Largest Discipline Case In History: 175 Cited

The country’s largest city has disciplined the largest number of public safety dispatchers in history. The New York City Police Department has cited 175 9-1-1 calltakers for mishandling fire incidents, the result of over 2,000 complaints by the firefighters’ union. According to city officials, over the past month 135 calltakers have had their vacation or sick leave docked, and another 40 calltakers received a warning letter for their mistakes. City officials say the errors involved obtaining or passing along incorrect locations for fire incidents. Earlier this year, the city changed how fire incidents are handled, by having 911 calltakers directly handle fire incidents and enter the information into CAD. Previously, the 911 call takers evaluated the incident, and transferred fire incidents to one of the borough-based comm centers. The dispatchers’ union says the mistakes are the result of merging the fire department’s STARFIRE CAD system with the 911 CAD system—not all street locations matched up, the union says. The firefighters’ union also says dispatchers received only 2-½ hours of training on the new procedures, instead of the city-promised eight hours. Read more here.