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Alan Burton
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Thursday, December 24 2009 |
 Happy Holidays from DISPATCH Monthly On-line! At the end of this very busy year, it's time to look back—and forward. It became clear during 2009 that the political, funding, staffing, training and technology challenges are enormous for public safety communications. It will take more combined efforts by local, state and national groups during 2010 to devise and implement solutions to make the nation safer. In the meantime, I hope that 2010 brings you happiness and success! — Gary Allen, Editor |
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Thursday, December 24 2009 |
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Police in Elyria (Ohio) say a 911 call from an apartment house documented an invasion robbery by two men that ended with one suspect and one resident dead from gunfire, and one resident seriously injured. Three suspects forced their way into the apartment, and one resident immediately dialed 911, but apparently put the phone down to confront the robbers. Gunfire is heard on the logging tape, and shortly after the call ends. The police dispatcher called the phone back, and the wounded resident told her, "We got a home invasion. Somebody just came in here." The caller also said two other men had been hit by gunfire. Police later arrested a third suspect who fled before police arrived. Read more about the incident and listen to the 911 call here. |
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Thursday, December 24 2009 |
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A consultant hired by Warren County (Ohio) has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to support an allegation that public safety dispatcher Ron Kronenberger was asleep before he handled a 911 call in Aug. 2008, which later led to a murder investigation. A report filed by Mark Lucas of the firm Clemans, Nelson & Associates said a fellow dispatcher wasn't 100 percent sure he saw Kronenberger sleeping, and that Kronenberger had answered several other telephone calls just prior to the 911 call. During the murder investigation, officials noted that Kronenberger sounded dazed, confused and slow to react while handling the 911 call. Officials now say Kronenberger will not be disciplined. The 911 call was from a man who claimed his wife drowned in a bathtub, but officials later alleged he murdered his wife and covered it up. Read more here. |
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Thursday, December 24 2009 |
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Thursday, December 24 2009 |
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The three victims of a fatal fire in Cheektowaga (NY) dialed 911 for help, but the Phase I-only system could not pinpoint their location, leading to a 28-minute response delay. A man and his two college-age daughters died when their small house caught fire in the middle of the night. Erie County 911 officials say a dispatcher there received a 911 call at 2:56 a.m., and heard a woman screaming. The dispatcher was only able to make out that the incident was on Hyland Ave., but the street runs two towns—Cheektowaga and Depew. The 911 system only displayed the location of the receiving cell phone tower in Depew. The Buffalo dispatcher relayed the information to Depew police at 3:02 a.m., who couldn't locate the incident, and who then relayed the information to Cheektowaga police at 3:04 a.m. Officers arrived near the scene at 3:13 a.m., still not knowing the nature of the incident. The officers smelled smoke and began a search of the neighborhood. After discovering the house set back on a lot, they requested the fire department at 3:20 a.m., and crews arrived at 3:24 a.m. Officers had pulled the man's body from the fire but could not revive him. Firefighters later found the bodies of the two women. Officials blamed Erie County's 911 system, which does not have Phase II location features. Read more here. |
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Tuesday, December 22 2009 |
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Three Colorado State Patrol dispatchers have been put on paid leave during an investigation into the handling of a 911 call reporting a dead deer in the traffic lanes of Interstate 25 south of Colorado Springs last week. A trooper wasn't dispatched for 10 minutes, and then four minutes later a motorist swerved to avoid the deer, the vehicle overturned and the driver was killed and a passenger seriously injured. According to State Patrol officials, one of the dispatchers was watching "a Christmas movie" during the incident, which may have contributed to the 10-minute dispatch delay. As it turned out, two KRDO-TV employees struck the deer on the highway, and they dialed 911 to report the dead deer was still in the roadway. A dispatcher told the TV employees to dial *CSP directly, and they did. The information was entered into CAD, but apparently was not immediately radioed to a trooper. It's not clear if a trooper would have arrived in time to prevent the accident, even if the incident had been promptly dispatched, officials noted. State Patrol officials said the delay was noted by another dispatcher and brought to a supervisor's attention. A spokesperson said the Patrol has taken measures, "to ensure that issue of distraction is being identified and eliminated from any workplace." Read more about the incident here. |
