A calltaker for the Leicestershire (UK) Constabulary mishandled three 999 calls made in 2006 related to a murder, including two silent calls that never received a police dispatch. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) just issued its report about the murder of Joanne Butler by a neighbor, and said the police response was “wholly inadequate,” and particularly cited how the 999 calls were handled. The first two calls were from Butler’s apartment several hours before she was found dead, but no one was on the line. However, logging tapes revealed the sounds of an argument in the background. The calltaker classified the calls as “silent,” and no police officers were dispatched. Later, two other 999 calls reported Butler had caused damage to a neighbor’s car and that Butler was “psycho” inside her apartment. In the IPCC report, a commissioner criticized the calltaker. “He had the greatest awareness of what was happening and therefore the opportunity to ensure an appropriate response. However, he only made minimal efforts to do so,” the commissioner wrote. Read more about the incident here, and download (pdf) the IPCC report here.

It took Norwalk (Ohio) firefighters just three minutes to arrive at the flooded creek where Lisa Roswell’s car had been swept off the road and was now submerged in swirling water. Roswell had been able to dial 911 for help, and spoke to police dispatcher Tacy Bond as the car slowly sank into the muddy water and the connection was lost. By the time firefighters reached the car, Roswell had drowned. Now a logging tape of the call reveals that Bond was using PowerPhone protocol cards to handle the 6:05 a.m. 911 call from Roswell, but didn’t have one for “submerged vehicle.” As Roswell asked what to do, Bond could only tell her to wait until firefighters arrived to rescue her. Police chief Dave Light says Bond didn’t tell Roswell to get out of the car, fearing she would be swept away by the water. A PowerPhone spokesperson reviewed the logging tape, but said there were too many variables to draw a conclusion on what else the dispatcher might have done. He said the company’s newest computer-based protocols do include floating and submerged vehicle instructions for dispatchers. Read the entire store here, and a transcript of Roswell’s 911 call here. Also read one expert’s advice if you’re ever trapped in a submerged vehicle. (Video after the break) read more

An oddity in the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) geofile at the District of Columbia‘s comm center prevented a calltaker from entering the exact location of a fatal accident last month, delaying the arrival of emergency units by at least 10 minutes. Officials say the calltaker acted properly, and it’s not clear if the victim would have been saved by a quicker response. During a severe snowstorm, a tree along Military Rd. NW fell onto two vehicles. The driver of one vehicle dialed 911 and explained she was near Military Dr. and Beach Dr. However, those two roadways don’t physically intersect—Military goes over Beach via an overpass. Therefore, the intersection isn’t listed in the CAD geofile. The next-closest intersection is Military and 16 St. NW, and those two roads also don’t physically intersect, but are separated by an overpass. The calltaker consulted with a parks police dispatcher during the 14-minute 911 call from the victim, and eventually entered the location as Military and 14th St. NW, about ½-mile from the actual accident scene—those two streets do physically intersect. Teddy Kavaleri, interim director of the DC Office of Unified Communications, said the geofile glitch would be fixed. Read more here, listen to the call below, and check a map after the break. [audio:http://mp3.911dispatch.com.s3.amazonaws.com/washington-dc_accident_911.mp3] read more

Two southern California men have been arrested separately for making thousands of hoax 911 calls to local dispatchers over the past year using uninitialized cellular phones. Maurice Cruz, 43, was arrested by California Highway Patrol officers and Secret Service agents at his home for misusing a 911 line. The CHP said Cruz had made 18,000 calls to 911 over the past six months, but the agency did not describe the nature of the calls. In an unrelated arrest, Orange County sheriff’s deputies arrested Israel Vasquez, 34, at his home in Stanton. They allege he made over 2,000 calls to 911 over the past year. If a male dispatcher answered, Vasquez would hang up. However, if a female answered, sheriff’s officials say he would launch into an obscene conversation. The record for hoax calls is still held by a Hayward (N. Calif.) man who made 27,000 calls starting in May 2007. John Treplette, 50, told police he called the number, “because it’s free.” Update: Vasquez later pleaded guilty to five counts of annoying or harassing 911 operators, and was sentenced to 21 days in jail and three years probation. He is in the country illegally and is eligible for deportation after his jail sentence.

In an unusual move, last year the District of Columbia council included employees of the Office of Unified Communications, where 911 calls are answered and incidents, in a furlough plan to help reduce a budget deficit. Most cities, counties and states that have furloughed employees exempt emergency workers, including dispatchers. The first furloughs hit last Tuesday, and now the dispatchers’ union claims just three dispatchers were assigned to answer 911 calls from midnight to 6 a.m. instead of the usual six, and that up to 200 calls were missed. District officials admit that seven of the usual 30 dispatchers were on furlough during that period, but say they’re unaware of any missed calls. The officials also said the center still answers 96 percent of 911 calls within 10 seconds, above the generally accepted standard of 90 percent. Read more here.

