911 call put on Hold

[rojawe]

911 Puts Woman On Hold While She Watches Her Husband Being Shot


 Posted: Aug 03, 2012 6:40 PM CDT Updated: Aug 03, 2012 9:58 PM CDT

Lori Fullbright, News On 6 

 Police said a robber shot her husband - the store's owner - after he got mad that there wasn't any money in the store's safe.

 The 911 center admits three minutes is too long, when the national standard is closer to 20 seconds.
 
 he 911 center said they weren't able to call his wife back when she hung up, because Broken Arrow's system isn't compatible with Tulsa's.
TULSA, Oklahoma -
A Broken Arrow woman witnessed someone shooting her husband in their Tulsa convenience store.
 
Police said a robber shot her husband - the store's owner - after he got mad that there wasn't any money in the store's safe.

His wife was at their home in Broken Arrow and was watching a web-based surveillance camera feed of the store on her iPad.
 
8/2/2012 Related Story: Tulsa Store Owner Shot During Robbery, Wife Sees It Live Via Web Cam
 
The owner of the Convenient Food Mart in the 1000 block of North Utica was filling in for an employee that night. As his wife watched the surveillance feed, she saw a robber burst into the store and fire off a warning shot.
 
She immediately called 911. Because she was in Broken Arrow, her 911 call went there. When they realized the crime was happening in Tulsa, they transferred her.
 
A dispatcher at Tulsa's 911 answered and asked her if she needed police, fire or EMSA.
 
She said she asked for police and sat on hold until she finally gave up and hung up.
 
Meanwhile, police said after the warning shot, the robber forced the store's owner to get on the floor. The owner of the store struggled with the robber, refusing to have his hands tied.

He told his family later he wasn't scared and did everything he was told concerning handing over the money.
 
His daughter told us the robber got mad when he was told there was no money in the safe and shot the owner while he was lying on the floor.
 
Tulsa's 911 center said his wife's call was transferred to them at 10:08 p.m. They said she sat on hold for three minutes before she hung up.
 
The 911 center admits three minutes is too long, when the national standard is closer to 20 seconds. They said they were already short-staffed and then had one or two people call in sick Thursday night.
 
"A lot of times, it's just a perfect storm," said Ken White, with the 911 center. In this case, there weren't as many call takers as we'd like and we were busy, with a big influx of 911 calls right then."
 
In the meantime, they said at 10:10 p.m., the owner called 911 himself, so help did arrive, but only because he was able to call.
 
The 911 center said they weren't able to call his wife back when she hung up, because Broken Arrow's system isn't compatible with Tulsa's, so they couldn't see her address or phone number.
 
Ken White: "They're a different system. We cannot get a location and number from Broken Arrow, nor can they get it from us if we transfer a call to them," White said.
 
They do have compatible systems with most other neighboring towns, so had a call come from one of them, they've could've called back.
 
They said they are working to improve staffing issues and service.

They also said, if you get put on hold, don't hang up.
 
"Have faith in the 911 system. If your call holds, stay on the line, we're gonna get to them," White said

[kmitch200]

"Have faith in the 911 system. If your call holds, stay on the line, we're gonna get to them"

Eventually....and we really, sincerely hope that you don't die in the meantime.

[TAB]

911 is the only reason we have a land line.   in ca ( other states are simlar)  our 911 calls from cell phones go to the chp call center, not the local 911 center.  They then transfer you to the local one.  thats time you may not have.  my phone goes into gps mode when you dial 911 and even puts out a tracking signal( just like if it was stolen)

[ellis4538]

I put in a 911 call a while back when I heard a neighbor threaten someone with grave bodily harm!  Operator insisted on taking my vital info rather than asking me to stay on the line while she sent someone out.  The guy could have died while she was gitting that VI!!!  I told her I would wait while she sent someone but she INSISTED on getting the VI.  Hopefully the recording was reviewed and things changed.

FWIW


Richard

[tombogan03884]

When seconds count...................

[Sponsor]

[jnevis]

OK, I worked as an EMS Dispatcher for Fresno County and Board of Directors for the local EMS Company so I have a LITTLE background knowledge.  I'm not defending what happening, just clarifying a couple of points.

If you only have two or three call takers and 10 911 lines that all light up at once, do the math, someone is going to be delayed.  Also in most larger centers, the units are handled by one person and calls are taken by another so units are on the way as the call taker is taking information.  An average 911 call is about 2 minutes long from the time the Dispatcher picks up to the time they are on to the next one.  The unit is on the way after about 30 seconds of that, only AFTER the address and a basic status is verfiied.  If you call and hang up before that, the Dispatcher is typically required to call back and send a unit.    In most jurisdictions dispatch centers can be split, PD/Sheriff, Fire, and EMS or combinations.  If they are split up they transfer from one to another after determining who gets the call.  It takes about 20-30 secs per center to finally get to EMS.  The national standard is 8 minutes from the time EMS picks up the phone to an unit at the location. 

The interoperability issues betweeen dispatch centers, both in phone systems and radios, has been a long standing problem that only after 9/11 became a Federal mandate.  That is part of teh reason why DHS has been iven more authority in a delcared emergency over phone lines, incuding cell. 
Even small scale disasters can and do overwhelm 911 centers no matter how big the area the center covers and it takes a LOT of coordination to get the right units to the right place.  We had a Greyhound leave the freeway with a possible 50 people on it.  We called in extra dispatchers, units, and mutual aid helicopters, plus alerted all five available hospitals, while takiing around 20 calls for the bus plus another 15 unrelated calls in about 20 minutes with 4 people. 

[santahog]

911 is the only reason I have a Land Line, too..
I dialed 911 just to make sure the thing worked, ($9.99 phone) and said that I was just testing the phone line and that was all.
I forgot about it and went on to the next thing and about 20 minutes later I had a knock on the door..
He told me, (and I remember this from childhood) that if I had a problem, to turn the front porch light on..
He said that if somebody calls, someone is dispatched automatically..
I offered him a glass of lemonade but he wouldn't take it.. Told him again what I was doing and he left after he looked in the window for a minute..
They don't patrol out this way anyway. Not sure what good turning on the light is supposed to do if you don't call them first.. If they have to come when you call anyway, I'm not sure how the light is supposed to make it better..

The only time I've seen LE on this road was when three cars stopped before what looked like an assault on a neighbor..
Never heard anything about what may have taken place after that.. I listened for about a half hour but no sounds of anybody getting shot up.. Nobody stopping by to ask about anything so I guess it turned out well enough, for the Cops, at least..

[tombogan03884]

The light is probably so they can tell exactly which house with out having to use the spotlight to find the number.
There are a lot of houses that don't display the number, gaps where older buildings have been torn down, multiple streets with the same, or similar names, and other things that screw up what should be a simple system.