Pat Oliphant for May 08, 2013

Baslim, eh? Howdy, pop!

Sir, you make no sense at all. You think dispatchers are volunteers? Maybe you should be sleeping instead of reading the funnies.

I agree. We don’t know how often they get calls that sound like this one but end up being someone drunk, dramatizing, or off their meds.

You’re right it is not as bad as Oliphant makes it…but it wasn’t good either. The first time that I heard the tape I couldn’t understand why the operator came across as being so abrupt. When I listened to it the second time I said, this is not right. Granted Oliphant is using hyperbole a little to far but I do think that the operator should get some remedial training.

He should be ragging on the “Heroes” who were so lazy that they didn’t follow up on the naked woman crawling in the back yard or the blocked windows with people banging on them. They’re heroes all right, just like they were during the martial law episode in Boston.

isn’t this the same area where they arrested a serial killer with 11 bodies in his house? an underlying reason was the victims were poor and black, and the police didn’t care. also, the neighborhood where they were rescued is rundown. it is similar to the california neighborhood where dugard was held for 18 years. no one talked to nobody. in addition, cops were not nosy enough back in 2004. speculate someone’s head might roll on this. the worst part is castro was a school bus driver, busing kids.

Cynical, but not necessarily statistically probable or accurate.

The part that I heard shook my tree being a police officer is“We will send a unit when one is free.”????That dispatcher needs some adjusting. Cancel the loud dog, lost cat, I think there is a man under my bed calls and send all units.I mean seriously when one is free???I can hear her now.Call comes in Officer Down.“Okay when I have a unit available I will advise them”.

And when the police showed, was the woman still in the yard? Did anyone see who let her out or pulled her back in? And unless they hear/see something, they’d need a warrant. And it appeared the parents of the child who saw her never followed up, just told the kid to stay away from that house.

FINALLY! Oliphant got one dead right. Maybe he could do a follow up cartoon on 911 Dispatch operators in training, learning how to ask inane questions and being versed in the art of obfuscation and delay.

Darrow…for the Prosecution

Yeah, but there are 3 women in Missouri who have been missing for 20 years. Cops don’t seem to give a crap. Easier to chase speeders and write tickets.

Bad thought.

Sounded like dispatch was attempting to gather facts and react in a calm manner.Dispatch did send the resources quickly to handle a horrible situation.Link to transcript and voice:http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/transcript-of-missing-womans-phone-call-to-911-dispatcher-she-had-been-missing-since-2003/2013/05/07/fb5e78b8-b6d9-11e2-b568-6917f6ac6d9d_story.html

I am sure there are some competent dispatchers, but from my experience what is represented here is probably closer to the norm. When I was a teenager, my dad heard shots fired around 3AM and went outside to find a policeman shot and, it turns out, dying in our front yard. He had been shot by one of two men who had tried to rob a neighbor, who set off a silent alarm, and summoned the police. The police showed up and a gun battle ensued with one office running after a suspect across our yard. The suspect turned and fired, hitting the officer several times.

I had come to the back door and was told my my dad to call the police. The downed officer was still alive at the time but bleeding profusely. My dad had his hands full trying to slow the flow of blood. I tried to explain the situation to the dispatcher to the best of my ability, and I was treated like a prank caller. Finally someone put 2 and 2 together and noticed the proximity of our home to the one next door where the silent alarm had been triggered. Only then was I taken seriously. Unfortunately cell phones were not around back then or I would have taken it outside where the dispatcher could hear the gruesome sounds of a dying man. Maybe that would have gotten his attention.

I have on several subsequent occasions made calls to 911 to report a crime that had occurred or a crime in progress. In every instance I was made to feel by the dispatcher as if I were the criminal.

I know these folks get a lot of crazy calls, and I am aware they need to calm the caller and collect information. But any dispatcher who treats a caller with disrespect should be fired. They are not doing their jobs and discourage people from reporting crimes because of their accusatory tone toward callers. If you can’t do the job right, do something else where you callousness won’t have the potential to discourage good citizens, or, at worst, kill someone.

Hey Right: Considering most judges in the system are Repubs, how is it a “corrupt liberal system”? Need some facts here, Dude.

The duty of every “Dispatcher” and “Responder” is to prioritize/triage each situation and respond accordingly; it is not their job to make biased, personal judgements as to the validity of an emergency telecon, they should and must respond as if each caller is informing them of an actual emergency. When the responder’s arrive on the scene (unless otherwise advised by other informed authorities), they will triage the situation before going-in and then take whatever action(s) are deemed appropriate at that moment/time.

At last, someone besides me recognizes what a bunch of air-headed, incompetent, useless people become 911 operators. I have yet to hear one who didn’t ask a lot of inane, non-applicable questions during an emergency call. Perhaps something good will come out of this. Like competent people at the 911 Center.

I am really disappointed, Mr. Oliphant. I made a point of listening to the dispatch audio after hearing a number of disparaging remarks. The dispatcher was professional and calm. She made sure she had the right address, since a different one showed for the phone, she got a cop there really quickly, and made sure the caller had other people around and would talk to the police. Then she went on to the hundreds of other calls she’s getting daily, all of whom want her professional attention NOW. Was she supposed to ignore a heart attack to stay with a caller who was safe? Too many people want this dispatcher to be enacting her own little reality drama instead of doing her job. Hysteria and emoting do not help the callers.

Lyon county Nevada can not afford to pay dispachers, ONLY the deputies and the Sherriff get a pay check. .I went to school with a girl from Nebraska who was a volunteer police dispacher during the summer in HS because it was job experience and when you can’t work for money because there are no jobs, you do what you can to pad your resume.