| Posted: Thu Dec 17th, 2009 11:51 am |
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1st Post |
Tex
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A recent event made us all stop and take a look at the 911 Center. There have been a few posts exposing some irregularities at the center. I would like to see if more dispatchers would like to add to this and see what some potential solutions could be. I personnaly feel bad for the dispatcher that took the demotion as I feel she did what she could given the circumstances. I feel the director of 911 and the commissioners should be held accountable as well. What are your thoughts, gripes and complaints? Last edited on Thu Dec 17th, 2009 11:53 am by Tex
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| Posted: Thu Dec 17th, 2009 03:18 pm |
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2nd Post |
romegasir
Troglodyte
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Lots at the 911 center read this.....but......I'm certain some don't want to be perceived as badmouthing the place they love.........others post here regularly but others know who they are.........may have a bunch of "new" screen names pop up........
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| Posted: Thu Dec 17th, 2009 09:05 pm |
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3rd Post |
ManinBlack
Guest
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Agree with Tex, the responsibility should be shared!!Whose fault is it when you are 0verworked and understaffed? Is it the employees or the people who make the big bucks to run the whole operation. Wonder when one of the "Wheels" last stood an 8 hour shift listening to all the noise that comes over that wire. Which Commissioner is mandated to handle the 911 center? Who is the Director? Oh wait a minute I forgot, can't know these peoples names who work for the taxpayer. If we say their names then this website which is making millions might get sued. I don't think so, if we are going to discuss the controversy we need to know who we are talking about. I agree no one should be slammed, or slandered but if they get a paycheck for County or city work and the work has a problem like this, then we have the right to know. My Opinion,,,,,,,,!!
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 03:25 am |
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4th Post |
JustMe
DomesticatedGoddess
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Tex wrote: A recent event made us all stop and take a look at the 911 Center. There have been a few posts exposing some irregularities at the center. I would like to see if more dispatchers would like to add to this and see what some potential solutions could be. I personnaly feel bad for the dispatcher that took the demotion as I feel she did what she could given the circumstances. I feel the director of 911 and the commissioners should be held accountable as well. What are your thoughts, gripes and complaints? Did what she could given the circumstances? What part of "we have an emergency"..then explaining (more than once) what was going on....then husband calling and saying "It's been 20 mins. when is someone coming out" did she not get? In the meantime a second person was shot! Had she sent someone out the FIRST time the caller told what was going on, then maybe there might have been a different outcome in that situation.
It was too late for the first victim. Even though the step father had to ask when someone was coming out, unfortunately that victim was dead. What if the person was still around? Hiding? He's left outside with the body waiting on someone from 911 to help also.
I hate it for her, but I don't understand why people don't get it. Most people do, but it seems some still think it's 911's fault all together. It's the dispatcher/supervisor that screwed it up. They did an investigation and found her in the wrong. End of story!
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 03:59 am |
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5th Post |
romegasir
Troglodyte
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Supervisors shouldnt be answering calls............4 people shouldn't be doin the work of 7...........managers shouldn't be asking their employees to make sacrifices they're unwilling to make themselves.............
Justme, you've gotten all the blood ur gonna get from that one dispatcher.............is the family satisfied with that?????????????????? If they are, great.......... If they're not, do they believe it's systemic??????? If they do then they also would feel this discussion is legitinate.............and it obviously IS legitimate according to those dispatchers willing to post...........
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 04:45 am |
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6th Post |
jaspergt
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Just me did you read where the closest officer had to come from. That officer was sent has soon as the call came in. That officer was on the other side of a fire and had to come back to Martha Berry and back up 140. He made very good time. It was also poring down rain.
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 05:23 am |
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7th Post |
romegasir
Troglodyte
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A lil birdie told me the dispatcher has appealed her demotion to the personnel board.....................should make for some interesting revelations............... Same birdie told me the 911 mgmt is not happy with this discussiob and are watching the dispatchers closely....................crazy birdie
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 07:14 am |
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8th Post |
Tex
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romegasir wrote: Same birdie told me the 911 mgmt is not happy with this discussiob and are watching the dispatchers closely....................crazy birdie
Imagine that, how dare we discuss their decision. They were fairly quick to punish the supervisor to get the eyes off of them. Seems an outside agency should have investigated this call. I'm not saying that the report that was done by the PD was wrong but it would seem the gravity of the situation would require an outside investigation to look at the entire systems reaction from the 911 dispatcher to the responding officers. When an officer is involved in an accident it is investigated by an outside agency (GSP, I believe). Shouldn't this situation require the same.
