Re: 911:: Aggressive Driver Programs

[Guest guest]

#77 (I typed *77 in my first message) is a state wide number. It is

through the State Police and is answered by the regional State Police PSAP.

At 06-06-03 09:08, you wrote:

>My first question would be when someone dials *77 where does the call go? ...

[Guest guest]

Subject: 911:: Aggressive Driver Programs

********************************************************************

What a complete and total waste of time, money and resources.

Iowa State Patrol Communications, Cedar Rapids

Werling NØXZY

Anamosa, IA

scott@...

My 2002 Olympic Pics http://www.photoisland.com

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My Family Genealogy at http://www.n-connect.net/scott/index.htm

Bus station is where the buses stop.

Train station is where the trains stop.

At my desk, there's a workstation.

[Guest guest]

Just a reminder that S. 800 made 9-1-1 the universal emergency number in the

United States (see below). Of course, you could debate about aggressive

driver reports being emergencies....

~~ Woody ~~

Bill Summary & Status for the 106th Congress

S.800

SPONSOR: Sen. Burns, Conrad R. (introduced 04/14/99)

SUMMARY:

(REVISED AS OF 08/04/99 -- Reported to Senate, amended)

Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999 - Amends the

Communications Act of 1934 to direct the Federal Communications Commission

(FCC) and any agency or entity to which the FCC delegates such authority to

designate 911 as the universal emergency telephone number within the United

States for reporting an emergency to appropriate authorities and requesting

assistance. Applies such designation to both wireline and wireless telephone

service. Directs the FCC to provide appropriate transition periods for areas

in which 911 is not currently an emergency number.

Requires the FCC to encourage and support efforts by States to deploy

comprehensive end-to-end emergency communications infrastructure and

programs based on coordinated statewide plans. Requires appropriate

consultation with regard to such deployment.

Provides immunity from liability, to the same extent as provided to local

telephone exchange companies, for providers of wireless service. Provides

immunity for users of wireless 911 service to the same extent as provided to

users of 911 service that is not wireless. Provides immunity for public

safety answering points (emergency dispatchers). Continue to Section 4.

Authorizes telecommunications carriers to provide call location information

concerning a user of a commercial mobile service to: (1) emergency

dispatchers and emergency service personnel in order to respond to the

user's call; (2) the user's legal guardian or family member in an emergency

situation that involves the risk of death or serious physical harm; or (3)

providers of information or data base management services solely for

assisting in the delivery of emergency services. Requires a customer's

express prior authorization for disclosure to any other person. Requires

telephone exchange service providers to provide both listed and unlisted

subscriber information to providers of emergency and emergency support

services.

Bill S.800

Calendar No. 255

[Guest guest]

As a calltaker I dread in progress road rage calls the most. I have had more

than my share turn into PI's while I am on the phone with the caller. I have

noticed, however, that many of my partners treat these callers with indifference

and sometimes outright dismissiveness. I believe this is due in part to the

sheer number of these types of calls we get and in part to the way these calls

are recieved by the road deputies in our dept. Its like pulling teeth to get

them to respond! I believe this reflects poorly on our center as well as our

profession that the public comes away feeling as though they wasted their time

with these types of calls. Every one of us has had a frightening road rage

experience in our lives.. maybe we should try to be sympathetic to these

callers and put ourselves in their place when they call?

The previous preachy and self righteous message brought to you free of charge by

the PAC group " Dispatchers Who Care " ....

[Guest guest]

I am particularly interested in

> public perception, the

> attitude your agency tries to project through the

> call taker, and what

> weight these calls are given.

I have no idea what public perception is. Other than

the fact that they can get very adamant and really

ticked off about a speeder.

No one in our agency has really addressed this on an

attitude issue. We always put a call in. We don't

blow the callers off. The weight they are given,

though, is entirely different. The information is

broadcast to all officers on that side of town. Now,

if the person is driving the wrong way (NB in SB

lanes, for instance) then an officer has to be

assigned. The other day, we got about 10 calls for

the same drunk driver and he was REALLY bad, so we

assigned a car. Other than that, not much weight is

given to the calls.

We don't have a specific number to dial for reckless

drivers. We do have one for drunk drivers--#DUI.

