Sheriff Backs Dispatcher’s Handling of 911 Call

The Volusia County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office says that a resident properly dialed 911 to ask deputies to persuade his 79 year-old father from going up into a super-heated attic to perform chores, and that a dispatcher properly declined to send deputies to the man’s house. Two hours after the son’s mid-day call, the man collapsed inside the attic and had to be rescued by firefighters who cut a hole in the roof to extricate him. The man was taken to a hospital where he recovered. Sheriff’s spokesperson Gary Davidson said it isn’t up to law enforcement to convince someone not to do something that’s not illegal. He said an exception might be if the involved person had a psychiatric problem. Read more about the incident and the sheriff’s office reaction, and listen to the 911 call here.