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Alan Burton
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Friday, November 20 2009 |
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Sending a text "911" message to comm centers in Connecticut is unreliable, has no priority status and doesn't provide any way to indicate the message went through, according to telecom officials who testified before a state legislative committee on Wednesday. The hearing was sparked by the murder of a woman who used her cellular phone to send text messages to a friend, prompting Rep. Stephen Dargan to wonder if the capability exists in the state. But a Verizon official explained there is no connection between the text message system used by cellular companies and public safety comm centers. Marissa Mitrovich said implementing the feature, "will take many years." AT&T director of public policy Peter White told the committee members, "If you need help, don't go to Facebook. Don't Twitter. Don't send a text message. Call and talk." Read more here.
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Wednesday, November 18 2009 |
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The state of California has posted a 261-page report from a consulting firm outlining a strategic plan for development of the state's 911 system, including establishing operations standards, improved funding and plans for Next Generation 911. The report notes the age of the current analog system, that the state's 911 advisory board is under-used, and that there is are no shared best practices among comm centers, nor any real enforcement of answer time standards. Download (pdf, 7.3 Mb) the report here.
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Wednesday, November 18 2009 |
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued an Order that updates its previous rules on handling emergency calls made through a relay service, usually used by the hearing impaired. The update takes into account relay calls made by a video or Internet connection, technology that is much more flexible and effective that a typical TTY device. Specifically, the rules focus on how such relay calls are identified when they arrive at the PSAP, and how callbacks from a dispatcher are handled at the relay service office. Download (pdf) the new Order here.
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Wednesday, November 18 2009 |
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Fire officials in New York City say a dispatcher's error while typing in the address of a reported fire led to a nearly one-minute response delay to a fire that claimed the lives of three persons. The dispatcher typed in "62nd St." instead of the correct address of 65th Street, sending units to the wrong location, and also shifting some of the first-due units to a firehouse further away. Despite the delay, city officials said the building had been illegally subdivided into rooms, had no smoke detectors or sprinklers, and those conditions probably contributed more to the deaths than the delay. The firefighters' union took the opportunity to add to their complaints about the new CAD system and dispatching procedures the city introduced earlier this year, saying mistakes are rampant. All calls—police and fire—are now handled by the former 911 dispatchers, who are now part of the Unified Calltaking (UCT) system. The calltakers obtain information, enter it into CAD, where it's handled by teams of police and fire radio dispatchers. Previously, the 911 calltakers transferred fire-related telephone calls to borough-based fire alarm offices for handling and dispatch. David Rosenzweig of the Fire Alarm Dispatchers' Benevolent Association said that the UCT personnel received only eight hours of training to handle fire incidents, which he called "ridiculous." He added, "(This) is not the last catastrophic event we're going to have." The NY Daily News newspaper has also raised questions about two city officials who worked on the CAD upgrade, and who were later hired by one of the major sub-contractors on the project, raising the question of a conflict of interest. Read more here.
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Wednesday, November 18 2009 |
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Wednesday, November 18 2009 |
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In the wake of an investigation by the Chicago Inspector General's (IG) office into contract practices at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC), life-long public safety communications official Jim Argiropoulos has resigned from his position as deputy commissioner of the OEMC. Sources within the agency that provides 911 calltaking and radio dispatching for the city's police and fire departments say Argiropoulos would have been fired if he had stayed, after the IG's investigation found Argiropoulos had falsified documents in 2004 to obtain new comm center consoles. According to the IG report, Argiropoulos falsely claimed to purchase 18,000 radio accessories under an existing contract, for the same price as the consoles would cost. He should have obtained approval for the console purchase and put the purchase out to bid, according to city regulations. Argiropoulos began his dispatching career at 15, and worked as a paramedic before joining the OEMC. Read more about the situation here.
