The experts aren't always right
One of my favorite television channels to watch is the National Geographic Channel because truth is so often stranger than fiction. In fact, fiction writers would be hard-pressed to come up with some of the things that actually happen in the real world every day.
One of my favorite shows on the National Geographic Channel is "Seconds From Disaster." The premise of this show is that accidents are almost always caused by a series of events, rather than a singular event. This particular program examines catastrophic events that have happened around the globe in the form of plane crashes, boat sinkings, building collapses and the like and it thoroughly examines the causes of each tragedy in a dramatic fashion.
This past Wednesday night, the program was about the airplane crash in Chicago several years ago that accounted for the single highest total of fatalities due to an airplane crash in the United States. An engine fell off a jetliner as it was taking off from Chicago. The pilot did exactly what he was trained to do in the event of such an occurrence, which ultimately doomed him and all his passengers to a tragic and horrifying death. In dealing with the loss of an engine, the pilot went precisely by the book and decreased his air speed. The only problem here was that the book was wrong. Later simulated flights using 12 different pilots under the exact same conditions resulted in the same outcome. Instead of decreasing air speed, the proper action would have been to increase air speed. Of course, this correction came too late to save the crew and passengers of that ill-fated flight.
I was watching this program just a couple of hours after seeing a report on the Wichita NBC news affiliate about a woman who called 9-1-1 in Wichita while she was being physically abused by her boyfriend. The woman was obviously afraid for her safety, under much duress, and wasn't thinking clearly or cogently when she called for help. The 9-1-1 operators were asking for very specific information from her and all she wanted was help. She became frustrated with the questions and became verbally abusive to the operators. They, in turn, told her that if she didn't change her language and attitude, they were going to terminate the call. She didn't, and they did.
9-1-1 operators hung up on a person calling for emergency assistance.
After the assault was over the woman contacted the local news media and the NBC affiliate in Wichita sent a camera crew to her house. Upon arriving, it was obvious she had been assaulted by someone. She couldn't believe 9-1-1 operators would hang up on her because of her tone or her language. Neither could I.
Emergency 9-1-1 was created to get help to people in need of help as quickly as possible. I am aware of other circumstances involving 9-1-1 calls where people called in the middle of absolute emergencies dealing with serious injury and/or death and yet the 9-1-1 operators expected the caller to respond to their questions in a calm, reserved, logical way. In fact, the first thing out of the mouths of most 9-1-1 operators is "just calm down." That's easy for someone to say when they're in a safe, secure environment but they sometimes forget that the people making these calls are often NOT in a safe, secure environment at all. In fact, they are often in a situation where reason and logic is simply not possible due to the emotional trauma they're experiencing. If you've never been in a situation like this, then good for you. You're one of the lucky ones. If you have, you can recall how you felt as if it just happened. Your chest tightens up like a vise is squeezing the life out of you. You can't take a breath. As your emotions go haywire, you get light-headed and dizzy, sometimes to the point of passing out. The psychic shock to your system is so intense you literally lose touch with reality. Imagine experiencing this, if you haven't, and then imagine someone on the other end of the phone line advising you to "just calm down."
The operators in Wichita were in error when they hung up on this woman, regardless of her attitude or her language. If that's what the book tells them to do, then the book is wrong. As a former police officer and current Criminal Justice instructor, I understand the need for the operators to get as much information as possible to the officers responding to the call, not only for the protection of the people involved in the call but for the officers' safety and protection as well. But this particular call as well as others I'm aware of went beyond the boundaries of reason and common sense.
The motto of many police departments across the country is "To Serve and Protect." In this case, the Wichita Police Department was doing neither. After the dispatchers hung up on the woman, they contacted the district patrol officer who had responded to that residence before for the same kind of call. He was working a traffic accident when contacted and said he would go to the residence when he was finished. He did not. No one responded to her call and she was beaten as a result.
Maybe 9-1-1 dispatchers and operators should receive a little sensitivity training for dealing with a public who is usually not on an emotionally even keel when they call emergency services. They could use this new knowledge to supplement their existing knowledge on how to handle an emergency call "by the book."
The experts aren't always right and when they're not it can cause people pain, suffering, and even death.
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I'm in Kansas City today for the Big XII Championship game. I'll have a full report in next week's column about all the goings-on.