911 dispatcher under investigation after 'cold' treatment of Amanda Berry.

[snagglepuss]

snip

Miss Berry, who disappeared in 2003 aged 14, is heard screaming down the phone to an Ohio police operator: 'I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now.'

But multiple times the dispatcher’s response was 'Talk to the police when they get there,' before asking the name of Miss Berry’s captor, as well as his age and ethnicity.


In the 911 call Miss Berry implores the dispatcher that she needs the police immediately, but she is told authorities will be sent as soon as a 'car becomes open.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2321169/911-dispatcher-investigation-cold-treatment-Amanda-Berry-desperate-plea-help.html#ixzz2Sj3Tux8Q
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There was an incident several years ago that got a lot of press about profoundly disengaged 911 operators. I have to wonder whether the constant exposure to desperate 911 calls inures the operators to distress.

[snooper2]

1. I work with trained PSAP Operators...

Most of the time they are kind of monotone, they really only have a couple goals..

Keep caller on line-
Gather information-
Enure TN they are calling from is same as from ALI info
Read and get confirmation of street address-
Clarify information-
Keep caller calm-

Standard list of information based on callers need- example-

Caller- Somebody is outside my house!
Operator- Ensure your doors are locked, stay away from the windows, do you have a description?

[AndyA]

2. I thought the 911 dispatcher seemed to be a bit off on the recording

I kept wondering why they didn't ask "Are you in a safe place right now?" Also, "Who kidnapped you?" and "Are you OK? Do you need medical assistance?" might have been good questions to ask.

Also, I think I would have told the caller that I'd stay on the line with them until the police arrived, and to not hang up.

I know the 911 folks are supposed to remain calm, but a little empathy wouldn't hurt.

[magical thyme]

3. her first priority was to get accurate information

and transmit that information as quickly as possible.

According to the article, within 78 second of receiving that call, she had the correct address and had transmitted it to police.

The police were there within 2 minutes of the call being placed.

I would call that a success. Personally, I'd rather the police showed up as quickly as possible at the correct address then have somebody comforting me but not getting the address right and end up screaming while I watched the police drive by and disappear down the road.

Same if my house was on fire. Do you want compassion or do you want the fire engine to show up at your house, not 2 blocks away. Because you can only have one top priority. People are human, not perfect. I would love to get to see how some of her critics do their jobs.

Last summer I was walking my dogs and watched the village emt car drive 1/2 mile past the house they had been called to, and then turn around to backtrack. Luckily, the ambulance from 2 towns away had the correct address and arrived before the emt.

In some situations, getting it right matters more than doing it nice and pretty.

Furthermore, when you work emergencies on a regular, ongoing basis, you have to self-protect to avoid burnout and physical illness. You have to stay focused on task to prevent time-consuming, costly and potentially deadly mistakes. And when you work phones on an ongoing basis you have to protect your voice.

I think the people criticizing her voice should be required to listen to recordings of themselves on the phone. If they're like most people, they'll never want to speak again. Most people sound awful.

One of my part time jobs is as a customer service rep. Our group has one rep with a wonderful manner. Her voice is melodic and lovely. She's very compassionate and concerned, and it shows. She also gets more customer complaints than the rest of us combined, because she doesn't pay attention to the actual job and doesn't get it right. My voice is, sadly, a dead monotone on the phone. It doesn't sound like a monotone inside my head, but when I have to listen to my calls I cringe. But I have the highest quality average in our group, with straight "3s" because I get it right. And although I joined our group a month after the rest, I had the first customer complimentary call. And my manager noted in my last review that customers really seem to love me.

My other part time job is a med lab tech. I have a great bedside manner when I'm drawing and patients usually love me. But unless they have a great pop-up vein, I suck at drawing. And they don't usually love being turned into pin cushions, so I end up having to get someone who is less personable, but has better technique at drawing. Which do you prefer? A lot of compassion while you get stuck again and again? Or a quiet person who sticks you painlessly once and then leaves you in peace?

