"Out of fuel, out of hope: 'Help, I'm in the water'"

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 16:45:40 GMT, Jose
wrote:

There sure was a lot of irrelevant information requested by the
sherriff... I don't think that finding out what his name is will be all
that helpful in getting a rescue underway... just location, plane type
and color, injuries, and go look for him.

You obviously have never worked within the
Fire/Police/Rescue/Ambulance system. Just because the call taker is
asking these questions, does not mean that help is not already on the
way. Once the call taker inputs just a few items into the system
(type of call, location), it is shipped to the dispatcher who is
already making the call over the radio ( the call taker and dispatcher
is not the same person). As more info is gathered, it is transferred
in real time to the dispatcher so they can relay it to the right
parties.

Is there any good reason to waste time asking for his name and such,
when other information (like, since the communications was bad, "say
twice your location") might be more helpful for a quick response?

It would be nice to know the persons name so that they know who they
are looking for and possibly be able to figure out a route which he
took over the water. If you didn't know who he was and possibly where
he was coming from and where he was going, you just opened up a bigger
area to search. Also, there is a standardization in dispatch
procedures in the US that I would say most agencies follow. In
listening to the line of questioning, I would say that they do follow
those procedures. Again help is on the way, and the call taker can
help calm and reassure the person on the other line that help is on
its way. Yes communications was bad so the call taker was a little
bit confused as to what was going on. Unlike here where we knew what
was going on before we even heard the sound bite, the call taker is
being thrown into a situation that he is having to process this
information quickly and determine the correct response.

I see nothing wrong with what the call taker was doing. There has
been no allegation of delay in the system due to the call taker asking
the questions.

Surely the sherriff has a callback feature that would ring the cellphone
if contact was lost (which is most likely due to the phone falling into
the lake)

Sometime yes and some time no. Cell phones are different creatures.
There are times, that if your cell phone is from another geographical
location, it will not show up as anything. There are ways of cross
referencing what towers the cell hits and now with GPS on the phones
it is even better, but it is still not fool proof. Also sometimes,
the phone number that comes back on the AniAli is not the correct
number ( it will display the number to the cell provider) so the call
taker has to ask for that number to make sure that it is correct.
Even when you call from your home number they have to make sure that
it is correct including your address even though it is showing them on
the computer what it is.

I am talking from 13 years experience as a police officer/ 5 years as
an EMT, and 3 years as a marine fire fighter. I spent enough time in
dispatch to know how the system works.


Scott D

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