County dispatch = are they serious??

[Gary Allan]

Okay ...we found a bike in front of our house. Bike theft, usually for transportation purposes, is the number 1 crime in Pottstown. Now there are organized bike theft rings ..but that's another story. Naturally, I tried the direct number into the police dept ..but it being a Saturday ..I get county dispatch (automatically routed). Here's how the conversation goes before I gave up.

CD: county dispatch
Me: This is Gary Allan at 1XXXX XXXX St. in Pottstown. This isn't an emergency or anything. I've had a bike on my property for
CD: (interupting) ..and your name again?
Me: Gary Allan ..I've had this bike....
CD: (interupting again) ..and what was the address)
Me: XXXX XXXX St in Pottstown ..I've had this bike...
CD: (interupting again) ..and your phone number
Me: (getting the impression that this is now a game of "Truth or Consequences) ..you don't have caller ID there? ..never mind 610-XXX-XXXX (getting annoyed) ..I've got this bike with a Pottstown bike license number #1....
CD: ..and your date of birth?
Me: blablalbalblabla ..anyway ..I've got this bike here...
CD: (interupting AGAIN) ..(ask another unrelated question)
Me: NEVER MIND ..YOU'RE ABOUT AS FUNCTIONAL AS UDDERS ON A BULL (I hang up).

Anyone got any inside views on why this is some standard procedure? I was waiting for him asking my SS# and a credit card.

I'm getting the address to the place and I've noted the time. I'm going to make sure that this clown has a record in his record. I don't care how much effort I have to go through ..he's going to have a pucker factor to deal with. I hope that he's screwed up somewhere else and that my comments will be the reason to fire him. I hope that he loses his house ..his wife ....(not really).
CD:

 

[Pablo]

SOP. Every time I've called the cops they actually want to know who is calling them. It's been like that since about 1950. Asking for your phone number is a bit redundant - they should see it unless you have your number blocked. Just letting you know this isn't part of the anti-terrorist stuff, in case you are paranoid about that.

 

[Gary Allan]

Well then, it is a game of 20 questions. Knowing absolutely everything that you do, that's EXACTLY the information that I offer right off the bat. This is Gary Allan at XXXXX XXXXX St in Pottstown.

The DOB is WAY BEYOND "need to know". It's obvious where I'm calling from ..it's way obvious that the number matches the address ..and I've given my name.

If this was a real emergency ..there would be no way that it could take this long to hear what the situation was ..if a life was in the balance ...that person could surely be dead ..or nearer death.


This has to be a case of: "if you have time ..get all this data before finding out what the problem is".

I truly did say that he was as functional as udders on a bull, btw.

 

[Quickbeam]

Just wait, next time you call they'll be picking up the phone in India

 

[Pablo]

I just say I'm over 18, and they don't ask any further about my DOB - most times they don't ask for DOB. I call the cops about once every 2-3 years.

First house I bought years ago in California they busted some guys dealing heroin out of their car - like I didn't spot that! I was summoned to court and when I showed up - the guy had already pleaded down and they neglected to tell me! What a waste of time.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:

---

Just wait, next time you call they'll be picking up the phone in India

---

Actually, this appears to be a for profit enterprise out of California. Most assuredly "for the good of mankind" type selfless thing.

Gotta love certain services for their community spirit.

 

[CivicFan]

Gary, perhaps you should have waited until the dispatcher asked what the issue was. They probably have forms that they have to fill out about every call.

That's what digital age is about - data entry and storage.

 

[eljefino]

Cellphone 911 dispatch around here is just as bad. You don't spill your guts to the first person who answers.... (A state police rep in a centralized location.) They transfer you to a local law enforcement dispatcher... provided you know where you are. At least interstate highway problems are handled by the same state police.

 

[Gary Allan]

Update. 2:30pm. Cop rolls up pops trunk. Starts looking at the bike.

Long story short. Apparently the guy did forward the call ..over 3 hours later. I asked her why the 20 questions (after I described the call) and she said that once you identified it as a non-emergency the order of information gathering changes. Otherwise it would be React-verify (fill in the blanks). She said that identifying myself at the onset of the call probably caught the dispatcher by surprise. She did reconfirm that I called at 11:15am and said that it would be addressed. She thanked me for calling.

btw- she was placing a red tag on the bike ..she asked me all the same questions that she couldn't figure out on her own (my street number being obvious).

 

[XS650]

Quote:

---

Well then, it is a game of 20 questions. Knowing absolutely everything that you do, that's EXACTLY the information that I offer right off the bat. This is Gary Allan at XXXXX XXXXX St in Pottstown.

---

Dude, if you told me you lived at XXXX XXXXX I would be suspicious too. It sounds like a fictitious address or a porn operation. Maybe both.

Good thing they didn't get to asking about the plumbing on your vehicles, that would have gotten Homeland Security involved.

 

[brianl703]

Quote:

---

Cellphone 911 dispatch around here is just as bad.

---

Around here it goes to the 911 center that serves the county or city that the tower happens to be in. (Little known fact: In Virginia cities and counties are independent. If you are in a city you are not in a county at all)

Which means that if you're near a county or city line, you may get the wrong 911 center. They always identify what city or county they're in and they will transfer you to the correct 911 center when you ask.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Well then, it is a game of 20 questions. Knowing absolutely everything that you do, that's EXACTLY the information that I offer right off the bat. This is Gary Allan at XXXXX XXXXX St in Pottstown.

---

Dude, if you told me you lived at XXXX XXXXX I would be suspicious too. It sounds like a fictitious address or a porn operation. Maybe both.