[eissa]

4. Yes, the dispatcher did their job BUT

I don't see why they couldn't have been a bit more empathetic and stayed on the line with a clearly hysterical and frightened kidnap victim for just a couple of minutes. What if (as she feared) the kidnapper returned before the police arrived? How would the dispatcher have known that the victim was taken again? They would have all assumed it was a hoax and not given it a second thought, and those girls would still be in chains today.

[leftyohiolib]

5. we dont know what she was told regarding her job - someone called asked for police to be sent

which the 911op did. it might be office policy to get off the call and get to the next emergency these ops are not grief counselors. she said she was across the street the op told her to stay there.
if someone else needed 911 it's better to have one available to handle the call rather than stay on the phone with someone who is already safe
we dont know how that office is handled and perhaps she handled the call in the manner she was told to by her training

[eissa]

6. But she wasn't safe yet

The officers hadn't arrived, and the only thing the dispatcher told her is one would come when "available." I understand that cuts to law enforcement means less dispatchers (although that's a whole other thread), and that the operator probably had other calls to attend to. But to simply keep the line open until officers arrived would have at least given this poor woman some assurance that she was ok.

[leftyohiolib]

7. she was safe she was calling from a n'bors house-- per the transcript

read the transcript

[Blue Diadem]

11. "Failure to remain on the line"

Investigation will include her not staying on the line with the caller.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/city_safety_director_marty_fla.html#incart_maj-story-1#incart_maj-story-1

snip from article:
"While the call-taker complied with policies and procedures which enabled a very fast response by police, we have noted some concerns which will be the focus of our review, including the call-taker's failure to remain on the line with Ms. Berry until police arrived on the scene.

[magical thyme]

15. and the investigation will show whether there was a good reason for her to not stay on the line

maybe other lines were calling and they were short-staffed. Maybe their policy within that particular department is to stay on the line to a certain point. Maybe she hadn't had a break in 6 hours and was peeing in her pants. Maybe the phone line cut itself off. Or maybe she broke with policy for no good reason.

But until the investigation is complete, I'm not condemning or criticizing her for not doing a perfect job according to people who've never done the job themselves.

[Blue Diadem]

18. When a kidnap victim says she needs help now, before he comes back,

that dispatcher should stay on the line. Dispatch didn't ask if the kidnapper had weapons nor if anyone else was involved or in the home. She could have sent those cops into a deadly situation or even been responsible for the other two victims death if he'd come back and saw Amanda was gone. Dispatchers job is to obtain information and she spent more time wanting to get away from the call.

And, I know cops, am related to cops and I personally know dispatchers.
Here's the transcript. See how many sentences were wasted "talk to the police when they get there".
http://www.kgw.com/news/ohio-missing-women-911-call-206408351.html

[magical thyme]

19. again, we don't know what was going on behind the scenes

She also may be brand new at the job. We just don't know.

But go ahead and condemn her to your heart's content. There are people now calling for her to be fired, with no facts whatsoever.

What. the. fuck. ever.

[rollin74]

8. 911 operator did a pretty lousy job imo

she didn't attempt to ascertain any suspect description/information except as an afterthought when Amanda didn't hang up right way

she told her "talk to the police when they get there" at least 3 times, obviously wanting to end the call, before bothering to inquire as to who had kidnapped her, what they looked like or what the current location of the suspect(s) might be, never did ask for a possible suspect vehicle description

a good 911 operator will get as much info as possible to pass along to responding units

she seemed disinterested and tried to end the call prematurely in my opinion

[99Forever]

9. Gotta love the Monday Morning quarterbacks.

They stand around finding fault in how someone else SUCCESSFULLY handling a situation they will never encounter in their entire life.

[magical thyme]

10. thank you.

I would *love* to see videotapes of all the monday morning quarterbacks in a typical day on their jobs played for all the would to see, hear and pick apart.

Sheesh.

Here's a hint. I work part time as a customer service rep. Ya'll don't sound like geniuses on the phone. The vast majority of you come across as inarticulate idiots. It can be very, very difficult to get clear, understandable answers to the simplest of questions that are needed to help you.