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Tuesday, December 22 2009 |
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Two New York City EMS dispatchers have been suspended without pay after witnesses say they refused to use their EMT skills to help a pregnant woman who collapsed while working in a café where the two dispatchers were buying bagels. Dispatchers Jason Green and Melissa Jackson—both in uniform—took no action on Dec. 9th, workers at the restaurant said, but instead told them to call 911. The dispatchers left before an ambulance arrived 15 minutes later to take Eutisha Rennix to a hospital, where she and her unborn child died. According to news accounts, both Green and Jackson are trained EMTs, but don't normally have in-person patient contacts. Green is a 6-year veteran and Jackson has four years of service. Fire department officials say all their employees are required to take appropriate actions, but an attorney for the two dispatchers said they acted, "appropriately to the best of their abilities." NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg called the incident an "outrage," saying the dispatchers were still human beings—"Drop your coffee and go help someboy if they're dying," he said angrily at a press conference. The fire department and state health department have launched investigations into the incident. Read more about the incident and the backlash here. |
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Tuesday, December 22 2009 |
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A newspaper investigation has found that Seattle fire and EMS units failed to arrive prompting at medical emergencies during a paralyzing 2008 winter storm, and that city officials covered up the delays and didn't include the problem in an after-action report. According to the Seattle Times, fire units and AMR ambulances were delayed by streets blocked by snow and covered with ice, leading to arrival times that were well beyond the 4-minute/90 percent standard used by the city for "Code Red" medical incidents, which are the most serious. Incidents peaked at 200 for four consecutive days, putting a strain on the EMS system. Fire units that did arrive on-scene frequently had to wait many minutes until AMR arrived, further depleting available fire department resources. The newspaper said neither the fire department or AMR was asked to contribute to a major after-action report, nor asked how the agencies could better respond during snow storms. In fact, the report claimed police, fire and EMS responses were not affected, and responses were only delayed by one additional minute. Read more the storm and investigation here. |
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Tuesday, December 22 2009 |
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The remote location of a single-vehicle, fatal accident near the New Mexico—Colorado state line contributed to a 41-minute response time, officials say. For some reason, the vehicle of Colorado resident Patricia Jacquez crashed into a ditch about in that state, two miles north of the state boundary. Another motorist came across the crash scene and tried dialing 911, but there was no coverage there. The motorist dialed a friend in the town of Redmesa, who then dialed 911 to reach the public safety comm center in La Plata County (Colo.). A dispatcher there put the caller on hold three times to answer other 911 calls, and eventually gave a location that was in New Mexico. Read more about the tangled response here. [map] |
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Tuesday, December 22 2009 |
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Former Coles County (Ill.) dispatcher Ashley Sears, 25, has pleaded guilty of official misconduct after a judge found there was sufficient evidence to send the case to trial. According to police, while on-duty a co-worker fielded a citizen's telephone call reporting a person dealing drugs. Sears heard the information, and then then used a cellular phone to call and warn the person the citizen had reported. Read more about the plea here. |
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Friday, December 18 2009 |
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An Alberta (Canada) man who decided to hop a freight train for a five-block ride home from a party nearly died when the train sped up and headed south out of town, with the man clinging to the rungs of a boxcar ladder. Jonathan Hambler, 29, survived after he dialed 911 in the -14°F. temperature. But he had to hang on to the rungs with no gloves for over an hour after dispatchers learned there were two trains headed south at nearly the same time. Canadian Pacific Railway dispatchers had the engineers blow their whistles so Hambler could tell which train he was on. Finally, the train slowed down and police located Hambler 43 miles south of Wetasklwin, nearly unconscious. He received a $268 tickets. Read more here. |
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Thursday, December 17 2009 |
