Audio Volume May Be Key to Call Complaint

Dane County (Wisc.) 911 officials say that the audio volume on a logging tape of a 911 hang-up call may not be the same as heard by a dispatcher who answered the call from Brittany Zimmermann’s apartment last April, apparently just before she was murdered. Dispatcher Rita Gahagan failed to call back the telephone number or to send police to investigate, and received three days-off as discipline. A report by WISC-TV explains how telephone system volume is controlled individually at each console by the dispatcher, and that officials said there is no way to record or document the volume setting at each console. As a result, there’s no way to know if Gahagan truly could not hear what the tape ultimately recorded. However, the 911 center’s interim director Kathy Krusiec has told reporters that she did not have to strain to hear the sounds on the logging tape of the call. Gahagan never reported equipment problems during follow-up interviews after the incident, officials said.