A 12 year-old Warren (Ohio) boy came out of the bathroom of his home, and came face-to-face with three burglars. They forced him to lie down while they loaded up their car with items from the home. As they fled, the boy jumped up and obtained a good description of the car, and then dialed 911. In a remarkable opening line, he told the dispatcher, “‘I’m not in any danger right now, but it’s urgent.” He described the car and suspects, and a neighbor provided a direction of flight. Within 15 minutes officers spotted the vehicle, pulled it over and arrested the men. Property from the home was inside the car. Read more about the burglary here, and listen (mp3) to the 911 call. here

The CBS television series “48 Hours Mystery” profiled the murder of Walker County (Geo.) dispatcher Theresa Parker on Saturday, following the events leading up to her death and then the conviction of her husband on murder charges. The show focused on the many friends, family and co-workers who knew and loved Parker, and how it took one year to develop a murder case against her husband Sam. You can watch the entire show on-line here, along with some Web extras.

A Connecticut newspaper has thrown a spotlight on an on-going feud between officers and dispatchers at the town of Madison Police Department, documented by 160 pages of memos written over the last year. Newly-appointed police chief John Drumm is working to solve the dispute, which centers over alleged mistakes by dispatchers, and claims by the dispatchers that they’re the scapegoat for officer errors. The comm center was operated by the police department until 2005, when it was moved administratively to the Emergency Management office. However, the center physically remained at the police department. The officers’ complaints sometimes picked on typographical errors in the CAD entries, and which didn’t affect locations or names. However, other errors included unverified locations and incomplete information. Read more here.

When Hernando County (Fla.) sheriff’s dispatcher Milagros Ramos answered a 911 on Jan. 21st, she quickly connected with the caller, who was reporting that four persons had been shot. A dispute led John Kalisz to shoot his sister Kathryn and two employees at her home-based business. The sister and one employee didn’t survive. One of the women was pregnent, and her baby also did not survive. But another woman dialed 911 and spoke to Ramos, who reassured the woman during an emotional 8-minute call that help was on the way. “I felt like I was there with her,” Ramos told a reporter. “I was really afraid for her. It felt like a long time for me, too.” Deputies responded immediately but took nearly eight minutes to arrive at the house. Kalisz sped away and was chased across four counties by deputies. He shot and killed a sheriff’s deputy in an adjacent county two hours later before he was captured. Read more and listen to the extraordinary 911 call here.

A District of Columbia council member who stopped her car to inquire into someone lying on the sidewalk received an obvious answer from two bystanders—they pointed a handgun at her and told her to leave. In fact, the man on the ground was being robbed, and councilmember Yvette Alexander said it took too long for officers to arrive at the scene. She submitted her story to the District’s committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, who is looking into several complaints about slow police response times. In this case, a calltaker answered Alexander’s 911 call reporting the incident within five seconds, and an officer was dispatched two minutes and 37 seconds later. It took an officer another 10 minutes to arrive, compared to the department’s average of seven minutes and 14 seconds for priority incidents. Alexander said the Office of Unified Communications told her that the officer was given the incident as an “unconscious person” instead of a robbery just-prior. Read more and listen to the two 911 calls from Alexander and the victim here.

A Chatham County (NC) dispatcher told a woman being chased along a highway by her boyfriend to make a U-turn and head back towards officers headed her way. But now there are questions about whether that put the woman in even more jeopardy from the boyfriend. The woman dialed 911 as she hit 90 mph along the highway, but was headed away from the only available officers, who were trying to catch up to her. The dispatcher advised the woman to turn around, but the woman said she didn’t want to make such a maneuver. Apex police said they never asked the dispatcher to re-route the motorist, and comm center officials admit it was the dispatcher’s decision. The boyfriend shot several times at the woman’s car before he crashed into a van, and then shot and killed himself before police arrived at the crash scene. The woman was unhurt. Read more about the incident here.

Officials at the Fayetteville (NC) police department will only say that “appropriate disciplinary action” has been taken for the mishandling of a 911 call last November involving a murder-suicide , but they won’t say how many dispatchers were disciplined or who they are. Billy Maxwell Jr. killed his wife, son and daughter before shooting himself. Someone from the house dialed 911 at 6:39 p.m., but hung up before speaking. A dispatcher called the phone back, but the line was busy. A dispatcher made a second call to the number, but it was still busy. An officer was dispatched at 7:52 p.m., or one hour and 13 minutes after the first call. FPD policy requires two call-backs and a police dispatch within 20 minutes of the first 911 call. In a statement announcing the discipline, a city spokesperson said that the involved dispatchers also received additional training in the proper procedures. Read an editorial about the discipline here.

Four Mississippi college students died in their second-floor room at a motel after they dialed 911 to report the front of their room was being swept by flames. The women were visiting the Birmingham suburb of Hoover Dec. 20th when the fire broke out at about 8 p.m., caused from a live-in motel maintenance worker’s unattended incense. High winds swept the flames on the lower level up to the second level of the 1960-era wooden motel, intensified by the motel’s location on a hill. One of the women dialed 911 to say their room’s front door was blocked by a wall of flames, and officials say the dispatcher told them to go into the bathroom and stay low. Arriving firefighters found the only hydrant was several hundred feet from the motel, and couldn’t reach the women because the fire had been pushed upward by the wind, and across the face of the motel, including the second floor balcony where the women’s room was located.[read more]

About 25 rooms were destroyed or damaged at the unsprinklered motel, but the few other motel occupants escaped uninjured. Investigators found the women’s bodies in the window-less bathroom. Investigators say the maintenance left the incense burning in his ground-level room, returned to find the room on fire and attempted to fight it. Two phones didn’t work when he then tried to notify the front desk of the fire. He used two fire extinguishers, which didn’t put out the fire in his room. Neighbors, passersby and other occupants then dialed 911 to report the fire.