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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. |
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Thursday, December 17 2009 |
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A veteran Girard (Ohio) police dispatcher was killed early Wednesday morning when his car crashed into a truck on Interstate 80. Thomas Zuppo, 47, was an 11-year veteran of the agency, where his father also served 35 years as a police officer. State Patrol officers say Zuppo's vehicle was traveling at "a high rate of speed" when it struck a slower-moving, Department of Transportation truck that was distributing salt on the roadway. Zuppo's car caught fire, and Zuppo died immediately, officers said. The truck driver received slight injuries. Girard police chief Jeff Palmer said the department was shocked at the death. "Obviously, he was well-liked by everyone here," he said. Zuppo had worked an afternoon shift on Tuesday and Wednesday was his day off, Palmer said. Zuppo is survived by his wife, stepchildren and grandchildren. Read more here. |
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Tuesday, December 15 2009 |
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The victim of a single-vehicle auto accident in North Port (Fla.) lay undiscovered outside his truck for almost 24 hours, after a dispatcher was apparently confused by the street names given by a 911 caller who drove by the accident scene. Police chief Terry Lewis said dispatcher Nadia Kashitskaya had been put on paid leave while the incident is investigated. He said a motorist dialed 911 at 11:38 p.m. on Friday night after seeing the accident on a mostly rural roadway. The caller described the cross street correctly, but had trouble describing the second street. The caller believed it was "Lovebird" or "Lovesong," when it fact it was "Lovering." For some reason, the dispatcher did not create an incident and have officers investigate that night. The same caller called 911 again at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday to again report the accident, and this time officers responded to find the victim dead. Read more about the incident and listen to the first 911 call here. |
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Tuesday, December 15 2009 |
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The Washington County (Minn.) Sheriff's Office has released a transcript of a 911 call, during which a woman is fatally shot by her husband. As recorded on the logging tape, Off. Brad Allen arrived, confronted the husband, and then fatally shot him when the man pointed a gun at him. Trudy Propps dialed 911 to help get her reluctant husband to the local Veterans Administration hospital. During the call with an unnamed sheriff's dispatcher, she also talked to Gerald Propps. About two minutes into the call Gerald apparently became angry, produced a handgun and shot his wife. Trudy managed to stumble into the hallway of the apartment building, where her daughter pulled her down the hallway and picked up the 911 call. After Off. Allen arrives, he yells for Gerald to put down the gun, and then a second round of gunfire is heard on the tape. Read more about the shooting here, and download (pdf) the call transcript here. |
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Tuesday, December 15 2009 |
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After three years of legislative efforts, curriculum selection and instructor training, the state of Maine has begun a program of mandatory training for all local dispatchers. The 40-hour program focuses on basic call handling, recordkeeping and radio operations, leaving specific policy and procedure matters to local agencies. The state is one a few in the U.S. that first answers all 911 calls at a central comm center, and then transfers calls to the appropriate local agency. Stephan Bunker, trainer for Maine 9-1-1, told a newspaper, "We don't want Maine to fall prey because we didn't care enough about this profession to at least provide them with a basic minimum-training program." He added that it will supplement and standardize the local training that agencies now perform. The courses are financed by the state's regular 911 surcharge. Bunker was honored last August as the Trainer of the Year by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO). Read more about the training here, and watch a video here. |
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Monday, December 14 2009 |
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The original contract that DuPage County (Ill.) officials signed was for $7.1 million, agreeing to pay Motorola for a county-wide public safety radio system. Now those same officials say the final price could be $48 million, and that several local agencies are considering a pull-out because the cost is too high. There are also challenges to link to a M/A-COMM (Harris Corp.) system being built separately by Naperville and Aurora. As an alternative, the county is considering a less expensive plan to join the state-wide radio system, also built by Motorola. Read more about their deliberations here. |
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