The small county of Cumberland (Tenn.) has generated some big problems after the directors of both the E911 District director and comm center resigned—a husband and wife team. Bill Hunter headed the E911 district and his wife Barbara Coffman-Hunter managed the comm center until Hunter submitted his resignation last month, saying he’d accepted another position. Coffman-Hunter resigned last Tuesday, saying she also would be following her husband to another state, and despite county officials asking her to stay until her replacement could be found. After Hunter’s resignation, the county committee overseeing 911 and the comm center received grievances from two dispatchers against Coffman-Hunter, one alleging wrongful termination in May 2010. The committee later rehired the involved dispatcher with conditions, a vote that was unanimous except for Hunter, who is a member of the committee. Read more about the grievances and personnel situation here. [In an e-mail to DM, Mr. Hunter provided additional information which was used to clarify certain details of the situation in this story.]

After hiding in an attic and fatally shooting two St. Petersburg (Fla.) police officers, Hydra Lacy Jr. continued to rain bullets down on officers who responded to the radio call for help, and later dialed 911 on a cellular phone to talk about surrendering. A report issued by the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office says Lacy hid when officers arrived last month to serve a domestic violence warrant, but his estranged wife gave up his location. When officers went to search the attic, Lacy began shooting, killing the Off. Jeffrey Yaslowitz, who had crawled up to handcuff him, and Sgt. Thomas Baitinger, who arrived with a rescue team. About 30 minutes after the shooting, Lacy made a three-minute 911 call, telling a dispatcher, “I’m coming out, but I just need to gather my thoughts.” He warned the dispatcher that he would shoot anyone who came into the house, including shooting Off. Yaslowitz, whose body was still in the attic. In fact, Off. Yaslowitz was already dead. Finally Lacy told the dispatcher, ”I’m getting ready to shoot, I’m getting ready to shoot,” and he hung up. After the 911 call, officers telephoned Lacy to arrange a surrender, but he refused. Lacy called relatives to say he did not want to go back to prison. Police eventually had a construction crew partially dismantle the house, and they found Lacy dead inside from several gunshot wounds. Download (pdf) the state attorney’s report here.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol has named Beverly Bearden (right) as its Dispatcher of the Year for 2010 for her calm handling of a hit-and-run accident that involved a trooper, and also honored other dispatchers for district-level awards. The awards included veterans, rookies and one posthumous award. In Bearden’s case, she was on-duty when a trooper was struck and injured by a hit-and-run driver on last November. “Dispatcher Bearden remained calm and focused throughout the ordeal,” the Highway Patrol said in a press release. Bearden notified THP Command and Highway Patrol units, and alerted local law enforcement agencies that the trooper was enroute to the hospital. “Dispatcher Bearden kept everyone updated on his condition throughout the remainder of her shift.” Richard Dorning is a 34-year veteran and was honored for the Lawrenceburg district office. “Dispatcher Dorning has been steady in the radio room by providing gentle guidance as incidents begin to unfold and lives hang in the balance,” the agency said. Dispatcher Jonathan Isleman was a 12-year veteran of the Highway Patrol when last year he lost his fight with cancer. “Dispatcher Isleman had a desire to exceed all expectations and set a positive example for his co-workers. He even dispatched from his hospital bed,” the agency said. Read about all the honorees here. read more

A Pennsylvania appeals court has reversed a lower court’s decision on whether incident locations are part of “time response logs,” and has ordered York County to release cross-streets or addresses in response to a request from a newspaper reporter for response time information. The court’s decision hung on the county’s dependence on a National Emergency Number Association (NENA) definition of “time response log,” and the state legislature’s intent when it passed a Right to Know Law (RtKL) in 2008. The state was among the first to strictly limit release of information from 911 comm centers, including logging tapes of calls, names, addresses and other personal information, both to provide privacy for crime victims and witnesses, but also to stem growing identify theft incidents. Shortly after the RtKL was signed by the governor, a reporter for The York Daily Record asked the county for three months of response time information to help determine the efficiency of emergency responses. However, 911 director Cindy Dietz invoked the state law to keep incident locations private, but did release incident times—call received, dispatched, unit enroute, arrived, unit available. The newspaper appealed and a Common Pleas court agreed that the nationally-accepted definition of “time response log” did not include locations. However, now the three-judge appeals panel has overturned that decision, saying NENA’s post-legislative definition does not take the place of the law’s original intent. In fact, the court noted that NENA’s own “Master Glossary of 9-1-1 Terminology” does not define the term. read more

