Well, let's just hope that if people hear about this and have done prank calls to 911 in the past, that they refrain from doing so in the future. Parents hearing about this could also try to put more emphasis in telling their kids that 911 is an important tool and is not to be fooled around with. Maybe it's a little too optimistic to expect that, but who knows.

Very True! Though i can understand how it can be a big deal if officers waste
time checking out a prank call.. I still believe it's better to check regardless.
It was stated earlier that they can't have police going out to investigate calls
because they might be pranks and it'll waste time from checking out REAL calls...
This sounds like maybe there's a lack of police there then... Couldn't this be
fixed with more officers on the job?

Personally, i called 911 once when someone tried to attack us and break out
windows while at work. I was pretty panicked and the operator told me
to CALM DOWN and explain to her the situation so should could understand it.

I feel so sorry for the child... The relatives must be restless right now..

Geez..
That's horrible.. These are the people that regardless if it's a joke or not, send out help because.. On TV. They tell the kids, "If you need help, dial 911" who else is he gonna call?

AT the same time, there was a recent study done, that many people are using 911 services for the most rediculous reasons.. One guy wanted to know the directions to get to his desired destination!

So in retrospect.. It's awful what happend, the lady should be fired, but knowing she could possibly be the reason why a life wasn't saved .. that's a lot to carry.


She sholdn't be fired.. Come to think of it, if an incident like this were to happen again, I doubt she would even consider it a joke at all and send out help.

.dc

They keep on showing this on CNN. I just love how the news story is just a rotation of the clip showing the little boy and one single tear falling down his cheek as he gazes off the screen mournfully.

I'm a horrible person for finding that even remotely amusing.

Yea, actually, that makes sense! Maybe she won't make this mistake again.

This is truly a sad story however and both sides of the picture are correct in my frame of mind. Yes the operator was "wrong" by not automatically sending help to the little boy but at the same time she was right in not doing so because if it had been a prank and she had sent out an ambulance, then that would have been one less out there and ready to help someone who might have needed it. It does sadden me that even though we try to instill in our children the need to understand that 911 is there for them to use for emergencies only, adults still seem to be confused as to what an "emergency' consists of. Sometimes I wonder if they shouldn't just establish classes for adults reteaching them how to properly use 911 and at the same time show them how to find the correct numbers for the fire department, police, etc.

That is definitely true. I always thought you just dial 911 for all problems.

Maybe they don't teach people to look for other numbers because it would be as convienent and easy as dialing 911 in an emergency.

I have to agree. Considering the idiot wouldn't take the call seriously without speaking to an adult with all reason and logic saying that the fucking adult was passed out it sounds more like she didn't think it could be real just because it was a kid calling and nothing else. She does deserve to get eaten...

Hahahaa, we're into too much of a shit hole to do that. Tons of city works just got done getting laid off not too long ago and our Mayor just had a conference the other day explaining how he had to pick between laying off even more cops or eliminating trash pick up. Besides, so many fuck heads prank around with things like 911 around here, that I actually don't blame the operator for thinking it was a joke.

1 in 4 calls in Detroit are prank calls.

If anyone heard the actual 911 call, it's pretty disturbing. The operator scolds him for playing around and says something along the lines of "I don't care! Get an adult on the phone or you'll be in serious trouble." As a kid, you're scared enough with everything going on and with a 911 dispatcher saying you'll get in trouble, it's probably terrifying.

The kid is probably tramatize for life. His family needs to up the lawsuit, with the death of his mother through negligence as well as emotional trauma to the child.

True--we don't know how long Mom was dead, but that dispatcher did the wrong thing.

This is what she should have done:

Asked the boy if he had any neighbors that could help him.
If not, she should have aksed the boy to try to wake up his mom while she was on the phone with him.
If that failed, police should have been dispatched (most police have a knowledge of basic first aid).
She should have kept the boy on the phone the entire time, talking to him.

9-1-1 Operators are trained to respond to all calls as emergencies. Whether they are from children or not.

How do I know? Bro-in-law's a cop, and Sis is an EMT.

Just wondering, where's the 1 in 4 statistic from kat?

I'm all for saying that the women didn't handle the situation the best way she could have. But, something tells me that due to the issues that all city workers have been facing lately, that management/the system is what's really more to blame. Especially since this incident isn't isolated. There was another incident that got popular because of this. A lady was shot in the head, lived, called 911, and the dispatcher thought she was fucking around. (Did this make nation news too?) Pretty hard to tell she wasn’t faking, considering how monotone her voice was. I bet that management gets on these people ass about it, for money/resource reasonings. While at the same time, I bet they offer little to no help, training, or assistance.

shot in the head and lived... pretty unrealistic

Yes, by charging them, the child will feel loads better.

