Letter to the Editor
911 calls
Published Friday, March 28, 2008
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To the editor:
Last Saturday, I had placed a call to 911 to have an ambulance sent for a fellow resident who we found in our driveway who was unconscious and hypothermic. I placed the call immediately hoping to get a quick response. I was appalled when the dispatcher placed me on hold before she could dispatch an ambulance.
This is not the first time that I have called 911 and been placed on hold. Thankfully this man was breathing, but in a case of cardiac arrest every second that you are waiting determines that person’s future. I asked the police officer why this happened and he said that there is only enough money allocated to the city to employ three dispatchers. So does this mean that there is only one dispatcher on duty in an eight-hour shift? I think that this city needs to re-evaluate the budget. Emergency services, in my opinion, should be one of the top priorities.
Community Discussion
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i tried calling in on a drunk driver last summer and was transfered 2 times, to only have the dispatcher not seem to care about the situation. guess thats what i get for trying to help out...
I once called 911 to report a child unattended in the backseat of a car with no adult in sight. Dispatch told me it was not against the law to leave your child alone unattended in your vehicle as long as the child was in no distress. What's wrong with that picture!
"buddy" I dont think that calling 911 for a child in the back seat of a car is a good use of calling 911. I think the reason that the dispatchers have become not so hyped up about emergencys is because the majority of calls to 911 are NOT emergencys. I think that people need to think if it is a 911 call that warants 911 being called before dialing those very important numbers.
Where are your children buddy? Ever needed to run in Fred's for tampons & milk or should I say beer in your case? Got kids running and screaming and tired and....heh! it'll only take a minute to run in get what i need pay and get out...take the kids 30 min's, likely to forget what i came for...I know you think you're helping but what you're doing is you are butting in where it doesn't belong. It's a struggle being a mother...now try being a single mother...I'd be the first to call the cops if I thought a child was in danger, but what you are doing is hurting famailies who are trying to stay afloat. You want to help..then babysit your neighbors kids so she can go get groceries in peace without dragging the family circus to Freddies. Or are you on the Sex offender registry? It's so hard to tell these days whose the good guy and whose the bad guy?
Hey Buddy- I wanted to sound of on you about your obvious lack of understanding the term 'emergency' but it seems that I was beat to the punch. I do have to ask what you mean by child though, is that infant or a 9 year old? Unless you have children and have to go through the hassles you should be quiet.
Very classy, MADmama. Way to accuse a stranger of being a sex offender. You've swayed me with your compelling argument.
wow MADmama, if calling 911 because he sees a kid in the back seat of a car makes him a sex offender, what does having a name like MADmama make you? I really think you should have a glass of OJ with your breakfast and put down the Jack and Coke. And child abuse is against the law, so you might want to quit kicking your kids.
Anyway... I think there are a lot of people who unnecessarily call 911 for minor problems, and unfortunately these are the people who are tying up the dispatchers when there is a real emergence. I'll admit i'm not exactly sure how 911 works (as far as where exactly a person's call goes) but there are numbers for local police stations which might be a little more practical for non-emergence situations, and thus leaving the 911 emergence lines open for real problems.
Hey Buddy - Did you know that in Europe it is common practice for parents to leave their children in strollers outside on the sidewalk?
It is not uncommon to see a couple of babies in strollers unattended in front of clothing stores, shoe stores, etc.
Here's an idea, why not use 911 for actual emergencies? Wouldn't that be nice? Then maybe these sorts of letters to the editor wouldn't be necessary.
I guess I'm a bad mom. I am guilty of leaving my 11 month old, 5 year old and 6 year old in the car while I got gas, then ran inside to pay for it. It took me less than 2 minutes to go pay for the gas, whereas if I took all 3 kids out to run in, it would have taken AT LEAST 15 minutes to get them out, in the store, and back in the car.
I love my kids and would never put them in danger. But most of the time, I'm afraid to leave them in the car for even a minute, because of people like buddy. I don't want the cops to show up because someone doesn't know what it's like to wrangle kids and try to accomplish something. However, I will never and have never left my kids in the car while going into a store like Freds.
Instead of calling 911 or the cops, why not just wait by the car and chew the person out for how horrible they are for leaving their kids in the car? At least you know the kids would be safe, right? And know that the parent would get a good talking to, or is it just easier to call someone else?
