djcl@contact.uucp (woody) (11/04/90)
An Associated Press report mentioned an incident in Detroit where a girl (age 7) phoned 911 to report that her brother was being beaten. She was told by a 911 operator to "get off the phone" and her call was basically ignored. The operator's insistence that the girl hang up interfered with the girl's pleadings for assistance. The mother phoned for an ambulance a short time later, but the boy was dead by the time an ambulance arrived. The 911 operator who took the call was supposedly "disciplined" according to a Wayne County prosecutor.
sander@anet.ann-arbor.mi.us (Sander J. Rabinowitz) (11/07/90)
In a TELECOM article of 3 November 1990, woody <djcl@contact.uucp> wrote the following: > An Associated Press report mentioned an incident in Detroit where a > girl (age 7) phoned 911 to report that her brother was being beaten. > She was told by a 911 operator to "get off the phone" and her call was > basically ignored. The operator's insistence that the girl hang up > interfered with the girl's pleadings for assistance. Readers of the original article know, of course, that the incident ended quite tragically. I believe that there are three other aspects to this case which need to be mentioned. (1) About one or two nights after the incident occured, I heard a recording of the actual 911 call played over WKBD-TV (Detroit TV50). In the first several seconds of the call, it appeared as though she was asking for someone at the "Ten O'Clock News". This fact alone does not excuse the 911 operator, although I cannot help but wonder how many Detroit 911 calls come from children playing with the phone, and whether the operator thought this may have been another such call. (2) I don't believe Detroit's 911 system is one where the caller's address is automatically relayed to the dispatcher -- in other words, the caller would be required to calmly relay his/her location to the operator. This not only complicates efforts to send help quickly (even a highly competant operator may not be able to get this information out of a seven-year old in time), but increases the chance that prank 911 calls may go through (since I suspect it would be more difficult to pinpoint their source). (3) (Disclaimer: This point is mostly speculative, but I don't believe it's way off the mark) I think it would be safe to say that Detroit is understaffed across the board insofar as emergency personnel is concerned, and that the problem extends to 911 operators. None of these points excuse the actions of the 911 operator, but I believe they point to a much larger problem involving Detroit's emergency services. I also believe that if the status quo continues, it's entirely possible that the above tradegy will repeat itself. Note: The First Amendment and all relevant disclaimers apply. Sander J. Rabinowitz | !sander@attmail.com | +1 313 478 6358 Farmington Hills, Mich. | --OR-- sjr@mcimail.com | ***
cat@tygra.ddmi.com (CAT-TALK Maint. Account) (11/11/90)
In article <14512@accuvax.nwu.edu> sander@anet.ann-arbor.mi.us (Sander J. Rabinowitz) writes: "An Associated Press report mentioned an incident in Detroit where a "girl (age 7) phoned 911 to report that her brother was being beaten. "She was told by a 911 operator to "get off the phone" and her call was "basically ignored. The operator's insistence that the girl hang up "interfered with the girl's pleadings for assistance. Detroit 911 has been very helpful and quick during the times that I had to call them (the guy next door is a drunk who was thrown out of his house by his wife. Every now and then he comes back, waving a gun at her and threatening to kill her and her two children). "(2) I don't believe Detroit's 911 system is one where the caller's "address is automatically relayed to the dispatcher -- in other words, "the caller would be required to calmly relay his/her location to the "operator. False. The Detroit 911 system has full ANI capabilities. When a call comes in, the address of the calling number is displayed on the operators CRT. Both times when I have called, the operator has said "so the trouble is one house north of <stated my address>" without me saying a thing. "(3) (Disclaimer: This point is mostly speculative, but I don't believe "it's way off the mark) I think it would be safe to say that Detroit is "understaffed across the board insofar as emergency personnel is "concerned, and that the problem extends to 911 operators. That's probably true. King Coleman (Young) likes to divert funds to other more important areas like building more convention space downtown. (By the way -- ignore the recent ABC broadcast which depicted Detroit as a wasteland. It is yellow journalism at its worst. We have a few political bad apples to get rid of, but the city is much nicer than some other cities like NYC, LA and Chicago).