Re: 911:: Personal Phone Calls

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/2/03 12:44:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,

valetar@... writes:

> What are the policies in your centers about personal phone calls

The only department-wide policy we have is that personal calls be kept off

recorded phone lines. They have provided for us 1 phone line in each office

that is unrecorded. As long as the alarms come in, go out, and the units

arrive at the scene in a reasonable amount of time, no one looks for trouble

where it doesn't exist.

However, each supervisor can make a local policy regarding length of time of

the call. For each dispatcher away from their position, another has to pick

up the workload. This is usually not a problem, but as always there are the

certain few who complain about having to the their own job let alone

another's.

Raffa

Supv. Dispatcher, FDNY

www.FDNewYork.com

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/2/2003 11:44:18 AM Central Standard Time,

valetar@... writes:

> I haven't responded or written for a while, but I have a question.

>

> What are the policies in your centers about personal phone calls. I am a

> single mother and my kids are home alone when I work the evening shift.

> They call more than they should, but I don't let it affect my work. They

> are trying not to call me, but they don't have anyone else to check in

> with. Babysitters are not an option, they are 15 and 14.

>

At my agency we don't have a " policy " for personal phone calls, out of

respect for our co-worker, we have minimal. except my partner, we have a

phone in the middle of both consoles, that is not recorded " YET " , and thats

where if all administrative lines are ringing, it will ring over to the

middle phone... every chance my partner gets, she is on a personal phone

call. I refuse to take her traffic anymore after two years of it.. she has

been talked to about it many times in the past. well sheez, maybe these

cameras will bust her for good.. hmmm anyway..

when you are on the phone, who takes all your traffic? I guess it all depends

how busy of an ageny you work at.

p.s. keep them safe

jamie in iowa

dallas county sheriffs office

adel, iowa

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/2/2003 12:58:09 PM Central Standard Time,

rweintraut@... writes:

> Could it be something like...

>

> >every chance my partner gets, she is on a personal phone

> call.<

>

> See the problems it can cause?

>

> I understand your problem, but receiving or making personal

> phone calls at work is simply bad business.

>

> My opinion... do it on break, or don't do it.

>

> Emergencies excepted.

>

> Weintraut

>

SNEAKY GUY!! i like it tho.. true true true

jamie in iowa

[Guest guest]

Valeta,

A couple of years ago I took an APCO course in Madison Wisconsin - the

instructor

was Hodges - Seminole County, Florida.

Of the many things I learned in the class was:

1) Attorneys have been known to take the APCO classes to see what the

dispatchers are exposed to

2) Tapes have been requested by attorneys that not only cover the time

period of the incident that is their

main interest but for time periodS before and after -- up to hours

either direction in an effort to

judge the amount of traffic -- outside influences and etc -- .

I would be very hesitant to take / accept calls on a taped work line or to

leave the console and my partners

to cover for me while I was taking personal / no work related calls. I

know that it is done and I have in the

past done the same thing but after taking that class -- I have stopped. My

department, my partners, my county

may have to be faced at some point in time with a law suit - but it will

not be because some lawyer has gotten

a tape of me making or taking a personal call.

How do you get around it? Make calls on an untapped line or when you are

on break. If you are in a one

person office - I am not sure -- possibly a cell phone if they work in your

particular center. Make calls

brief and to the point.

This is just my own personal policy from what I got from the class.

I know that there are some from the Madison Department that belong to this

group -- as does the instructor

Bob Hodges -- they may be able to add or clarify my thoughts.

Lorraine

MN

At 10:42 AM 4/2/2003 -0700, you wrote:

>I haven't responded or written for a while, but I have a question.

>

>What are the policies in your centers about personal phone calls. I am a

>single mother and my kids are home alone when I work the evening

>shift. They call more than they should, but I don't let it affect my

>work. They are trying not to call me, but they don't have anyone else to

>check in with. Babysitters are not an option, they are 15 and 14.

[Guest guest]

So your boss screans ALL incoming calls, and is the sole person to decide what

is and isn't important? We are very lucky here in that they are very

understanding of families. We have one signle mother who brings her child to

work sometimes. She sits in the back on an extra computer and plays games or

searches the web.

Mel

Melinda M.

Dispatcher

O'Fallon, MO PD

theclarkgirls@...

mclark@...

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/2/2003 12:05:43 PM Mountain Standard Time,

jyoung@... writes:

> All personal calls are routed through he supervisor <snip>

>

> Now there's a procedure!! Personal calls get out of hand at my department

> some times. One gal spent the whole day working on the refinacing of her

> home. She was finally told to take time off to do it. Another guy, his

> wife calls and chews him out on the phone. Another calls home to check on

> her new baby.

>

> But to the original question - my department doesn't have a policy, but I

> know it's been addressed to individuals.

>

> Kathy

[Guest guest]

As far as policy, we were not supposed to receive or make

personal calls at work, but I never enforced it. It never really

became a problem, so I didn't have to.

But the fact that you say " They call more than they should " tells

me there is a problem.

If YOU think they call more than they should, what do you

think your co-workers think?

Could it be something like...

>every chance my partner gets, she is on a personal phone

call.<

See the problems it can cause?

I understand your problem, but receiving or making personal

phone calls at work is simply bad business.

My opinion... do it on break, or don't do it.

Emergencies excepted.

Weintraut

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[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/2/03 17:04:31 Eastern Standard Time,

tmoder@... writes:

> . If it's an emergency then they can call me direct.

What number did you tell them to call? 911?

