Officials from Manitowoc County (Wisc.) say that dispatchers will receive “refresher training” on handling incidents involving animals, after a delayed response to a loose dog 911 call was delayed, ending with the dog drowned. Manitowoc County Emergency Services coordinator Nancy Crowley said a family dog ran away, but was spotted and reported in downtown Manitowoc at 11:26 p.m. Police were handling other incidents and couldn’t respond, and the fire department wasn’t dispatched. A second caller reported at 11:35 p.m. that the dog was in the Manitowoc River, which has steep banks at that point. A third caller at 11:42 p.m. said a crowd had gathered along the river trying to rescue the dog. The fire department was dispatched and arrived six minutes later. Crowley said in a statement that, “Appropriate measures are being taken to assure that the procedure for handling calls of this nature is both clear and comprehensive.” Read more and listen to second 911 call here.

A DeSoto (La.) dispatcher who was suspended for five days last month for not following proper procedures and tardiness was fired for a mistake she made six hours after returning to work. The E911 board of commissioners gave administrator Bruce Vanderhoeven authority for the immediate termination of Donna Claybrook, and he did so after she failed to transfer a 911 caller reporting a domestic disturbance to the sheriff’s office. Instead, she took the information, hung up with the caller and then notified the sheriff’s dispatchers herself. The mistake was discovered during the routine weekly audit of dispatchers’ telephone calls and radio work. Read more about the incident here.

A Capitola (N. Calif.) council member who dialed 911 and demanded a ride for an intoxicated friend did violate the state’s government code, the county district attorney has ruled, and owes the city $139.98 for the ride plus a fine. Kirby Nicol told the dispatcher he was “Mayor Nicol” last month, when in fact he left office last year. He said a friend had visited his home and was now too intoxicated to drive home to an adjacent city. Someone leaked the logging tape to local media, creating criticism from the police department. The district attorney said Nicol violated the government code section related to using a public resource for personal use, punishable by a $1,000 fine. DA Bob Lee said Nicol should also pay three times the cost of the ride a patrol officer gave his friend. Nicol apologized immediately, and said he agreed with the DA’s disposition.

Radio and electronics company Motorola Inc. reported another in a series of quarterly losses, with the company’s radio division turned in a narrow profit on a sales decline of 11%. The company’s financial results continue to be impacted by competition in the cellular handset market. Sales of handsets was down significantly for the quarter, as the company cut expenses and tried to introduce new handset models to jumpstart sales. The company reported revenue of $5.3 billion for the first fiscal quarter of 2009, and posted a loss of $449 million. The company’s Enterprise Mobility Solutions unit, which includes public safety radios and systems, reported sales of $1.6 billion, compared to $1.8 billion for Q2 2008. Profit dropped to $156 million, compared to $250 million for the same quarter of 2008. In a press release, Motorola said it expanded its public safety portfolio with the new ASTRO 25 Express system, and secured public safety contracts for the State of Mississippi, Pernambuco State in Brazil and the Danish Police. The company forecast declining sales for the second quarter of 2009, and a possible loss of $449 million.

A Warren (Ohio) police officer and three residents of a group home remain in critical condition after an arson fire trapped them on the third floor of the residence. Off. Doug Hipple arrived at 3:22 a.m. to find the house in flames, and entered after neighbors said persons were trapped. He was able to herd three women to an upstairs room, but the group became trapped there until rescued by firefighters. All suffered smoke inhalation and burns. A car was seen speeding from the area before the fire, which started on the front porch. Listen (mp3) to the telephone and radio traffic, including Off. Hipple’s radio transmissions for help.

The increase in H1N1 flu infections among Americans has triggered federal and state health officials to declare emergencies, and to lean on local public safety comm centers for intelligence about possible new infections. America’s reliance on emergency rooms makes comm centers a key source of new reports of symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Many citizens have no health insurance and no doctor, and even those with a regular physician may be dialing 911 for medical or hospital assistance. Many comm centers that use an EMS screening protocol have begun asking additional questions of certain callers, including if they have traveled to Mexico, if their fever is higher than 101° F. or if they have respiratory symptoms. Every comm center should have a liaison with health department officials in order to provide first-line information, and to receive advice and assistance on handling incoming calls. Available resources:

• CDC H1N1 flu and the current outbreak info
• CDC specific guidance for comm centers, first-responders
• U.S. DOT guide to preparing PSAPs for pandemic influenza
• NAEMD protocol changes

Law enforcement officials in the Cincinnati (Ohio) area say that radio communications likely did not contribute to the serious injury of an officer who was laying down spike strips on I-75, and was struck by one of the patrol cars pursuing a bank robbery suspect. Lockland police Off. Brandon Gehring was critically injured as he stood in the right lane of the highway, apparently caught unaware of how close the suspect and pursuing officers were to his location. A long story by the Cincinnati Enquirer suggests that the two different radio systems being used by officers may have contributed to communications delays, leading to a lack of timely information about the chase. But it was the speed of the chase–80 mph–that prevented timely information, police officials say, not phone calls between Hamilton County, Lockland and West Chester. Read the story here. View a map after the break. read more

The Delaware County (Ind.) Emergency Communications Center hosted the video crew from Investigation Discovery Channel’s “Call 911″ television show, which taped segments with dispatchers and first-responders from two separate incidents that involved 911 calls. The segments will appear during the show’s second season, which will premier June 5th. In one segment, a woman calls to report a fire, but hangs up. The dispatcher then calls back, and is on the line as firefighters pull her out of a window to safety. In the second incident, a citizen help corral a 7 year-old who took his grandmother’s SUV and drove around the city. The ID channel is available only on digital cable systems, so check your local cable listings for dates and times. Listen to the fire-related 911 call from last January here.

