a feeling " something isn't right, even if you absolutely

can't articulate it, send someone anyway. [i had one like this once.

The guy sounded out of breath, said he had been mowing his lawn and

there wasn't even anyone inside the house but he had been having

problems with a fax machine. He sounded " appropriately surprised " by

the call back and sounded like he was being straight forward. It was a

nice day, reasonable to believe he would be mowing his lawn. I couldn't

tell you, even to this day, why I thought there might be a problem

there. I have reviewed the tape and still couldn't pick up on any

" clues " . I sent an officer who responded and cleared saying that there

was no problem, the guy was mowing his lawn and no one else was home. I

started mentally beating myself up for sending an officer. The location

was a long way from where the officer was originally, I was wasting his

time, etc. etc. Twenty minutes later we were sending an ambulance and

police to a house in a near by town for the lawn mower man's wife who

had been beat to crap and fled through the woods to a friends house.

That was 9 years ago. I have never, ever felt guilty about sending them

again.

We all error on the side of caution with this and the officers seem to

appreciate not having to respond to every single one. They (all 11 law

agencies and 38 fire/aid jurisdictions) also trust our judgment (I know,

I know, scary isn't it!) that if we say you need to check - they do.

[i think this may be the one and only issue ever in the history of our

center that EVERYONE agrees on!]

We have not yet ever had a problem with one we didn't send on turning

into something more. The one thing that kind of goes along with all of

this that merits mention is that we occasionally get a 911 open line

that sounds like it is a phone problem - you know - just static on the

line. We always send on those and we train to not assume that it is a

phone problem. We had one like that once, sent the deputy who checked

and found a locked residence where there appeared to be no problem. The

next day, we got a call from an adult female who had just gone to her

mother's house and found her dead. We did what we were supposed to and

so did the officer, but it still kind of gave us a wake up call that all

those that sound like phone problems might not be.

Hope this helps.

Dispatcher & Supervisor

Grays Harbor Communications E9-1-1

Washington State