Just six days after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, and while victims were still being pulled from beneath collapsed buildings, the chief of the FCCs Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau used the incident to push for funding a nationwide, public safety broadband network. Jamie Barnett wrote an opinion piece posted on The Hill Web site, noting that eight years after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, “We still lack nationwide reliable, interoperable communications for America’s first responders.” Barnett called this situation “unthinkable,” and claimed that a broadband network is the “best prospect” to provide the needed interoperability. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to form public-private partnerships in order to leverage commercial technology and resources,” Barnett wrote. “However, to take advantage of this opportunity, funding is required to ensure that public safety has the coverage, redundancy and resiliency it requires.” Read Barnett’s piece here.

A former Augusta County (Virg.) dispatcher has been indicted by a county grand jury on charges related to contacting a minor on the Internet last September for purposes of having sex. Alvin Yoder, 51, was charged with two counts of attempting to take indecent liberties with a child and two counts of use of electronic means to solicit sex from a minor. Stauton police say they conducted a sting operation, with an officer posing as a 13 year-old girl. Court documents say Yoder communicated with the officer over a period of two weeks, sent sexually explicit chat messages, and set up a meeting with what he thought was a juvenile girl. Comm center officials say Yoder left employment six days before his arrest last year. He’s free on bail.

An incident involving a violent student at a Livingston County (Mich.) middle school has prompted school officials to revise their procedures for dialing 911 so dispatchers have better information for making dispatch decisions. School officials say a special needs student became violent, and staffers responded to the classroom to handle the incident. An office worker dialed 911 to report an “out-of-control sixth-grader,” and two deputies were dispatched, both at a distance and responding routinely. Knowing classes would soon change, a school staffer facing down the violent student decided to issue a “lock-down” order, which prompted a second and third 911 call. During the third call, an office secretary sarcastic and upset about the long response time, considering a “lock down,” an order usually used for shootings or other serious, campus-wide situations . Deputies arrived about 25 minutes after the first 911 call and handled the situation. School officials say they will now have only involved staff dial 911, so dispatchers have first-hand information. Staffers will also more carefully use the term “lock down,” and use a “stay put” order for less serious incidents. Read more about the incident and listen to the third 911 call here.

A simple, watch-like device may be the key to locating at-risk seniors or anyone who might walk away from their place of residence. The EmSeeQ device is marketed as “integrated with law enforcement” and having accurate, national coverage for locating the wearer. The device resembles a slim watch, and includes a rechargeable battery and cellular technology to both dial a 911 call and transmit its location based on triangulation technology. The location technique allows the device to work indoors, anywhere there is cellular service, in contrast to GPS devices that require a clear view of the sky. According to EmFinders, when the wearer is reported missing, and after a report is filed with the police, the company’s operations center will “ping” the device to make a 911 call. The receiving comm center would then note the location of the device as displayed on the ANI/ALI display, and make the appropriate dispatch of personnel. The device is $275 for a one-year service plan, or $25 per month for month-to-month service. Learn more about the device and watch a video here.

A Gilbert (Ariz.) police officer who shot and wounded a shoplifting suspect while off-duty last August has been disciplined with a demotion to dispatcher. Andrew Biggs told investigators he feared for his life when he confronted a man and woman at a local Wal-Mart store, and struggled with the woman as the man advanced on him. An internal affairs panel found Biggs violated four policies, including use of force, wearing a uniform off-duty and taking action while off-duty. Biggs’ attorney is appealing the action, saying, “It’s very sad to see a chief do this type of action,” saying it sends a message that officers don’t have a right to defend themselves. Biggs is appealing the discipline. In the meantime, he began his new dispatcher job on Jan. 4th. Read more here.

Officials at Louisville’s (Ken.) Metro 911 are investigating a Twitter account apparently created by a dispatcher, and that included postings that were rude and made fun of 911 callers. The account “funny911calls” was recently discovered by a WHAS television reporter, and included posting back to December 2009. The account has now been deleted, but copies of the postings are still floating around the Internet, prompting 911 officials to investigate whether they were posted while the unknown dispatcher was on-duty. While the messages may be rude, officials said they didn’t appear to have violated any privacy laws. However, they are attempting to determine if the tweets were posted while the dispatcher was on-duty, which would be a violation of a “no electronic devices” policy. Read more about the situation here, and read (pdf) some of the tweets here.

Officials of APCO and NENA joined a wide range of national public safety, law enforcement and firefighting organizations at a Washington (DC) press conference on Tuesday, asking Congress and the Obama administration to withdraw the 700 MHz D Block of spectrum from any future auction, and directly assign it to public safety. San Jose (Calif.) police chief Robert Davis told reporters that public safety leaders had met with members of Congress in the morning to bring home their point—eight years after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, there isn’t enough spectrum to enable radio interoperability among agencies, both voice and data. “It’s been eight years, and we still can’t communicate with each other,” Davis said. Congress originally required a portion of the 700 MHz band be auctioned to raise revenue, and a public safety trust be created to create and operate a system. However, the Feb. 2008 auction failed to meet a minimum bid requirement, and the FCC has been considering what action to take ever since. Watch a video of the press conference here. APCO has posted talking points about the political action, and some background.