Follow-Up: NENA Defends Dispatchers In Letter to NBC

The president of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) has written the president of the NBC television network about last week’s “Today Show” segment on the lack of standardized training at the nation’s public safety comm centers, saying that it did not “adequately represent the reality of 9-1-1 service in this country.” Craig Whittington said that 911 calls played during the segment, “are certainly the extreme exception and not the rule when it comes to everyday 9-1-1 center operations.” On the subject of EMD, he said that dispatchers are not responsible for an agency’s decision not to implement the that medical program. “These implementations are major local policy decisions involving the 9-1-1 center, the local government, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provider, and Medical Director in order to ensure proper training, oversight, and regular audit and review,” Whittington said. He did not comment on any of the specific incidents or how they were handled by the dispatchers. Whittington has since accepted member suggestions that NENA create a forum for providing positive stories, possibly via a YouTube page. Read (pdf) Whittington’s full letter here.