Re: 911::Code,Advising over radio

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Sounds as though you did your job. You cleared the air for emergency traffic,

and seemed

to have been able to prioritize traffic to a certain extent. Good to hear that

the bad guys

were cuffed and stuffed, although an officer did suffer an injury, one thing you

said stands

out. Your administration is looking into improving traffic control and flow to

make things

better - that's encouraging, because believe me I have heard of and lived though

some

real horror stories where administrators did absolutely nothing at all.

In all the years I sat at the console we continually had trouble keeping the air

" clear "

during these kinds of calls. Eventually though, and sadly after a major

breakdown

(somebody got hurt) the agency I worked for obtained enough staff on shift to

where

when this type of call happened one of the dispatchers (we had up to three -

admin, tact,

normal), took the responding units to tact channel and handled putting them

enroute and

on scene. This became our procedure and the command made sure everyone

understood

it. It seemed to solve the problem

Granted you need the personnel to do this, but it is a plan and is better than

no plan.

Two things you have already identified can help keep dispatchers from going

crazy and

officers safe.

1. A clear written and tested procedure for handling these kinds of calls.

2. Command emphasis on following the procedure.

I was for a time on the " other side " and when a fellow officer needs help you

sometimes

lose " radio correctness " when the adrenaline begins to flow, you just want to

get where

help is needed. Yet during times of crisis a good procedure combined with good

and

effective command get's you through the day.

[Guest guest]

Just general comments, not directed towards anyone in particular, but I

see two major points emerging in this discussion:

1) We want people to " shut up " and let us hear what the officer in need

of assistance is trying to say.

2) We want everyone to keep us informed when they go anywhere, do

anything, every time they do it. We are in control.

How in the hell do we expect both to happen at the same time? Without a

second freq, it's not going to happen without some heartache.

[Guest guest]

>during this particular incidint i was 10-33 and so they were all within the

guidelines for either traffic because what they were saying was in relation to

the call.<

Then your guidelines need changed.

" Emergency Traffic Only " should mean just that.. Not something

" in relation " to emergency traffic... but emergency traffic only...

Weintraut

[Guest guest]

>1) We want people to " shut up " and let us hear what the officer in need

of assistance is trying to say.

That's where a code can work well... give the code... get ONLY

emergency traffic. You do need to take some care here and only

use the code when truly needed... and lift it as soon as possible

so regular traffic can resume.

2) We want everyone to keep us informed when they go anywhere, do

anything, every time they do it. We are in control.<

In most emergency situations nearly everyone is at least going

to start in that direction.. or position themselves where they

can... I don't need for everyone to tell me that.. all that does

is cause confusion and use air time. When that happens no one

is in control.

Some of the traffic being covered up may be VERY important..

to Officers in need of assistance.... and to those trying to respond.

The problem is adrenaline... sometimes on both sides of the radio.

Everyone wants to help but they " key " before they " think " .

Weintraut

[Guest guest]

Our policy is set up so that the dispatcher tells the responding

units when to run code AND who is responsible for responding. We

have a large number of units on each channel, so it is imperative

that we retain control of the situations as they arise rather than

try to regain control afterwards.

However, when we put out a request for officer assistance we do still

get a lot of on-air responses from volunteers. Once the cavalry has

been dispatched (which usually takes 2 or 3 seconds), it is also our

policy to hold all radio traffic until we either hear back from the

officer in trouble or have another unit on scene with him who can

verify that everything is under control. Most of the units are very

careful to maintain radio silence.

The recent changes in our radio system have made this impractical and

dangerous for the officers in the field so they are beginning to lean

more towards a quick message via computer instead of using the

radio.

When all else fails, I have had some officers who merely key their

radio long enough to register on our monitor so we " know " they are on

the way. (Of course this only works on systems that have radio

identifier monitoring capabilities.)