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Tuesday, November 17 2009 |
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Fairfield County (Ohio) officials have disciplined two 911 dispatchers who mistakenly believed that two 911 calls were related, and didn't send deputies to a section of rural road where a woman had been struck and killed by a passing vehicle. Susan Blade apparently ran out of gas, and was standing in or alongside a rural road when she was struck by a passing car. The driver of the car dialed 911 at 2 a.m. to say he/she might have struck something. At the same moment, another 911 caller reported horses loose in the roadway nearby. The dispatchers apparently believed the two calls were related, and did not send anyone to investigate. It wasn't until several hours later that a passing state trooper discovered Blade's body in the roadway. Sheriff Dave Phalen said the dispatchers were reprimanded for their inaction. Read more here.
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Tuesday, November 17 2009 |
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Baltimore (Md.) police say they are investigating how a dispatcher handled a 911 call reporting a possible drunken driver, 90 minutes before that same vehicle struck and killed a 20 year-old university student, and then fled the scene. Miriam Frankl was run down by a white truck, the same one reported earlier by Nicholas Walters as speeding, driving erratically, and circling the neighborhood. Police later arrested Thomas Meighan Jr., who has nine convictions for DUI and many other traffic citations. A transcript of the 911 call seems to show the calltaker properly obtained information about the vehicle, and that a radio dispatcher informed the appropriate beat officer. But the caller says he believes the call didn't receive the appropriate attention, and that the driver might have been stopped before killing Frankl.
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Tuesday, November 17 2009 |
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An unnamed Scottsdale (Ariz.) police dispatcher is among the defendants in a lawsuit filed by the family of a man shot and paralyzed by police in Nov. 2008. According to police, the dispatcher fielded a 911 from David Hulstedt, who demanded to speak to the state's governor, Janet Napolitano. "We've got a crisis on our hands," Hulstedt told the dispatcher. There was a baby crying in the background of the call, and Hulstedt then hung up. The incident was classified as a barricaded subject, and officers arrived to confront Hulstedt holding an infant over his head. When he refused to put the baby down, officers ended up shooting him, leading to his paralysis. The family says the response was "inappropriate" and officers should have let the family talk to Hulstedt instead of confronting him with guns.
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Tuesday, November 17 2009 |
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A former Leelanau County dispatcher filed suit last month in county district court claiming she was fired in Sept. 2007, partly because she was 45 years-old, and replaced with a 25-year old employee. Cathy Engel also claims she suffered from discrimination and harassment by comm center management because a lawsuit that her son filed against the county. Charles Hameline was arrested in 2007 for drunk driving, and later filed a lawsuit against the deputies and the county alleging excessive force. The lawsuit was later dismissed, but Engel now says the county retaliated against her for her son't lawsuit. Read more here.
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Tuesday, November 17 2009 |
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The fatal officer shooting of a mentally ill San Jose (Calif.) man last May has raised questions among the victim's family and the community about what officers knew and why they took deadly action. The police department initially said officers were unaware of that Daniel Pham suffered from any mental illness, but just-released police documents and logging tapes of the 911 calls and radio traffic show that a dispatcher did say on the radio that officers had previously dealt with a mentally ill man at the address. As officers arrived, two dispatchers were talking to a neighbor outside and a woman locked inside a bedroom of the house. Pham had slashed his brother's neck with a knife, and he approached officers when they arrived and told them Daniel was "high on drugs," not mentally ill. The officers confronted Pham in the backyard over a fence and tried to distract him. But when he charged the officers, they fired 14 times, striking him 12 times. Read more and listen to the 911 calls and radio traffic here. Also review the city's Web site with reports and tapes.
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Tuesday, November 17 2009 |
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Two Des Moines (Iowa) police officers shot and seriously wounded a man who was acting erratic, took a discount store employee hostage and threatened that he had a gun, an incident that was captured by a logging recorder during a 911 call. Daniel Carter survived the shooting, and police now say he did not have a gun. An employee of the store dialed 911 when he entered the store, telling a dispatcher, "He says he has a gun on him." Officers arrived, and confronted Carter as the employee stayed on the phone with the dispatcher. Read more and listen to the 911 call here.
