Detroit 911 Operator Shortage

Mista Alan · July-11-10, 10:45 PM

Looks like Detroit's 911 operators are understaffed and being forced to work 16-hour shifts. $2 million in overtime too, paid by taxpayers. And Detroit's been sitting on money to hire 15 more for since January.

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/local_n...nd-overworked-

Mista Alan · July-12-10, 05:52 PM

Whoa there!!!

**daddeeo** · July-12-10, 06:32 PM

Is that now the excuse for poor response time?

**Hypestyles** · July-12-10, 06:58 PM

hmm.. there needs to be more quality 911 operators.. some of the ones they have now are surly and argumentative.. seriously..

**fryar** · July-12-10, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by daddeeo

Is that now the excuse for poor response time?

I saw an older thread on here in which somebody who said he was DPD said there were about 1000 active officers, and that this was 500-1000 short to begin with, with more retirees leaving than academy graduates coming on-line. It was a very lengthy post that explained that a number of other issues, such as computers not working, did not help, and that somewhere between the 911 operator and the officer, a priority rating is assigned to the call. According to this post, they just don't have enough officers for anything but triage, although he did feel that high-priority rated calls are handled quickly, within 5-10 minutes.
Sorry that I couldn't find it, however.

**fryar** · July-12-10, 07:30 PM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

hmm.. there needs to be more quality 911 operators.. some of the ones they have now are surly and argumentative.. seriously..

That's just stupid, an argumentative 911 operator...Are you sure you're being robbed? Come one now, don't mess with me...but as the article points out, it could be because they're beat from working overtime, or they could be in pain because they weren't allowed to take time off to go to the dentist, given the shortage of operators.

**goggomobil** · July-12-10, 08:19 PM

Can you imagine how many bogus calls that they deal with? I know that isn't an excuse to blow off a kid calling about his mom twitching on the floor, but they are human and apparently overworked.

**fryar** · July-12-10, 08:58 PM

Yeah, I don't blame them.

Mista Alan · July-13-10, 08:31 PM

I think the big question is: was the money used? If not, why the delay?

**stasu1213** · July-14-10, 05:25 AM

I think that this is the Mayor's strategy to privitze the system and to rid Detroit of certain people.

**epiphany** · July-14-10, 07:03 AM

Actually, the 911 operators *are* argumentative. There have been two times that I called and was greeted in a very rude way. Once there was a huge fight developing in the lobby of a hotel where I was working and people said that they had guns. I called the operator a second time when police never showed and the fight continued to escalate and she got a HUGE attitude with me and told me that they would get there when they got there. They never showed up. I don't bother with calling 911 anymore...

**Meddle** · July-14-10, 10:01 AM

It's a difficult job. It's hard to listen to kids screaming as they're being burned in a house fire knowing the FD is coming, but may get there too late.

It's tough to listen to someone who's just been stabbed or shot as the life drains out of them.

It's tough to listen to the 85 year old woman who just woke up next to her lifelong husband who didn't wake up.

It's annoying to take the fourth or fifth call about the neighbor's dog barking when you have priority calls backed up where people need real help.

Unless you've done the job, you really can't criticize.

**313WX** · July-14-10, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by Meddle

It's a difficult job. It's hard to listen to kids screaming as they're being burned in a house fire knowing the FD is coming, but may get there too late.

It's tough to listen to someone who's just been stabbed or shot as the life drains out of them.

It's tough to listen to the 85 year old woman who just woke up next to her lifelong husband who didn't wake up.

It's annoying to take the fourth or fifth call about the neighbor's dog barking when you have priority calls backed up where people need real help.

Unless you've done the job, you really can't criticize.

Well boo fucking hoo, life's difficult and tough, but it still goes on...

That's no excuse at all for the lack of professionalism from these operators. From the caller's poin of view, it's already bad enough our love one is slowly dying in front of us or someone have violated our privacy by breaking inside of our house. The last thing the caller wants to do is waste their time deal with some petty operator and their attitude while the operator is just sitting on their ass gettting paid to hear you suffer. While everyone involved understands there's a staff shortage, we as taxpayers should at least feel our money is being somewhat well spent and shouldn't have to deal with the arguments or interrogations when requesting an ambulance, fire truck or police officer...

How would they feel if they were in the posistion of the recipients?

**SMLock** · July-14-10, 11:09 AM

The interrogations on a 911 call are standard operating procedure. The operator needs to get an idea of the situation before forwarding the request to the dispatcher. Is a life in imminent danger? Is there a medical emergency? How many people are there ? Can you give me a description of the perpetrator? Do you see a weapon? The questions are necessary so the dispatcher can make an intelligent decision as to what type and how many vehicles to send. Is an EMS unit is needed [[Regular or ALS), is a fire truck needed? one or more..

The citizen needs to realize the operator is doing his/her job. You may find the questions not needed and and a time waster, but it is in your best interest to just answer the questions. If you still have a complaint, make sure you get the operator's number [[ie operator 7) You can call 911 and ask for a supervisor. The tapes are reviewed and if protocol was not followed or the operator was found to to be unnecessarily rude, discipline will follow.

Also once you've called 911, be aware it is not the operator who has any say about sending cars out. That belongs to the DPD dispatcher. Calling over and over to 911 is counter-productive. The call is in the system. At best the operator can tell if a car has been dispatched. Berating the operator for response time is like talking to a brick wall. There is not a thing the operator can do about it

**Meddle** · July-14-10, 11:17 AM

While everyone involved understands there's a staff shortage, we as taxpayers should at least feel our money is being somewhat well spent and shouldn't have to deal with the arguments or interrogations when requesting an ambulance, fire truck or police officer...

But that's EXACTLY the point of the inquiries. Do you send police, fire, EMS or all three? You get a call with someone screaming hysterically that someone is down on the floor not moving. OK, why? Are they hurt? Have they been assaulted? Are they passed out from smoke inhalation? Electrocution? Heart Attack? Is the caller the one who hurt the victim, maybe a domestic dispute where the wife just shot the husband? In that case, where's the gun now?

If you only send EMS, will they be safe? Or do you need to send PD also? Do you need to send FD to assist in some kind of rescue operation?

Mista Alan · July-14-10, 05:41 PM

Perhaps having operators work 16 hour shifts four days in a row is contributing to these operators, shall we say, less than pleasant demeanor?

**epiphany** · July-15-10, 04:04 AM

I don't think that you understand.. lol. When I called, profane language was used by the operator just because I called back when no police ever arrived. And she had an attitude, she wasn't asking questions to figure out what was going on. It was more like.. "WHY THE F**K YOU CALLING HERE AGAIN" type stuff. Just wanted to clarify.

If anyone thinks that this sort of behavior is acceptable, you are crazy and you have been living here and dealing with this type of thing for way too long.