That the dispatcher got the name and correct address, and transmitted them to the police clearly and understandably within 78 seconds strikes me as a job well done.

If it were me, I'd rather she got it right, then that she sat on the phone empathizing with me while I watched the police whiz by to the wrong address.

[JI7]

12. why does it have to be one or the other ?

<If it were me, I'd rather she got it right, then that she sat on the phone empathizing with me while I watched the police whiz by to the wrong address. >

also i think standards, expectations etc should be different when it comes to jobs like dealing with emergency and someone trying to sell something .

[magical thyme]

13. because she is human

I don't try to sell anything. I work part time in customer support where I try to resolve problems or help customers do whatever they want to do. So during tax season, for example, I was on the phone almost nonstop for 8 hour shifts. Your voice can get flat. We are humans and our bodies and muscles get tired.

My other part time job is med lab tech and I do deal with emergencies, sometimes for 8 hours at a stretch when the ED is flat out. In those situations, we are courteous and calm, but frankly if we don't stay on task it could cost somebody their life, so hand holding and empathizing take a little bit of a back seat. When I'm in the lab alone, I can be running tests on multiple patients, simultaneously in chemistry, serology, hematology, coagulation, blood banking and microbiology. These can include largely manual, time consuming and exacting tests. Or they can be largely automated, and I am also responsible for ensuring that highly sophisticated instruments are running correctly, and for performing maintenance and qc, which sometimes (usually) ends up being at inconvenient times.

So I have a little insight about what it is do deal with emergencies for 8 hours at a stretch, sometimes without a chance even for a drink of water or to pee. In fact, I've had 13 hour nights when I sprinted without a break from 5pm until 6am. We are humans, too, you know. We do the best we can, but we have limits.

Again, I'd rather have somebody calm and focused getting the job done right, then holding my hand being empathetic and fucking up royally. We have a customer service rep with a lovely, melodic voice who is saccharin sweet and empathetic. She has more customer complaints and supervisor calls than the entire rest off the group combined because she doesn't stay on task and doesn't resolve the problem. We either have to help her behind the scenes half the time, or the customers ask for a supervisor.

[JI7]

14. the issue i had was more that the person seemed like too much in a hurry to get off

the phone or just didn't want to talk to her. i didn't really expect her to be sympathetic but how about just asking questions or anything to keep her on the line until the police arrived.

[magical thyme]

17. that is being investigated

there may or may not be a good reason. I can think of a number of good reasons. At least in the ED, they usually come in waves. Quiet for a while and suddenly 3 or 6 or 9 at once, and the rooms are filled and we have patients lining the halls.

If her lines were lighting up and they were short-staffed, she had to move on to other, potentially equally dire, emergencies. If your house was on fire, would you want to sit on hold for a couple minutes because the dispatcher was being empathetic with the kidnap victim?

She got the information she needed as quickly as possible to get the police there within 2 minutes. She both received and transmitted accurate information within 78 seconds of answering the call. That is very, very fast. That was the single most important thing she had to do.

I would add that it can be very difficult to get questions answered coherently when the person answering is screaming, out of breath and upset. The more upset the other person is, the more you have to stay very focused.

It is entirely possible the line disconnected. I have had that happen unexpectedly, and not always with cell phones. I once had my phone set fall right out of the telephone. It apparently wasn't secure enough and somebody bumped it while walking by.

It is possible that in the department, there are policies about when to stay on and when to disconnect. She may have been following policies.

She may have been at the end of a too long shift, and exhausted. Maybe she has to work 2 jobs to keep food on the table for her own family. These kinds of jobs tend to have very poor pay, especially considering the nature of the work.

There are any number of possibilities and good reasons why. Maybe the dispatcher could use a little empathy and compassion too.

[Whisp]

16. o.f.f.s. The dispatcher did her job.

They get paid not to get thier hair on fire and get the facts.

What a bunch of bullshit. I hope it's not pathetic internet know nothings that have initiated this investigation because that would be... just fucking pathetic.

Disappointed!