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Tuesday, November 3 2009 |
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The Michigan State Police are investigating how a series of 911 calls were handled by a dispatcher after learning that no one responded after a caller reported hearing agonized screaming for help somewhere in a neighborhood of Wyoming city. Forty minutes later the next-door neighbor of the caller discovered her fiancé dead in the garage, crushed when his car fell off a repair jack. The coroner says the man died quickly, and that an immediate response would not have saved him. However, the man's family is wondering why no police were dispatched to investigate the yells for help. The caller couldn't pinpoint the location of the yelling, even though he toured the neighborhood in his car. The calls for help stopped within one or two minutes, the caller said. Read about the controversy here, and listen to the series of 911 calls here.
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Monday, November 2 2009 |
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A federal jury in Oregon has issued its verdict in a civil lawsuit filed by the family of a hearing-impaired man who was Tasered and physically arrested after a dispatcher failed to relay information to officers about his disability. Erik Pierce was involved in a domestic dispute in 2005, and the brother of a woman involved in the dispute dialed 911. The caller mentioned that Pierce was deaf and had mental health issues, the lawsuit states. But the Willamette Valley Communications Center dispatchers did not give that information to deputies who responded. When Keizer police officers arrived and saw Pierce walking away, they ordered him to stop, instructions which he didn't hear and didn't comply with. The Tasering and struggle followed. The jury ruled primarily on the use of force used, but also on the county's failure to accommodate his lack of hearing when jailed. The jury found the officers were guilty of excessive force, but found the city of Salem, who operates the comm center, and Marion County, who operates the jail, guilty of negligence and violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Read more here, and download (pdf) portions of the lawsuit here.
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Monday, November 2 2009 |
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Three words are missing—or at least temporarily lost—from a 911 call made back in 2006 by a woman who saw a suspicious man she believed was trying to steal money from a gas station ATM. Police arrived to confront the suspect, and ended up Tasering the man, who later died. Now the man's family has filed a federal lawsuit claiming police violated the rights of Otto Zehm, who was mentally ill and not trying to steal money. The 911 call was answered by a Spokane County dispatcher, who briefly talked to the caller and transferred her to the Spokane police. During the call, the witness may have said, "He's on something." But logging tapes of the two calls were never released together because of the two jurisdictions, and printed transcripts of the two calls were released with different versions, one without the three words. All parties are now scouring Web sites that might have posted full transcripts of both calls shortly after the incident. Read the complex story here.
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Friday, October 30 2009 |
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Officials in Warren County (Ohio) say they've given a dispatcher accused of sleeping on-duty a three-day suspension without pay, taking into account his previous incidents of sleeping, and mitigating by some personal issues. Shawn Mason was sleeping earlier this month and missed an EMS call, officials say. He was given a written warning about sleeping on-duty two years ago, and received a verbal warning last September. According to the officials, a calltaker entered an EMS call in CAD, but then noticed that the call had not changed status indicating it had been dispatched. The calltaker walked over and found Mason asleep, and reported that to a supervisor. According to a county report released later, Mason is a good employee, but was having, "child care issues that may not have allowed him enough sleep to endure a 12-hour shift that can be rather mundane and boring.” Read more here, and a second story here.
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Friday, October 30 2009 |
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The National Transportation Board (NTSB) has issued its final ruling on the circumstance surrounding the crash of Maryland State Police helicopter in Sept. 2008, and the dispatchers for the state police and Prince George's County were cited for insufficient training and failing to follow procedures after the accident, leading to a delay in locating the downed aircraft. The helicopter was on a medical mission in low clouds with five persons on-board, and was attempting to find its way down to land at Andrews Air Force Base. The chopper crashed into a Maryland suburb, killing all but one of the occupants. According to the NTSB, "The lack of adherence to effective flight-tracking policies by Maryland State Police System Communications Center personnel created an institutional mindset that allowed duty officers to assume that aircraft had landed safely when the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast signal was lost; over time, safe landings were taken for granted." The NTSB issued several recommendations, including additional training for dispatchers. Read materials about the incident and the NTSB's report: the incident abstract / incident presentations / list of all documents
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