Good thing they didn't get to asking about the plumbing on your vehicles, that would have gotten Homeland Security involved.

---

You're probably right. If they saw the flux capacitor under the hood of the minivan ...

..leathal force may be authorized just as a precaution.

 

[AstroVic]

Gary, it sounds like you've already got the answer, but the reason why the dispatcher was doing what he/she was doing is because they have very specific "blocks" of information they have to fill out in a pre-set order on their CAD screens. They can't usually get to the section where they fill out call notes until they've gone through all of the pre-determined identifying info steps.

When I make a traffic stop, for instance, I have to give the license plate number first and the location second. If I do it in reverse order, I get a nasty-gram from the dispatchers. It's because their CAD screens force them to enter the information in exactly that order.

Man to man, I'm asking you to please not file a formal complaint on that dispatcher. I'm saying this because dispatchers get paid #@$%! salaries and they have to put up with wayyyy more #@$%! than any street officer has to put up with.

My last department forced street officers to occasionally work a shift in dispatch - about once a month - and, let me tell you, I wouldn't want to do it for a living! It's an insane job with an unbelievable amount of stress. I guess I've never understood why dispatchers get paid less than us street cops.

 

[XS650]

Quote:

---

My last department forced street officers to occasionally work a shift in dispatch - about once a month - and, let me tell you, I wouldn't want to do it for a living! It's an insane job with an unbelievable amount of stress. I guess I've never understood why dispatchers get paid less than us street cops.

---

Dispatchers are less likely to get shot at....at least as long as their "customers" don't find out who they are.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:

---

When I make a traffic stop, for instance, I have to give the license plate number first and the location second. If I do it in reverse order, I get a nasty-gram from the dispatchers. It's because their CAD screens force them to enter the information in exactly that order.

---

Understood. I can see you getting a memo about it. You're a trained professional that utilizes the system all the time. You would also probably not, if you report to a central office, use the high radio traffice time to run various tags you had collected in the course of the day/week etc. while resources are taxed in traffic enforcement. You would wait until there was some lull in traffic. That is, there's some of your work that involves the system that's more along the line of "administrative" as oppose to enforcement ..where time is not of the essense and not part of your immediate concern. That is, you probably, I'm assuming, work with the assets and weaknesses of the system to the best advantage. You do this because it makes sense to you.

Quote:

---

Man to man, I'm asking you to please not file a formal complaint on that dispatcher. I'm saying this because dispatchers get paid #@$%! salaries and they have to put up with wayyyy more #@$%! than any street officer has to put up with.

---

I probably won't. I may, however, suggest an alteration in protocol that would have reduced this situation to an orderly and professional exchange.

If the dispatcher had simply said: "Sir, since this is not an emergency, I need to get some information before filling in the call notes. Can you please bear with me?" ..or even "Sir, please bear with me here.". He's/she's dealing with a common citizen ..not a professional. In this instance, if I hadn't "humored" (from my POV) the dispatcher with his interuptions and apparent disinterest in the reason for my call, I could have just hung up and someone's (potentially) recovered stolen property could have been stolen again or just assumed to be abandoned and disposed of.

They're now reasearching returning to the two tier police call system. One for the original 911 concept of "to stop a crime - to save a life" emergency type stuff ..and another 3 digit number for more routine/less pressing situations like this one. I tried to use this less reasource demanding avenue ..and got routed there anyway. I'm all for making anyone's job easier if I know what that requires and it's no skin off my behind in the process.

 

[obbop]

Observed extremely bad driving. Barring some sort of medical reason, the odds were VERY good it was a drunk driver. Observed several very near misses. THe driver was an OBVIOUS threat to safety.

Pulled over to phone. Called 9-1-1.

Dispatcher spent the time attempting to convince me the driver was not drunk!!!!! Then began questioning my observational abilities!!!!

I was appalled. Angry. Flummoxed.

Butted in and told dispatcher she was the quintessentil idiotic bureacratic lackey slurping at the public funds trough. Then told the buffoon before hanging up that if I saw on the news an accident caused by that vehicle I was going to the media with my story.

Just anudda' idiotic day in the cultural backwater full of idiotic idiots reveling in their communal idiocy.

 

[AstroVic]

Quote:

---

I probably won't. I may, however, suggest an alteration in protocol that would have reduced this situation to an orderly and professional exchange.

If the dispatcher had simply said: "Sir, since this is not an emergency, I need to get some information before filling in the call notes. Can you please bear with me?" ..or even "Sir, please bear with me here.". He's/she's dealing with a common citizen ..not a professional. In this instance, if I hadn't "humored" (from my POV) the dispatcher with his interuptions and apparent disinterest in the reason for my call, I could have just hung up and someone's (potentially) recovered stolen property could have been stolen again or just assumed to be abandoned and disposed of.

---

I agree with you 110%.

Dispatchers should not treat citizens with a cold or callous demeanor, regardless of the situation. But, having been there and seen what goes on, I can certainly understand how burnout can set in VERY quickly for those men/women.

It sounds like you're a very reasonable man. I appreciate that. Just try to view it from the other perspective (and it sounds like you already have).

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

---

They're now researching returning to the two tier police call system

---

I think 311 is it in some areas

 

[Gary Allan]

The main theme/intent of this post is that you should never have any system employed that makes civically responsible behavior punitive or a major chore. It discourages more of it. I don't think that this one event is going to alter my dedication to make my community/state/nation/world a better place ...but I can see how 99,000 other people would just say "screw it ..it's not worth my time

".

 

[MarkC]

"NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES CALL 911."