City Dispatch dispatches for both Police, Fire and EMS, Hazmat. They dispatch for the City of Fairbanks, City of North Pole, North Star VFD, Steese VFD, Chenagoldstream VFD, Delta VFD…. 13 agencies in all. When I called to ask how many agencies they dispatched for I found out that Mrs. Cook had been placed on hold to dispatch the ambulance. The way the phone system works is that if all 911 lines are in use you are placed on hold or stacked until a dispatcher is available. To speed up dispatching remember to get the information needed the who, what, where of the situation. I agree Dispatch is understaffed they do more with less every year. Area wide run numbers are increasing for all services and they all are use dispatch. I hope there is a editorial about this Letter To The Editor clarifying the facts and illuminating dispatches situation and work load.
Hey,you people should pay more taxes so you can please everyone.
Boy am I glad I live in Alaska where we can leave kids unattended, if it were anywhere else in the US the kid would be dead from heat or abducted by some lunetic. Gee lets see how many kids need to wind up dead or stolen before we start saying there is a problem.
I'm not likely to stick around to chew out the parent for bad parenting skills they might be the one who shoots first and then says I was stalking them. I usually just mind my own business and let the Darwin theory take over.
Yes this is Alaska where we live free to do what we like and when we like too but let's not get to the real problem. The city that can't keep enough people staffed to support our 911 calls; hmm where is the problem.
In late December my husband and I stopped a hardware store downtown and noticed a small child alone in a car (still in a small car seat, age? don't know for sure). The car was running, it was a cold day, and we didn't feel comfortable leaving the parking lot knowing this child was all alone. So we sat there for 30 minutes waiting for the parent(s) to return to the car. Never did. So I walked back into the hardware store (tired of wasting my Saturday babysitting a stranger's child) and told the manager that the child was alone. I figured they would appreciate my concern, thinking that if this was abandonment the store might suffer some sort of guilt. They didn't. The manager just gave me an annoyed "okay" and went on attending his garden hoses and sink fixtures.
I expected to hear something on the news that night about how some child was left or taken from the parking lot of a hardware store, but that didn't happen either. Is it strange for me to be concerned? I don't think so. Does not calling the cops make me a sex offender? I sure as hell hope not! People, your kids are your responsibility. You take whatever chance you wish when doing ANYTHING with them.
I have my first child on the way, and already I am tired of people assuming that if you don't have kids you don't know how to deal with them. Get over yourselves. You are probably the same people who try to "reason" with your children when they are misbehaving instead of being the adult and making the decision to put an end to it (this, in no way implies beating the kid. I just figured I would address that before anyone tried to turn it around on me).
Should you assume that because I don’t have a swimming pool I don’t know how to swim? Come on. Where did all the common sense run off to?
I am not trying to sound unsympathetic to the person that had the problem in the letter to the editor, but no where does it state that there was a problem with the time that it took for the emergency services to respond. I think we all have to take into consideration that things have to be facilitated whether we like or not. Even if they had 20 operators--you probably would still be put on hold in order to get the right service to you. If the complaint was about the emergency service taking 20 minutes longer to get were they need to go then I could see having only 3 dispatchers a problem.
To those of you that call 911 for non-emergency problem--learn how to use the phone book or directory and call the troopers or city police directly. I am not going to make a statement that leaving you child in your car is okay, because its not. Although I am a mother and understand why people do what they do. For those of you that leave your kids in cars at Fred Meyer--you are way more trusting of our community than I ever thought of being. You are also more trusting of your kids (if they are old enough to crawl out of their car seat). For those of you that think its okay for some one to and come up and make a comment to me or other parents on how to parent--you had better think again. I would be one of those people that would get very offended (if I really wasn't dangering my child in any way) and you might need to call 911 for the beating you are receiving in the parking lot!
Wow. pbrown - I wasn't aware that there was a child abduction/heat death epidemic in the Fairbanks area...
soontobemama - Happy to see that your community concern ends when you get tired. If your concern was that high, then you would have called the police or stayed at the vehicle until the parents came out. Congratulations and good luck with parenting - I hope it's as straight-forward as you think it's going to be. They don't come with manuals.
