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What do 911 dispatchers know that ‘regular’ people don’t?

Check it out and add your own thoughts in the comments

A question posted recently on Quora asked, “What are some things that 911 dispatchers know but others don’t?” Curtis Darnell, a 911 dispatcher and chief for 28 years, gave his opinion on the topic below. Check it out and add your own thoughts in the comments.

There are several great descriptions from the dispatching perspective below. I will recap and emphasis some points.

1. The value of location.
Most dispatch centers first question is, “What is the location of the emergency?” Yes, we gain location of the caller through an unfortunately less precise system than what is available on the phone network, but is a starting point. The location of the caller may not be the location of the emergency.

2. If someone calls 911 and just hangs up, someone will respond anyway.
Maybe; depends on the policy of the law agency and how precisely the location of the caller is relayed. The dispatch center will call back, but if there is no answer and it is from a mobile phone, there may not be a dispatch due to the vagaries of a precise location. If there is a response, it will be law, not fire and medical.

3. The top thing that dispatchers have access to is the status of current responders and other calls.
As to the comment that callers may be “upset” if they knew how many law/fire/medical units were available or potentially available, well, they would involve a lay opinion of what public safety service levels should be vs what they are. In Santa Clara County, we typically had 24-28 paramedic units to handle the emergency medical needs of 1.8 million citizens.

To the lay person, that may sound alarming. Between the County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency and the contract paramedic provider, the response criteria was to arrive at 90 percent of calls within the contract time frames or face penalties. Through data analysis that was historical and ongoing, they could staff the “right” number of units for time of day, day of week, etc. Does the public care? Yes, they should, but the prevailing assumption is that someone calls 911 and the right services are sent. Public safety systems work well most of the time, so it isn’t typical that systems are so bad that citizens want to understand how their public safety systems work.

4. A public safety response can begin even if the dispatcher is still talking to you on the phone.
This may sound like a no-brainer, but I stopped being surprised when agitated callers just wanted to end the conversation, assuming that no one would start coming until they were off of the phone. Dispatchers are trained to gain valuable information and they will keep asking pertinent questions until their training tells them the conversation should be ended.

5. Callers fall into three categories.
Caller is the victim, an observer or can do some intervention given specific directions. Many callers are unaware of the third. Especially for medical calls and if dispatchers are trained in the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS), a caller can receive instructions and do medically sound interventions prior to the arrival of fire and paramedics. They are simple instructions, but can be lifesaving in the case of CPR or the Heimlich. Dispatchers will never ask a caller to put their safety at risk to do a medical intervention and callers can refuse to do it.

I hope my responses provide some valuable information and food for thought. Callers rarely prepare to call 911 or bother to know the ins and outs of the public safety systems that protect them. Dispatchers are the first line of professionals that get callers the help they need and know the systems they work for.

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