Raffa

Supv. Dispatcher, FDNY

www.FDNewYork.com

[Guest guest]

<<<What are the policies in your centers about personal phone calls. >>>

We can get them but are asked to really try to keep them to a minimum and to

take them on a break. In 1-1/2 years I've gotten 2 personal calls at work --

both from my doctor to change an appointment. Since I work nights and

weekends who know why they called work during the day cause I know its in my

doctor's file.

I don't make them -- mostly cause the lines are taped and I don't want

something personal recorded. Also, it helps me to draw the line between my

work and private life. Since I live in the town I work in I have structured

some things in my life to make sure the two worlds stay separate - mostly for

my own relaxation when I'm off work. I keep work at work and my personal

life at home and try to keep the line from being blurred. It does

occasionally cause some of the neighbors know where I work and fortunately I

live in a great neighborhood where they respect my privacy. We had another

neighbor who was getting arrested for DUI on a fairly regular basis and the

neighbors wanted to have something done about it before she hit someone (a

child or animal) and really did some damage. I told them I didn't feel

comfortable signing their petition and if they had questions regarding the

legal issues to call or go by the station. They were totally cool about

that; supported and appreciated that I keep my worlds separate.

That said -- I AM single with no children except for the 3 furfaced children

commonly called cats......

Parents have a whole other set of things they HAVE to deal with and I have

nothing but admiration and respect for single parents who do shift work.

They amaze me with how they are able to accomplish so much. With all the

" special " weeks we have there really needs to be one for single working

parents to be recognized.

<<I am a single mother and my kids are home alone when I work the evening

shift.

> They call more than they should, but I don't let it affect my work. They

> are trying not to call me, but they don't have anyone else to check in

> with. Babysitters are not an option, they are 15 and 14.>>>

>

Your kids -- I say good for them to call you and check in. Be glad they are

communicating with you and the department should support that -- as long as

nothing falls through the cracks because of it.

We have a few single parents -- I'm thinking of one woman in particular -- I

don't think her son has EVER called and by the same token she NEVER asks for

anything " special " . She is hardly ever out sick, never asks for extra days

off and you can rely on her to be there when she says she will. She was

scheduled to work Christmas -- the only one scheduled during that time period

and didn't even consider asking for a trade or to take off. I went to her

and asked her if she wanted the day off to be with her son because it just

wasn't right for her to work being a single mom and me not having any family

on that day. So I took the day -- she would have never asked on her own.

On the other hand we also have a few folks who talk to their kids, husband,

mother, friends at least 4 hours a day -- their kids every 15-30 minutes at

time about NOTHING.

[Guest guest]

<<<What are the policies in your centers about personal phone calls. >>>

> I don't make them -- mostly cause the lines are taped and I don't want

> something personal recorded. Also, it helps me to draw the line

> between my work and private life.

Just my two cents. I use the phone at work a lot for personal use. I

guess you also have to take in the 'centers call volume'. At times, we

have a large call volume, and others, (like right now) the phones aren't

ringing at all. It has been said to us (as *every* line is recorded here)

the recordings are not listend too, unless it involves a court case, or a

complaint, etc. So I am not too concerned about my 'personal' calls being

listened to. We also have non-recorded lines, that I sometimes use. The

way I see it, my life is an open book (single male), and if your (implying

to those who are listening to the recordings) life is so boring you have to

bardge into someone elses... so be it. *evil grin*

(Again, this is just my two cents, and for the person's email I sniped that

line from, this is NOT IN ANYWAY BADGERING YOUR EMAIL POST.. Just my view

on personal calls *smile*)

[Guest guest]

*** It has been said to us (as *every* line is recorded here)

the recordings are not listend too, unless it involves a court case, or a

complaint, etc. So I am not too concerned about my 'personal' calls being

listened to. ***

The only problem with this theory is that if the tapes are supeonaed they can be

supeonaed for a block of time before and after the actual event to show call

volume, mindset of dispatchers, etc. This can then not only be used against you

to show your mind was elsewhere, can possibly be construed as unprofessional to

discredit you, and your agency. Not to say you are unprofessional, but it could

be played that way. And if they play the tape in court, your personal life is

now public information for ever.

Mel

Melinda M.

Dispatcher

O'Fallon, MO PD

theclarkgirls@...

mclark@...

[Guest guest]

>>>>The only problem with this theory is that if the tapes are subpoenaed

they can be subpoenaed for a block of time before and after the actual event

to show call volume, mindset of dispatchers, etc. This can then not only be

used against you to show your mind was elsewhere, can possibly be construed

as unprofessional to discredit you, and your agency>>>>

I never saw this with a phone tape; however with a CAD tape one day I got a

VERY clear example of it. I was working with the records supervisor one day

and what I did when I worked for her was to look up incidents from the BIG

online CAD journal. This thing had EVERY keystroke recorded. Little notes

back and forth like " are you ever going to send an officer " which would be

blanked out for media looking at it show up in the big one. So one day I was

pulling the incident for a nasty fatal crash and the online didn't

differentiate between an incident, an " IM " type message and the next incident

-- it just keeps running. In the middle of the fatal I saw a rather personal

message -- well it would be Rosemary or ummmm, who is that big smut

time writer -- Steele - to sham.......it was a VERY description

MDC/CAD series of messages between an officer and dispatcher who were NOT

married to each other about what they would like to do with each other the

next time they got together. I had heard things like that were written and

it would show up -- I just never thought it would be that steamy or that I'd

ever see it. All I managed was an " Oh my " and as my supervisor looked over

and saw my mouth and eyes wide open all she commented was that she couldn't

tell which was open wider, my mouth or my eyes. Then she said " yeah, that

happens, want to take a break? "

Not that I needed one....she needed me out of the room for a few.

And to think I got written up once for asking someone what they wanted me to

bring them back from Mcs for lunch.

Those comments would NOT have gone well in court.