=====

Kim

I make a difference

Tulsa, OK

[Guest guest]

>and what weight these calls are given.

Sad to say, at my agency, they were given little or no weight.

# 1. We covered seven rural counties, with hundred of miles of

roads, and were lucky to have one unit on per county. We

would dispatch the information, if someone was lucky enough

to be in the area fine... If not... too bad..

Of course, it depended on the call, if it was true road rage, or

something that was of immediate danger, we would dispatch

a unit, no matter how far away they were. But most calls were

simple " reckless driving " or " he cut me off " calls, and simply

were dismissed. When you have very limited resources, these

calls are certainly not priority.

I agree 100% that the programs are not cost effective..

>the attitude your agency tries to project through the call taker<

I always tried to make the complainant feel that I would do all

that I could, even though I knew that 95% of the time, that would

be nothing.

Weintraut

[Guest guest]

Yes Jim, 3-1-1 is GREAT if they can enter the calls into the CAD system

directly and are trained to do so properly. Here they are not in the same

union,

are lower paid, and just transfer someone to 9-1-1 if a car has to be sent.

Kind of defeats the whole purpose to me. I don't know if they are going to

change it in the future ie same union/pay/training, but I sure hope so.

Chicago 9-1-1

In a message dated 6/6/2003 8:10:00 AM Central Daylight Time,

jtkjones@... writes:

> My first question would be when someone dials *77 where does the call go?

> If it goes to a 911 center why doesn't the person just dial 911? Why are we

> teaching the public a secondary number? In Illinois there was a concerted

> effort to get rid of *999 which I personally viewed as a useless middle man

> that only served to delay calls that should have come directly to me, and

> would have if people would have been taught to dial 911 and not *999. (*999

> was for any highway emergency not just aggressive drivers) Not to mention

> they transferred the call to the wrong agency FREQUENTLY. The only

> secondary number I agree with is 311 for metropolitan areas like Chicago.

> I've heard that has been very successful, perhaps can shed some light

> on that. But as far as aggressive drivers, in my book that qualifies as a

> 911 call only. The aggressive driver constitutes a safety hazard to

> themselves and others on the roadway. Call 911.

>

> Jim

> Mr 911

> TriCom

[Guest guest]

We have an unwritten policy to dispatch to a unit only when the complainant is

following or if a formal report is to be made. In our cad, if we assign the

call to unit " BOL " nobody gets the updates from the calltaker and the whole call

is useless.

Of course, another exception to assigning to " BOL " is wrong-way drivers on the

expressway/divided highways.

We kindly thank Mr. Concerned Caller who is so angry that he wants to report the

vehicle of unknown make, model or color that cut him off 30 minutes ago and he

waited until he got home to call... that is routinely announced and assigned to

" BOL " ...

[Guest guest]

why bolo a unk make, model, color veh on a 30 min delay? I just say, " ok,

thank you " and hang up. If there is nothing to look for, why waste airtime?

>

> We kindly thank Mr. Concerned Caller who is so angry that he wants to

report the vehicle of unknown make, model or color that cut him off 30

minutes ago and he waited until he got home to call... that is routinely

announced and assigned to " BOL " ...

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[Guest guest]

<<<I have noticed, however, that many of my partners treat these callers with

indifference and sometimes outright dismissiveness. I believe this is due in

part to the sheer number of these types of calls we get and in part to the

way these calls are received by the road deputies in our dept. Its like pulling

teeth to get them to respond! >>>

That's like my old job -- we would average 300 - 350 reckless driver calls a

day (24 hour period). It seemed that EVERY caller that called them in would

be yelling " I want to report a drunk driver " and they would yell out the plate

but couldn't tell you if it was from California or not.....often enough it was

an out of state plate. Most people didn't know where they were -- they had

the freeway but couldn't begin to tell you the last exit they passed. Ask for

a color and you'd get " ummmmm, that new black cherry " instead of " red " or

" maroon " . Almost never had a make and model and, because of staffing issues and

how many calls would be in cue they would have been on hold anywhere from 5- 20

minutes before getting to a call taker and be even more steamed at the delay.