A Placer County (N. Calif.) supervisor says she wa confused when she voted to accept a consultant’s report that recommends the sheriff close one of its two comm centers. Sup. Jennifer Montgomery says voted only to accept the 167-page report by the Matrix Consulting Group, not to actually approve closing the Tahoe City center and moving operations to the Auburn center. Board of supervisors chair F.C. Rockholm agrees that the vote was only to accept the report, but he noted that the sheriff is the one who will make the final decision on closing the center. The six dispatchers who work at the center near Lake Tahoe say they disagree with the consultant’s findings. If the center closes, they would be offered other county jobs. Read the original story about the vote, and then read Montgomery’s explanation of her vote. You can also download (pdf) the consultant’s report report.

A suspicious citizen dialed 911 in Putnam County (Fla.) to report two men rummaging through his barn, leading deputies to two escaped prisoners who are also accused of a murder after they fled the county jail. During the 911 call, the two suspects approached the caller and asked for him for gasoline–their car had run out of gas nearby. The man said he has no gas, so the two men then asked him for a ride. The caller had to hang up to follow the men, but later called back to say he suspected they were the men wanted for the murder. Read more and listen to the 911 call and radio logging tapes here.

When a tornado blew in to Murfreesboro (Tenn.) about noon on April 10th, it generated some of the heaviest telephone and radio traffic the dispatchers had ever experienced. Officials said the dispatchers fielded 487 telephone calls within 12 hours, ten times the number on a routine day. Dispatcher Betsy Lee’s husband and 11 year-old son were at a church camp, but she continued to focus on calls despite not knowing if they were safe. The off-going shift stayed to continue taking calls, helping until the calls slowed around midnight. Read more about the dispatchers great work here, then listen to logging tapes of the telephone calls and the radio traffic.

There seems to be an explosion of logging tapes being released to the public, and which I’ve been adding to the tape library (check the left column for the links). It’s partly due–sadly–to what seems to be an increase in murder-suicides, domestic murders and other stress-type incidents. It’s also driven somewhat by the media’s need to be dramatic. However, I think for the major incidents that we’ve recently experienced, there’s also a public-policy need to hear the tapes, and learn how they were handled. The lesson from these tapes is clear when you listen to them–the very first seconds of an incident are going to send you, the dispatcher, in one direction or another. Either the 911 caller is hysterical, or they’re calmly describing an horrific scene. Either the officer is yelling for help on the radio, or calmly broadcasting tactical information for cover officers. Take advantage of the tapes. I added 12 new ones during March, and 11 new tapes so far in April. They could prepare you for the next critical telephone call or radio broadcast.

An Appleton (Wisc.) woman who was shot in the chest by her son-in-law managed to dial 911 and rather calmly report, “Shots have been fired…” Barbara Wing arrived at her daughter’s home to find estranged husband Scott Schmidt arguing upstairs and waving a gun. Kelly Schmidt came downstairs and ran outside, followed by her husband. Within second Scott Schmidt opened fire with .22-cal. pistol, hitting his wife, and then he shot Wing in the chest. Wing managed to go back inside to dial 911, as Schmidt shot his wife several more times. An Appleton officer arrived within moments to arrest Schmidt without incident. Wing survived the attack, but Kelly Schmidt did not. Listen to the dramatic logging tape of the 911 call here. Also read the comm center manager’s assessment of how the call was handled by 25-year veteran dispatcher Tami Schurer.

When a gunman opened fire last week at a Korean religious retreat outside Temecula (S. Calif.), several persons dialed 911 and reached Riverside County sheriff’s dispatchers, who had to use translators to gather critical information. The comm center uses the Language Line service, which quickly put Korean translators onto the line to help determine what had occurred and who was shooting at the rural facility. Trained to strictly relay information back and forth between the 911 caller and the dispatcher, the translators in this case had to also provide reassurance to the callers, some of whom had been shot and were distraught. Read more about the language situation here, and listen to the 911 calls here.

Life is normally quiet in Capitola, a small town of 9,500 along the California’s coast near Monterey. So when former mayor Kirby Nicol dialed 911 last month to request a ride for an intoxicated friend, it kicked up some dust. On the logging tape leaked to a local TV station, Nicol’s speech sounds slurred as he explains his friend is “in no shape to drive.” Nicol had trouble giving the address, but was otherwise polite. The dispatcher tried to suggest a cab, but the mayor was adamant. Now the police officer’s association has criticized Nicol for dialing 911 and using an officer for a simple transportation request. Also an issue: Nicol’s term ended last year, and the town’s police officers were forced onto periodic furloughs to save money, further reducing staffing. Read more about the incident and listen to the call here, and ask yourself, what would you tell the mayor?