Hi folks,
I haven't really been following the case but another member asked me to listen to the tapes and weigh in. Just some history, I'm a paramedic supervisor with a large ambulance service, I've worked as a dispatcher/calltaker before and we have a very large multi juristiction/agency 911 dispatch center.
Just a little background on Escambia County's 911 system. They have 3 PSAP's (Public Safety Answering Points) where 911 calls are routed. Pensecola PD and Escambia County Sheriffs Office handle most of the calls depending on location. Cell calls are most always routed to the County Sheriff's office. Pensecola PD has 8 call takers and Escambia County has 14.
Let's start with a few basic facts about the first call. First, she's on a cell phone and the signal keeps breaking up. You can not get ALI (automatic location information) off of a cell phone. You can get tower pings and if GPS is enabled on the phone, you can get the location of the phone. This is not an issue because the caller was able to give the address. Secondly, remember that these calls have been edited. The first call starts with the call being transferred from Fire/Rescue. It was probably sent to them because of the report that 2 people were down. The call was then transferred back to the Sheriff's Office for the police end of the deal. The caller on the first tape is very emotional and the call taker has a hard time obtaining information from her, in addition to the cell call breaking up. I could tell she was getting very frustrated while she was trying to obtain pertinent info relative to "who's in the house" "how many are in the house" "how does the caller know what's going on in the house". The call taker is trying to keep the person from entering the house because at that point we're not sure that the bad guys are gone. The call taker is also trying to get as much info about the scene as possible to pass along to the responding officers. The asking of questions does not delay the response. All the responders were probably enroute from the moment that they had the address.
The second call:
In the second call, the girl was talking to someone working a dispatch position (or working a radio). The way our center is set up, calls go first to our call takers. If they are all on the phone, the calls then get routed to dispatchers. The male (Jeff) was working a radio and asks one of his co-workers to take over the 911 call because he had to talk to his police officers responding to the scene. You are hearing all sides of the conversation on the tapes but one thing to remember is that when he keys up his radio, it puts the phone on mute so the caller doesn't hear what's being said over the radio. This leads a lot of callers to think that nothing is being done while they are on the line with 911. The second caller was obviously calmer than the first. Both of the calls were going on at the same time since (Jeff) tells the daughter that they have another call on the same incident.
Bottom line is that it sounds like the calls were handled properly. The call taker in the first tape was obviously a little frustrated and it shows. I don't think I can really blame her. We have 2 people down, possibly dead, caller is hysterical and not being very clear with the information and the cell phone is breaking up. Both call takers obtained the incident address and got the appropriate resources on the way and then tried to get additional information. Please realize that the tapes are not the complete call and sounds like they were edited for content. (the names of the callers and the address of the incident).
Hope this helps.
Just my observations and opinions. That and a $5 will get you a cup of Starbucks.