Until proven otherwise incompetent, parents get to make choices for their kids. Yes, even stupid choices (eg: reasoning with your child...?). Until they issue licenses for breeding, I guess you'll all have to put up with what parents choose to do and call 911 if you think they are causing harm - then get righteously indignant when the police tell you that if they aren't in distress, it's not a problem.
soontobemama - "already I am tired of people assuming that if you don't have kids you don't know how to deal with them."
Yeah, that's what I said, until I actually had a child of my own. Then, all of the sudden, I realized that, as Dana said, they don't come with manuals. Good luck with that whole "already knowing how to do it" thing...
And, yes, I am more trusting of my kids than others. Why you may ask? Because I'm one of those parents that try to "reason" with my child so that they will learn to think for themselves as rational autonomous people.
I certainly didn't intend to single out any one parent. I can understand reasoning with a child who has reached an age where rationalization is actually possible. But begging your two or three year old to "please let mommy put your jacket on" after they've thrown a couple of fits is just plain stupid!
I know, I know...it's DIFFERENT after you have a child. Once again, get over yourself! Teaching a child to think for themselves doesn't include letting them rule the roost. Of course, I don't have a child. How could I possibly know that?
I once obsevered a woman begging her small kid to "please stop hitting mommy, honey. That's not nice" as he was swinging at her face. Do as you will, I don't really care if you let your child smack you in the face. If your kid tries to hit me or MY kid in the face, I expect you have enough respect for me as a fellow human being to correct the behavior.
Just because I haven't HAD a child, doesn't mean I haven't raised one!
sooooo I think everyone is confusing the article about someone's problem with 911, with Nanny 911. No one cares about any of your ("your" meaning anyone ranting about kids) views on raising kids, parents that raise kids, or your solve-all answer to babies in a backseat.
Dana,
Community concern? Where was the parents community concern? I can't waste my ENTIRE life trying to help every ignorant person. I'll just let you rethink that one.
Let me tell you a little bit more about my thought process in the situation I was in:
"Should we call the cops?" No. They would probably say it wasn't an emergency (guess I was right). Even if the cops did come and this was punishable, where would this kid end up? Let's be extreme here....probably taken away, bounced from home to home, eventually becoming another sad story.
I only commented today becuase I was bored at work. What's your problem?
I'm not sure where exactly your view of parenting comes from - I'd almost suggest that you get over yourself - but that would just be rude. I happen agree that reasoning with a young child tends to be pointless, but as you are not that child's parent, you really get no say, hey? Obviously it works for some parents...And since there are so many "do-gooders" in the world willing to turn people in for leaving their kids in the car for 10 minutes, God-forbid we let you see us spanking our kids in public.
As I have stated before, I have 3 kiddos - and shocker of shockers, each one is different, and responds differently to different disciplines. One I was able to threaten/reason with and behavior changed, one all I have to do is look crosseyed at and one doesn't care what I do (but I do it anyway because I'm mom).
Fact of the matter remains, no matter how smart, how well-intentioned, how well-informed, how opinionated or how judgmental you may be, you can't know what you will do with a child until you discover how your personality and your child's personality will mix. Go ahead and believe otherwise though. Many of us were there once.
This is pointless.
haha way to 'earn' those dollars
Gotta do something, right?
To Sarah who wrote the letter:
When calling 911 a dispatcher will sometimes put you on hold AS they dispatch the ambulance or troopers. If you call 911 with a medical emergency and it reaches the Fairbanks AST dispatch center they do have to transfer you to EMS, so there is a slight delay in doing this.
funny related story, that was funny because no real harm came out of the events (though it could have been a disaster). i went into the blockbuster on college rd. to rent a movie. while in the store i heard a big bang like a car had just hit the building on the west side. i went outside to find a car had indeed rammed the building and was just sitting there, idling, lodged against the wall. no driver or any adult was in site. in the back seat where two children in car seats. somehow, one of the children had managed to reach up the center console and put the idling vehicle into reverse. the car backed up the 15 feet or so until it struck the building. after about 5 minutes a very sheepish looking father was found. i think he had been in food factory ordering food. i didn't stick around long enough to find out what the police were gonna do about the whole thing.
Wow--somewhere along the way the point to this whole letter to the editor was dropped!
Watch out polarmark...they accuse you of lacking "community concern"
As far as I'M concerned - HILARIOUS!