What private organization could afford the liability insurance that would arise from errors or omissions?
Kinda like privatizing the TSA. Make one mistake, let one device go through a security screening, and the lawsuits -—
I think 911 dispatchers get prank calls, perhaps lots of then. Gotta know this side of the story before o passing judgment.
The problem, IMO, is not private vs government. The problem is that particular 911 center & who the supervisors are/were. I worked 911 for a county - the supervisors were all over our calls. I had a problematic one where it took me longer than usual to get help dispatched because the computer would not recognize the location and let me enter the call. I finally worked it out, but the next thing I knew, a supervisor was all but down my throat. I explained the computer issue & she pretty much called me a liar and to prove it, she sat down at the computer to show me that the computer would take/assign the call. As it turned out, there was a “hole” in the location where streets/addresses were evidently not entered & she couldn’t get the call in either. She did admit I was correct & said she would contact IT to fix it .... no apology however. The supervisors were fairly brutal - you screwed up & they were talking to you or writing you up. With ANY supervision, I don’t see how this 911 operator lasted for year. No one called back in & complained they were hung up on? No other 911 operator turned her in on suspicion of hanging up after they talked to people who called back in? Disconnects did occasionally happen, but a year of this ... the other operators likely would have been on to her & the supervisors should have known very quickly if they monitored calls. Something really stinks here.
Hire 911 operators on intelligence, background, and history not affirmative action. That would stop a lot of this chicanery.
The article is mistaken in the assertion about sovereign immunity. That doesn’t apply when they break the law.
10 days jail for that stupid wench shows they aren’t too concerned about anything. That needs to change. At best the only thing that happens in these situtations is a lawsuit or settlement that only serves to impoverish the taxpayer, the very people that were harmed in this debacle. This needs to change.
For persons who live in the cities, dialing 911 will most likely get your call to a local LEO agency & get you some response.
For those of us who live rural, it is another story.
I had a mother/daughter, who had just bought drugs at the dealer at the interior end of our dead end rural road, fighting over who got what while they were driving past my house. 11PM, and they go off the road, move a rock about 7 feet around into my driveway & go thru & mess up my horse fencing. Killed the car her grandparents had bought her just the day before ‘for finishing her stint in rehab’. This was in Grass Valley, Calif. I called 911-—& I got a dispatcher in Sacramento-—MILES away from where I was at. I asked for deputies to come & round up these druggies, etc., and she asked where I was...I told her the address on Long Valley Road. She asked what county that was in...strange, I thought. I told her Nevada County. She then asked: WHERE IS THAT”??? I finally learned she was answering in Sacramento & obviously didn’t have a clue.
I hung up & called Nev County deputies. Got results, and both were arrested.
I moved to rural N Nevada and just after getting here, had reason to call 911. This time, I got a dispatcher answering in Tonapah-—about 200 MILES south of my ranch. When I asked why they were answering, the man told me that with Nevada 911, the Highway Patrol can pick up the call ANYWHERE in the whole state. State is over 500 miles long. SIGH !!
I have since memorized the Lyon County dispatcher number & I can dial that in the dark.
911 isn’t as good coverage as you might think.