After the small plane he was flying in crashed into a Tippacanoe County (Ind.) corn field, Tom Williams dialed 911 and reached sheriff’s dispatcher Lisa Stewart. But Williams had no idea where he was and couldn’t see any landmarks to pinpoint his location. The county’s 911 system could only locate the receiving cellular tower, and showed the location as somewhere near the Tippacanoe River. Williams’ two friends were trapped and bleeding inside the plane, so Stewart made a decision—she instructed Williams to start walking across the snowy field to find an address, highway or person who could give a location where emergency units could respond. It took Williams 11 minutes of walking to find a man working in a barn, all the time talking to Stewart on the phone. Meanwhile, dispatcher Susan Crecelius was radioing units in the field to reach Williams. Both victims in the plane were taken to hospitals in serious condition. Read more about the incident here, listen to the 911 call (below) and watch a video after the break. [audio:http://mp3.911dispatch.com.s3.amazonaws.com/tippacanoe_planecrash_911.mp3] read more

A woman who was witnessing a robbery on a Seattle (Wash.) bus did the right thing—she used her cellular phone to dial 911 and clearly tell the dispatcher she was reporting “a theft and robbery on a bus.” However, King County sheriff’s officials say that the woman and another 911 caller were unclear about what was happening, and that’s why a deputy wasn’t dispatched to the incident. Now a KOMO-TV reporter obtained the logging tape of the 911 call from the woman, and it reveals the dispatcher explained to the witness,”You cannot report a theft that did not occur to you. The person who the items were stolen from has to report this.” The woman then called the bus dispatcher and eventually Seattle police, who responded to the location and spoke to the victim. Read more about the incident here, and watch a video news report after the break. Update: A sheriff’s spokesperson says the dispatcher had just been released from six months of training, and that he misunderstood the caller who he said spoke in the past tense. Read the sheriff’s department explanation here. read more

A selection of witnesses representing various interests testified before a U.S. Senate committee last Wednesday on the best way to construct a nationwide wireless network for public safety agencies. The Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is chaired by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who has introduced legislation to directly assign the D Block spectrum directly to public safety, a plan that would override existing legislation requiring the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to auction the spectrum to a commercial company. The witnesses included Raymond Kelly, police commissioner of New York City, Jack Markell, governor of Delaware, Al Gillespie, chief of the North Las Vegas fire department, and Joe Hanna, former president of APCO and now a consultant. Several witnesses invoked the advanced wireless technology available to teenagers, and lamented that police officers and firefighters don’t have the same capabilities. read more

Companies that provide Internet-based telecommunications relay services (TRS) must adhere to all the applicable federal regulations, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is warning, including providing location-identifying information about the caller. The Commission issues its “Enforcement Advisory” on Wednesday as a reminder of the requirements and of the enforcement actions and fines that could result for violations. “The purpose of (the regulations) is to ensure that individuals with hearing or speech disabilities who use Internet-based TRS receive 911 service that is comparable to that received by traditional telephone network TRS users,” the FCC wrote in the advisory. It emphasized that the requirements apply, “regardless of the equipment or software used by consumers seeking emergency assistance via Internet-based TRS.” Callers might use TRS or third-party software, or the subscriber’s own software to make the calls, the FCC noted. Download (pdf) the FCC’s advisory here.

In the middle of the night, talking to a distraught 19 year-old man who had called 911, and listening to an incredible story, a Catawba County (NC) sheriff’s dispatcher did everything right. She was composed, she was focused and she arranged the safe surrender of a man who admitted to killing and mutilating another man during a gay sex encounter. The dispatcher, who hasn’t been named, took every word of Michael Anderson’s story in stride. She told him to put down the gun that he was still holding, and told him she was sending him help. “I’m sorry ma’am, but the ax is inside his stomach,” the man said at one point. The dispatcher repeatedly asked the man for assurance that he wasn’t holding any weapons, and Anderson said he was not. She instructed him to sit in a chair in the room nearest the front door and, when he began to feel panicked, she asked him to take some deep breaths to calm down. The tape ends before deputies arrived, but Anderson was safely taken into custody, and is now charged with murder. Read the story and listen to the amazing logging tape of the 911 call here.

Officials of the New South Wales (Australia) ambulance service say that all four of their comm centers are back on-line after a virus infected the computer-aided dispatch system used to handle incidents. Officials did not say how the virus was introduced into the systems, including the center that handles Sydney, or which strain was involved. The first symptoms were noted Saturday afternoon, and dispatchers began handling incidents with pen and paper and dispatching by telephone. Officials said that no incidents were adversely affected by the outage while technicians swept the computers to remove the virus. However, some political officials are questioning how the computer infection occurred and if any lives were put in danger. The ambulance service’s paramedics have recently been protesting staffing cutbacks, and complain of bullying and intimidation by supervisors. They also complain that computer prioritization of incidents is inefficient, and frequently makes mistakes that puts lives in danger.