10:43 AM Thu, Feb 08, 2007 | Permalink
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Our Two on Your Side investigation found 159 complaints against Spokane County's 911 system over a 2-year period, from November, 2004 to November, 2006. About half the complaints were verified. The system's director showed us numbers indicating complaints last year made up .0001 of all calls. That's one ten-thousandth of one percent. Very tiny. But if one of those complaints is yours, and it's a valid complaint, the number looms larger. Some of the reports we pulled said 911 operators gave dispatchers incorrect information, such as wrong addresses. At least two complaints allege suicide calls were mishandled.
No one doubts 911 call receivers have a difficult job. The County's 911 director, Lorlee Mizell, says employees are dedicated to "excellent service." But not every operator makes the cut. Mizell says the agency sees about a 7 percent turnover rate. In the complaint stack we received, a police dispatcher had this to say about a 911 operator who allegedly mishandled a stabbing/suicide call: "At this time I would like to have it formally document [sic] that I have a concern regarding operator #30 and his abilities as a 911 operator. He has failed to transfer calls in the past, as well as letting the caller go before sufficient information has been obtained."
What's also interesting are complaints for matters that many people would argue should never have been called into 911. Here's an example: One person called the emergency phone system asking how to find a website. Another person called about a barking dog. Emergencies? Hardly. But not only did these people call 911, they took up even more of the County's time by complaining about how their calls were handled. Each complaint is investigated, the call is reviewed, and action is taken, if warranted.
While mistakes admittedly have been made at 911, individuals are also responsible to ensure they're calling for true emergencies, not mere aggravations.
Have you ever called 911? What was your experience?
I was assaulted in 19-88 on divison in broad daylight. I had a hernia in my stomach fixed a acouple days before and could barly walk. 911 was called and a witness kept track of the guy but it took about 15 or 20 minutes for the police to show up and he got clean away. The nearest cop was about 100 feet away in a restaurant. The cop and 9-11 passed the buck back and forth as to who's falt for the slow response. I still have the scar.
Most of the time the 911 operators have been polite, but I have run across a few of them that saying they were rude, was an understatement. I volunteer in the Sprague/Napa area, and have had to report numerous complaints for our coffee shop. The sacarsm has been very apparant at times. I just try and ignore it and continue to report whatever I need to. I am sure that you could imagine having someone being a smart aleck,and basically blaming you for being the victim. The other response I get is oh..it is you again...what do you want this time. That is very derrogatory and hurtful. You take it because what choice do you have? If you complain, do you really think that you will have a timely response the next time that you call? I think not and I am not willing to risk my life in finding out. Thank you for doing the story. It was long overdue to say the least. Sincerely, Pastor Amy
As a member of the communities emergency service I want to bring a couple things to light. I have not used 911, seen exactly what they do, or how they do it. However, I do know about frivolous calls that do go through the system. These 911 operators have to deal with thousands of non-emergency calls. There error on the side of caution far more than not. You stated there were 32 mistakes made in a year. I, working for one agency only, go on far more than 32 calls that were not an emergency in one year. I know there has been some recent news stories on this and you should have sited that. Those stories only focused on the ridiculously wrong calls. There is a large group of people have become reliant on government. If they are sick with the common cold they want to call 911 so that an ambulance takes them to the hospital. Instead of driving, walking, using a friend or family, or mass transit. If the see something they call 911 for the government to look into it. Your example of the red car out in the field. If someone saw that and really thought it was the missing mans car why did the caller not go and see for themselves after calling 911 to see if they could help the person while emergency crews were responding? People can do a lot for them selves and fellow citizens. Many people do not want to go out of their way to help someone else. There are many 911 calls from cell phones that state there is some emergency, and give very little details because they will not stop to find out more, to offer help, or for any other reason. Sometimes such little detail it cannot even be found. Many of these that are found do not end up being emergencies at all and if the people would have taken 2 minutes of their time it would have been obvious. This cost the entire emergency system undo and time and money. It seems to me that people want to do less and less. They want government do more and more, and they want to pay less in taxes. They also want the government to be absolutely perfect. No one can be perfect. If things were perfect people would help themselves and each other as much as possible. The government could be closer to perfect if it was funded perfectly. The matrix study that the city just released showed that Spokane payed the lowest combined tax rate for any city it's size in the state. People in Spokane want all the services like every other city and want to pay less than half the average tax rate. I have not seen that mentioned by the media at all. The more people want the government to cut spending and run more like a business the higher the higher the error rate will be. If there is only enough money to pay for what we need on an average day, there are going to be days that we cannot be adaquate. The error rate of 0.0001% or 0.000001 of the calls is nearly perfect and I think they are doing the best job they can given what they have to work with. They are perfect 99.9999% of the time. We should not always be so quick to judge if we are not willing to put out the effort, time, or money too.
As a member of the communities emergency service I want to bring a couple things to light. I have not used 911, seen exactly what they do, or how they do it. However, I do know about frivolous calls that do go through the system. These 911 operators have to deal with thousands of non-emergency calls. There error on the side of caution far more than not. You stated there were 32 mistakes made in a year. I, working for one agency only, go on far more than 32 calls that were not an emergency in one year. I know there has been some recent news stories on this and you should have sited that. Those stories only focused on the ridiculously wrong calls. There is a large group of people have become reliant on government. If they are sick with the common cold they want to call 911 so that an ambulance takes them to the hospital, instead of driving, walking, using a friend or family, or mass transit. If the see something they call 911 for the government to look into it. Your example of the red car out in the field shows this. If someone saw that and really thought it was the missing mans car why did the caller not go and see for themselves after calling 911 to see if they could help the person while emergency crews were responding? People can do a lot for them selves and fellow citizens. Many people do not want to go out of their way to help someone else. There are many 911 calls from cell phones that state there is some emergency, and give very little details because they will not stop to find out more, to offer help, or for any other reason. Sometimes such little detail it cannot even be found. Many of these that are found do not end up being emergencies at all and if the people would have taken 2 minutes of their time it would have been obvious. This cost the entire emergency system undo and time and money. It seems to me that people want to do less and less. They want government do more and more, and they want to pay less in taxes. They also want the government to be absolutely perfect. No one can be perfect. If things were perfect people would help themselves and each other as much as possible. The government could be closer to perfect if it was funded perfectly. The matrix study that the city just released showed that Spokane payed the lowest combined tax rate for any city it's size in the state. People in Spokane want all the services like every other city and want to pay less than half the average tax rate. I have not seen that mentioned by the media at all. The more people want the government to cut spending and run more like a business the higher the higher the error rate will be. If there is only enough money to pay for what we need on an average day, there are going to be days that we cannot be adequate. The error rate of 0.0001% or 0.000001 of the calls is nearly perfect and I think they are doing the best job they can given what they have to work with. They are perfect 99.9999% of the time. We should not always be so quick to judge if we are not willing to put out the effort, time, or money too.
Thank you for those comments. I know I'd have a tough time in the seat of a 911 dispatcher, taking calls from people who were intoxicated, on drugs, belligerent, etc...
It is a very difficult job, one that most who make the cut will succeed at, while a smaller percentage fail. Personally, I don't think I could handle the task, although I do have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, so I suppose I'm used to putting out fires!