911 call ignored

[AnqeiicDemise]

The gist is this:

5 year old's mom passes out in the kitchen, he calls 9.1.1.... dispatcher tells him to get off the phone and to stop joking around. He does ('cause he's a good little boy).

A few hours later, he calls AGAIN and this second dispatcher gives him a lecture about playing on the phone and that he needs to get his mom to it (the phone) asap or she'll send the police over to get him into trouble. Frustrate, he just yells 'ugh!' and hangs up.

What is wrong with some people?



http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/video...sq896n1h199o4c

[ThePhoneGoddess]

There's information I'd really like to have that is missing from the articles I've been able to find about this.

For instance, do the 911 operators there get in trouble if they send police out on too many calls that turn out to be pranks? Do they have a big problem with children calling in pranks in the area? Are they able to punish these kids in any way, or do the kids get away with it? I really wonder what was going on that caused two different women to assume it was a prank.

[AnqeiicDemise]

I don't know, but you know, the fact of it is there's no way to tell if its a prank or not. ...and I would feel safer knowing that the police will get to me in case something like this happens to me and my kid calls for help. Its quite scary knowing that your child's call would be ignored just because he's a kid.

What if the kid had been kidnapped and got left unattended around a phone long enough?

When my nephew called the police as a prank when he was four, no one in the house noticed. We apologized profusely to the officer, he said he understood, got to one knee and just put the smackdown on the nephew. He was polite and quite firm with the kid. The Nephew knew better after this point....as did we.

"If it happens again that he calls in and we have to come in for no just cause, there will be a fine involved."

That's all he had to say to us.

[Sandman]

I think I remembered the outcome of this... she was veteran of the department and she was fired for ignoring the call.

[blas]

That's awful. I can't imagine ignoring a 911 call just because the caller was a child. Who the hell were they expecting to call on the mother's behalf, the DOG?

[Crazeyal]

They have proceedures in those cases, and this person clearly did not follow them. Her arrogance caused the death of a young mother. One year in prison is NOT enough!

[crazylegs]

I understand call takers are under a HUGE amount of stress, but the first call *clearly* states that someone requires assistance. Regardless of who placed the call someone should have been sent to at least carry out a welfare check.