Enhanced 911 displays the name, addy and phone number of the complainant. Law enforcement must respond even to hang-up, kids playing on the phone, etc.
The guy screwed up. There was an obvious problem and he ended the call.
Ive worked for 3 departments as an E911 operator for the past 9 years. Ultimately, the officer/dept is liable if help was not rendered regardless of any expletives used by the complainant.
I don’t disagree, although telco data is in error anywhere from three to ten percent of the time. In a department where you’re doing a screening and will be transferring the call to fire, you have to find out what the incident is. You can’t do that if you can’t get the caller to tell you.
In the city I’m in, we’re a little leery of just dispatching blind because of some of the recent ambush incidents around the country. So our city’s dispatchers will usually try to ‘talk down’ the caller to get the info. If the caller hang-ups, they send both police and fire with instructions to fire to stand back, then try to reconnect with the caller to figure out what’s really happening. You don’t know whether she’s calling for an ambulance because she just shot her kids, or because someone’s ill.
Although there’s a moral and professional responsibility to get the call handled, the liability situation is much less clear cut.