When they'd start calling out the speed " now we're at 80, now 85 " and you

suggest that maybe they need to slow down because it may be easier to pull them

over because THEY ARE ALSO NOW BREAKING THE LAW they'd want a

supervisor....fine......your safety, here comes the supervisor.

So you would finally get the call in and more often than not it would sit at

the radio 5-15 more minutes before it was broadcast......what we weren't

allowed to tell the caller was that 50% of the calls weren't even acknowledged

by

the officers.....they wouldn't even copy it. Of the 50% who did acknowledge it

usually 49% would be " out of position " . Of course during shift change when

NO ONE is on the road you didn't tell the caller that because of safety issues

and whatever. So maybe 1% of the calls even had an officer setting up. You

just get to where its " why bother " . One night I even had a plate come back as

a stolen and the radio didn't get it out for a long long time and no one was

set up to go after the car.

My current agency we roll on EVERYTHING, even if it isn't ours......we take a

bunch of stuff we " find " on the freeway. We roll on reckless drivers and if

there's a plate and its out of our city we'll go by the house and chat with

the owner of the vehicle. Mostly just let them know there's been a complaint

and in the future maybe they could tone it down.

[Guest guest]

I actually was on the caller end of this issue this past weekend... I

was visiting my GF down in Staten Island. There was a left turn with

two lanes to turn left. I was in the right one, a Blazer with about 4

male youths were in the left lane. There was a gas station on the

corner, which would be on our right after the turn. The driver

decided that he needed to turn in there, and did so right in front of

me!!!

I could have sworn we made contact, but when I continued into the

parking lot behind them, they went to exit the other side... I needed

his plate, so I followed him back out. I flashed my lights to see if

he would stop. He did not. Still getting the plate, my GF was

assisting me and we called dispatch.

Since we got the plate, I pulled over as the dispatcher then also

requested me to. She inquired where it occurred, where I was, if

there was damage to the vehicle. At that time I got out to look.

There was no damage I could see... she asked if I wanted to file a

report. I decided it would be uneventful for my side, but that if

they could put a note out to their officers, they were definitely

driving recklessly.

I was very upset at the other driver... :-( The call taker on the

other hand... I was very happy with. She listened, presented a caring

attitude, asked questions and didn't push me one way or another.

In all, I had a great experience on the phone with NYCity dispatch.

Alot better then I would have thought given their volume. Thank you

NYCity!!!

>At our agency, if they insist on an officer, we send one if we can't talk

>them out of it. If the incident has just occurred, they have a vehicle

>description and it's a reckless driver, we will air it as a bolo. If it is

>30 min delayed, or no veh desc, we don't air it. (We are at the corner of a

>3-state area where 2 interstates come together. In 30 min, they could be

>anywhere. I always make sure I ask key questions like " What happened? "

> " Did the vehicles make contact? " " Is anyone injured? " Many times, they

>just want to vent and we can be there for that. We dispatch 200-300 calls

>for service a shift, if there is nothing to look for and nothing to " catch "

>then we can't waste airtime. Sorry if that sounds cold, but it's the truth.

>The flip side is, wasting airtime bolo'ing stupid stuff can cost an officer

>his life if he can't get on the air with something REAL.

>

>Kim

> >

>> --- JBoomer2000@... wrote:

>> > As a calltaker I dread in progress road rage calls

>> > the most. I have had more than my share turn into

>> > PI's while I am on the phone with the caller. I

>> > have noticed, however, that many of my partners

>> > treat these callers with indifference and sometimes

>> > outright dismissiveness. I believe this is due in

>> > part to the sheer number of these types of calls we

>> > get and in part to the way these calls are recieved

>> > by the road deputies in our dept. Its like pulling

>> > teeth to get them to respond! I believe this

>> > reflects poorly on our center as well as our

>> > profession that the public comes away feeling as

>> > though they wasted their time with these types of

>> > calls. Every one of us has had a frightening road

>> > rage experience in our lives.. maybe we should try

>> > to be sympathetic to these callers and put ourselves

>> > in their place when they call?

>> >

>> > The previous preachy and self righteous message

>> > brought to you free of charge by the PAC group

> > > " Dispatchers Who Care " ....

--

Barely there,

Dave A.