Why do people always think lawsuits help emotional trauma?

..It's not unrealistic. You do know alot of people get things much bigger than a bullet shoved into thier heads and survive? Take a stroll through any area just hit by a tornado for instance. There have been instances of people with huge pieces of wood shoved into thier heads and they survived.

It all depends on where it landed. For all you know it could of grazed the head or hit a less important area of the head.

Not sure about emotional trauma, but if they won money, it could definatly go to the care of the child or charity or college fund.

In retrospect, that's exactly what she should have done.

really disgusting all the call must have an answer

They don't, but that's the beauty of the America. You can sue someone and then fill in your empty hole of sorrow with an endless supply of cash. Or at least use that money to be able to afford a ridiculously expensive therapist when you get older. Because in case you haven't heard, money buys happiness.

Besides, what's the alternative. No matter what, the end result is what it is so how else is he going to reimbursed for what he went through and going to go through, having had his mother taken away from him for the rest of his life.

Agreed. I'm not sure a 6-year old would exactly understand the concept of lawsuits, and nothing could ever replace his mother.

I don't know if I'm the only one that feels this way, but I feel terribly sorry for the dispatcher. Imagine the burden that she will have to carry for the rest of her life, she probably thinks that she caused the death of the woman, whether or not she was dead when the boy called to begin with.

I know its been a while for this thread but I came across an article in the local newspaper.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...71_call12.html

The article doesn't say it was the same dispatcher, but I'm sorry... They really need to work on their people skills and give some folks the benefit of the doubt.

I can see Detroit dispatch company(ies) will lose alot of money if this keeps up. Not are the lawsuits affecting them, but they're now getting to the point where the city's representatives are getting involved. Whom are also going to be charged the same.

I bet they'll complain or make excuses such as, "We're only human. We can't be everywhere at once and we're trying our best to do our work/job." But then, why hire such people if they think their job is to identify prank calls instead of being a freaking dispatcher? Screw prank calls, take them anyway. If the call is a prank call, go to your freaking superior and ask for a bonus or reimbursement for the time wasted in handling the prank call. They've got audio recordings going on each call, so there's proof too incase their superior asks for it.

By the way, who is making these decisions to not send the accused dispatchers to jail? This is so contradictory of what's going on with these accusations. They identify where the fault lays and why it happened. But they dare accuse something not human (prank calls from the past) and feel sending the dispatcher to jail would be unfair?

I don't think it should matter if the call is a prank or not, police officers are always out in their cruisers patrolling the city anyways, why not just send the closest one to investigate? if they discover it was infact a prank call, then they fine the caller for whatever amount of money it costs to have someone dispatched to them. it's fighting crime and getting reimbursed for it.

the operator in this case should have atleast asked the boy some simple questions, like "is your mother breathing" and things like that. it shouldn't matter if it's a prank or not, it's their job to help protect and serve and like I said, if it turns out to be a prank then those responsible can be fined for it.

This is so good stuff right there. The dispatcher could of EASILY confirmed if the call was a prank call or not by asking certain questions. Questions that he/she could mix up to confuse the caller and figure if the caller understands whatever health conditions arose. Like, some examples could be:

"Is your mother breathing slow or heavily?"
"Put your index and middle finger together on your mom's forehead, can you feel a pulse?"

etc, etc, etc...

Yes, the questions could of been something relative to a health condition, or something completely stupid, yet sounding like it makes sense. You can tell someone is in jeopardy if their breathing rate has changed so significantly. But you cannot tell a person's pulse by measuring any sort of beats on their forehead. Here the dispatcher could immediately understand the call is not prank call as the 6yr old would of undoubtedly checked the forehead for a pulse and reported none.

This is awful. I have to side with those who think she should be fired. Unless she was trained to "spot and ignore pranks", in which case dispatcher company should pay the price. If they have to send the police out for nothing, that's what they have to do. They can bring a large fine with them, if it really is a prank, but they NEED to be called.

"Yeah right lady. An elephant ran through your front yard. Ok sure Mister, an elephant just knocked over your mailbox. Yeah right buddy. Liquor store robbery, officer down. And I'm Edward G. Robinson." -Chief Wiggum