Some would like to say it is the dispatchers fault, however if the system is overtaxed this situation could occur again. It is common knowledge that this center is understaffed. I truly do not believe it was the dispatchers complete fault. Had there been a full staff as recommended to run the center more hands would have been available to handle the situation. Someone could have stayed on line with the caller while other dispatchers were contacting the different people that needed to be involved.
Seems to me true leaders would be addressing the public about this situation openly, unless there is something to hide. Is there?
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 08:20 am |
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9th Post |
manes
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I am coming on here to give a first and only post to this entire situation. There have been many things said, especially about the situation the night of the shooting and and the subsequent disciplinary action taken against the dispatcher/supervisor. I am going to move beyond the situation as I feel that has been discussed enough. There is an urgent problem within the Floyd County 911 System. First, the CAD system should have been removed out of the center within 6 months of it first being installed, it was clear at that point this equipment failed to meet the needs of the department and has defects in the system that literally everyday put the emergency responding personal and the citizens of this county at risk. There is NO excuse for that!! This information has been known by the director, assistant director and what I assume, to be known by the county manager. Why is it still in place? I can assure you not one dispatcher sitting in that room can explain why and it certainly hasn't been explained by anyone of authority. It is demanded that as a dispatcher that we give 100 percent every time we walk in that door, without fail, without excuses, and do it to perfection. If you fail in accomplishing this task punishment is swift and harsh. Why, I ask, are we expected to work with this equipment that inhibits our ability to do so and have our own questions and concerns ignored pertaining to the CAD system when they are asked? This goes for the phones in the center as well. People, we can't hear, there is an echo so bad in the phones that we constantly have to ask callers to repeat themselfs. Nothing has been done about this either, dispatchers are told to "write" down every time it happens and at which console they are sitting at when it happens. It's ALL of them already!!! There has to be 500 sheets of paper laying around up there somewhere with documentation on it where dispatchers writes down every time the phone malfunctions. Nothing is ever done, what is the point? Do we really need something else to do in that dispatch room? And Tex, you want us to come up with what a good solution might be???? I know for me, I am at my wits end, I get paid to dispatch and to the best the good lord gives me the ability to do, certainly SOMEBODY is getting paid to come up with a solution to resolve this issue. If there isn't anyone working on it by now......well this county has bigger problems than the 911 center.
I respect all my co-workers. Our job is hard and very stressful, we all sit together and do the best we can, many times above and beyond but do we ever get a "thank you, I know things are a little stressed around here right now" out of the management? NO. There as I have read been mention of a "click" at the 911 center. My opinion....Yes there is, without a doubt. What people do on their off time and with whom they do it with is really their own business, but when it so clearly spills over into the work place and is put before every employee to see and hear is rather offensive. I can't begin to tell you what that does for moral.
Being short handed all the time is another issue. We can't keep dispatchers in the center for various reasons. One of those reasons shouldn't be because the administration office needs someone to answer their phones so they can still have three days a week off and pull a "new hire" out of the dispatch room. Dispatcher's haven't enjoyed that luxury for over a year. If they wanted extra help in the administration office, they could have at least asked other dispatchers if they wanted to work a few days answering the phone and pulling tapes, if for not other reason to give them a break from the stress of dispatching for a day or two. What would make even more sense is for the Administration office to work Mon.- Fri. and they wouldn't need a dispatcher to answer the phone, there would always be two of the in the office to do that. That however, is not how things work at 911. I hope this sheds a little light to the public as to the real issues that have been going on for such a long time. We as dispatchers to try to give you our best at all times.
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 11:53 am |
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10th Post |
Tex
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Thank you for your input Manes and thank you for the thankless job you do. As I suspected and have heard, the problems run deep at 911. How much of a public outcry is it going to rake this time before the county manager acts on this information. Will this thread have to run for weeks? Come on Kevin, we know you read this. Are you going to be proactive and seek an outside investigation? Maybe just maybe, there will be an investgative media report coming. RNW are you listening? RN-T doesn't seem to mind tackling some of these "touchy" topics lately. I know you guys are watching too. Come on commissioners what is your first priority as a public servant? Why is public safety failing to protect the citizens as they have paid for it. You can cry budget all day long but there is still a lot of fat there. Why is the Sheriff fighting you? Why isn't the FCPD staffed properly? Why does the library system have a budget surplus when you can't field 4 county officers to cover the entire county on any given day? What's it going to take? Does it need to be a commissioners family member that is shot and killed before you will take this seriously? I really hope not.
