I found an article at Never Yet Melted, “In an Emergency, Call 911” , about an incident where a frustrated caller alienated the emergency operator who then hung up on her in spite of the real need for emergency services. You’d have to read the entire story to understand how this could happen.
It reminded me of a very specific burglary call that happened on night shift many years ago. We’d found entry on a large warehouse and two of us went in to investigate while two other officers stood at the other end watching the exit doors. Once inside I noticed my hand held radio quit working when one of the outside officers tried to contact me; not a good thing if you’re trying to coordinate your efforts.
I picked up a telephone inside the warehouse and called the police dispatcher to act as a go between only to get a smart-alecky young woman, “Well, if you really are a police officer why don’t you use your radio?” My fuse runs short to begin with and she'd lighted a match.
“Put your supervisor on the phone or you won’t have a job after the dust settles!” The supervisor took the phone and asked a few questions and decided to relay my information to the other officers. I held my tongue and never once swore; really.
If you ever watched the movie Die Hard, where our hero is on the radio talking to the police dispatcher trying to get help, “Sir, this line is reserved for emergency communication only.” I think that dispatcher must have relatives, similar to the crew in the movie Space Balls.
“I’m Major…”, you’d have to have seen the movie…this is a family oriented blog; but all the same, “I’m surrounded by…”
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