mssheila said:
I was a police dispatcher for a time... If I can convey one message it is this: The police are sent on SO MANY calls responding to alarms that end up being false alarms, that it really, really taxes our police departments resources. Three things are happening or could happen as a result of all these false alarm calls, none are very good.
1. The police are getting more and more lax in responding to these calls, that one of these times, there will be a real emergency- and it will take the cops forever to get there because they think it's 'just another alarm call'. You can imagine the worst case scenario there....
Excellent points (all of them!), but I quoted your #1. It is, unfortunately, true. It is common - when pulling up the address of an alarm, the dispatchers see the history of that address, and can see there's a history of false alarms. The actual officers, if they work that "beat area" probably also know they've visited that property for a high number of false alarms. Human nature is that their guard will be down a little because of this, try as hard as they may to fight that behavior.
By the way, thank you for your previous work as a dispatcher...and kudos to any current ones that may be a WS'er! Tough, stressful job! (Our agency is having a difficult time keeping dispatchers - high stress, shift work, and pretty low pay.)
Off an a tangent, but a little bit related....
Another waste of resources that is a pet peeve of mine, that costs the taxpayers A LOT and valuable time of LE and fire departments - people who call the ambulance as a taxi service when they're NOT in a medical emergency, or they've got 5-6 family members standing around who could drive them to the hospital, but they chose to call 911 for medical aid. Depending on where you live, that could be both the ambulance service and the fire department, and depending on the area, maybe LE. It can get to the point that it's similar to the false fire or burglar alarms mentioned above. I can tell you names of "repeat customers" and my BF, a fire fighter, can do the same. We've even compared stories - "yep, you familiar with _____ _____" on 18th Street?" Yep... Please do not confuse this with those that are unsure of what is/isn't a medical emergency, or have no transportation or ... But, use it as a taxi service. The stories would amaze you sometimes. Off my little pet-peeve rant.