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 02:15 pm |
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11th Post |
romegasir
Troglodyte
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I knew there would be new names in this discussion, didn't realize it would be new MANES.........good post, amen, and good luck..........be carefuk!!!!!!!!!!! Admin has eyes everywhere, including some of ur fellow dispatchers..............
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 02:29 pm |
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12th Post |
stoker
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The problems with public safety issues will not be resolved until the people tasked with managing the issues start paying attention to the problems at hand rather than trying to figure out how to make a fortune 10 years down the road. The same thing is happening at the National level. It's great to plan on improvements in the future but it is all a mute point if you decline to a point that you have to spend all your time playing catch-up trying to get back to where you should have been all along. Attracting industry to the area is a noble goal, but if an area is run down, crime ridden or unsafe for employee's families, then the industry won't want to relocate to the area regardless of how lucrative the economic package is.
Economic downturn. The prevailing thought seems to be reduce workers to save money. Let's see, that means less money being spent to maintain revenues to support the expenditures you plan to use for economic development. If the workers you had have no job, then they sure aren't the ones you can count on to keep up the operating capital you need to keep operating. Then comes an increased crime rate, which seems to be picking up here lately in regards to robberies, home invasions, drug dealing and manufacture to name a few. The solution is to reduce the number of available officers on the street? Makes perfect sense to me. I'm certain that will be a selling point when you are trying to attract companies to come to an area.
Available employment resources: There cannot be a reasonable reason given as to why they are operating a 911 call center with half the required people. As I understand it, the pay isn't such that it is cost prohibitive to fully man the center, or at the very least improve the manning. There certainly isn't a shortage of available people that would do the job, and you can't justify not being able to find enough qualified or people with the ability to learn the job. Unemployment in this area is near 11 percent. Do they mean to tell us that all of those unemployed are too stupid to do the job of dispatcher?
If the city and county management teams are relying on tourists to carry this area through, then we might want to consider looking for new managers. As "historic" as Rome may be, it is only historic to those who's interest lies in the areas of war or American Indian, or Early American history. Contrary to popular belief, plying the cotton trade along the river or what happened to the Cherokee Indian doesn't appeal to everyone. As for the quaint downtown area, it can be a quaint as it wants to be, but if it feels unsafe to participate in the areas activities or becomes too much of a hassle, then people will just find something else to occupy their time elsewhere.
Put a hold on building parks for the time being, shelve the riverboat rides to nowhere, cut back on the nice to have items until you have the money to indulge your wants and concentrate on the needs. If they can't figure that out, then we are just going to keep the current downward trend until this place becomes like all the other cities that have become just a place to pass by on the way to somewhere else.
I have heard a couple times this past week that Rome used to be the place to come to and find work in the area. We can see how that trend is going. If you want to grow, you need people to grow it. Public safety is a MAJOR part of the draw factor in attracting new people.
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 02:34 pm |
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 03:05 pm |
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14th Post |
stoker
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It seems to be an ego thing ManinBlack. Big fish in a little pond. The ones who are the driving force around here seem to want to keep things the way they are to maintain that status. Throw them into a larger arena and they would just be another guy or gal on the street. As it is, we appear to be managed by people that have already proven the Peter Principle.
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If You Can Read This Thank A Teacher If You Can Read This In English Thank A Soldier!
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18th, 2009 03:55 pm |
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15th Post |
The Sentinial
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Maybe just maybe when the "supossed upgrades" to the phone and CAD sysytem were done, someone did not investigate as to the quality of the system and how it would positively effect the the 911 Center (Woops).
Just maybe a fly by night salesman made it sound so wonderful (over lunch) and someone didn't call around (To other 911 Centers with the same system) and attempt to find out if it was a credible system.
And OMG maybe someone found out, only after the system had been half **sed in stalled these problems came to the forefront.
And then, imagine you have already spent a lot of money on the system and it ain't working.
Awe SHUCKS, we can't explain this to "you know who" (click secret) I guess we'll have to live with it until the next go round.
Salesman replies: SUCKERS!!!!!!
Last edited on Fri Dec 18th, 2009 03:57 pm by The Sentinial
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