A Jacksonville (Fla.) woman on her way to church with her children spotted an erratic driver and dialed 911 to report the person, but now complains a sheriff’s dispatcher didn’t keep her on the line, said she had other calls to take, and hung up. The complaint gained more seriousness after the swerving driver left the roadway in downtown Jacksonville, splashed into a retention pond and submerged. Firefighters had to dive to pull the driver from the car, and he was later declared dead at a hospital. Jacksonville Sheriff’s officials won’t comment because the accident is still under investigation. However, the unidentified woman told reporters that she followed the car for several minutes and repeatedly asked the calltaker to stay on the line so she could give updated location information. But the calltaker told her the incident had been entered in CAD, and she needed to answer other phone calls. Read more about the incident here.
5 comments… add one
Our agency doesn’t stay on the line with such callers either..or any caller following any type of suspect (hit n run, theft, whatever). All around us do. Mine feels it’s too much liability because citizens generally get too excited and distracted and could cause additional problems or crash themselves. If they refuse to disengage we terminate the call. All we do it broadcast the info.
It is a good idea to keep the caller on the line if you can. I recommend you preface this with “only if it is safe for you to do so”. There are a lot of people out there who might get overly excited. I make sure they don’t interfere, stay back and relay what they see. Whether they’re on the phone or not, they’re going to be excited. You may as well receive information to expedite the officers’ response to remove the threat from the road. I do not have a person who is going to take a turn off of the road continue on, but if they’re going the same way it does help. The key is to make sure the caller is safe and will not endanger themselves or others.
FOR ALL OF YOU CLOWNS WHO HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT LET ME GIVE YOU SOME TRAINING…
There is a difference between a call-taker and a dispatcher. A call-taker simply answer’s the phone and either enter’s the information into CAD or transfers the call to a dispatcher who than takes the information (while talking on the radio, getting a land search rolling, entering a missing person and listening to her partners bad day…all at the same time).
I understand that the general public has a lack of knowledge in 911 procedure however it needs to be understood WE CANNOT SEE WHAT YOU SEE. We can only go based on the information given to us. We do have a policy and procedure that we must follow but we also have to use common sense and instinct.
The fact that the caller asked the call-taker to stay on the phone she should have. You NEVER disconnect with a caller when they ask to stay on the line. However, despite the call-taker staying on the line or hanging up was probably NOT going to make a difference in the outcome of this call. WE ARE NOT THE RESPONDING UNITS.
We will never know if officer’s could have diverted this emergency or not and we dont truly know the reputation of this department. I suggest that you dont talk ugly about people (much less emergency service departments) because i feel certain at one point in time or another in your unhappy smug little life you will need them and they will respond, and you will be grateful.
Those of you that are in this line of work…thank-you for working days,nights,weekends and holidays. Thank-you for protecting your units. Thank-you for missing family birthdays and alot more so you can serve your community. God bless you and your department.
It is interesting to look at other viewpoints, but we have to remember not all 911 centers are equal. Our policy is to try to keep the caller on the line, however that isn’t always possible. We are call-takers/dispatchers, we have 3 consoles but can work solo for short periods. We cannot ignore incoming calls to stay on the line with a caller so, at times, we must either place on hold or release. There have been times that I’ve worked two emergencies simultaneously while having several non-emergency lines on hold.
For 911 Education for Clowns, I agree, education is the answer, but sarcasim and hostility is definitely not going to help.
Indeed Deb, well said. I don’t think I want to be part of the 911 Education for Clowns person. So hostile… Hope I never work next to a clown like that. I’m a Paramedic and if I ever got a whiff of a dispatcher such as them I will go out of my way to get that fool some proper physiological training or evaluation to be booted out of the 911 system. Too loose of a cannon with hostility towards the public we serve.
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