Glamour magazine article

[Guest guest]

Now, I normally don't read this magazine because they make stuff up themselves,

but a dispatcher left this in the office yesterday. On their April

2001 issue they listed an article about rape prevention. So I turned to page

210 to read. And guess what I saw as one way in the " 10 Ways to

Save Your Own Life " ....

--

DO program 9-1-1 as the first auto-dial on your cell phone.

That way, if you're attacked, you don't have to think about which buttons to

push. Even if your attacker knocks your cell away, as long as you've hit that

insta-dial, the 9-1-1 dispatcher will be listening; dispatchers are trained to

respond to whatever they hear, even if it's incidental. Besides, you can scream

out information - your location, your attacker's description and what he's doing

to you. The operator will hear you, and the call is taped; officials can rewind

that tape and listen to your information as often as they need to. " There was a

case in the Midwest where the major evidence against the perpetrator in a trial

was the conversation the victim had with him while her cell phone was on the

floor, " says a Glamour NYPD source. " She dialed 9-1-1, the calls was taped, and

that conversation put the guy behind bars. "

--

Okay...that got me flared up. So I sent them an email using their feedback

feature on their website. I even got a little blurp in about our little

discussion list.... I know it's not going to do a bit of good since their

original source for the article was NYPD detectives who wanted to remain

anonymous (read as " We just made this up ourselves and it sounded good " ) At

least I FELT better for trying to set the record straight.

Unfortunately, many younger kids take what Glamour says as gospel truth.....

--

I read with interest your article on " 10 Ways to Save Your Own Life "

April 2001 issue, especially the part where you recommend to your

readers to have the first auto-dial on their cellphone programmed to

dial 9-1-1 and to scream out information, including their location.

It's obvious that you did not speak to any dispatchers about their

recommendations for dialing 9-1-1 using cell phones.

I have been answering 9-1-1 for the past 14 years. One of the biggest

problems that 9-1-1 centers nationwide are currently facing are

excessive hangups caused by the 9-1-1 autodial feature on cellular

phones. Dispatchers across the country relate frustration at the

number

of false calls, hangups, and conversations that were overheard because

the cell phone automatically dialed 9-1-1, some extremely personal.

Cellular phone users should deprogram 9-1-1 from their autodial

buttons. They should also lock their keypads to prevent accidentally

dialing 9-1-1 and other numbers. And besides, 9-1-1 is not THAT hard

to

remember or to dial.

Unlike 9-1-1 calls that originate from a " land-line " telephones,

dispatchers are not able to determine where a cellular caller is

calling

from, we must rely on the caller to provide this information. Often

the

number displayed on the 9-1-1 is the a cell tower phone line, not the

cellular phone that is being used. So not only does the dispatcher not

know WHERE the caller is, but the dispatcher can't even call the cell

phone back when it gets disconnected.

One of the worst things a caller can do is to scream out information to

the dispatcher. No matter how many times a call is played back, if the

person is not speaking clearly, the dispatcher will not be able to

understand what is said. I can't tell you how many times I have had to

calm a caller down because I couldn't understand what they were

screaming at me. We are trained to do this, but if the caller has set

the phone down, there isn't much we can do to verify what we THOUGHT we

heard. In the example you gave, I am sure that the caller was not

screaming information, but speaking in a conversational tone with the

suspect. Dispatchers are " trained to respond to whatever they hear,

even if it's incidental " - but if we can't understand you or know

where

to send officers, our hands are pretty much tied.

Another correction that needs to be made concerns tape playback

capabilities. This advise may be valid for New York City, but it does

not apply to every emergency communications center across the country.

Small, financially-challenged communications centers very often do not

have " auto playback features " on their 9-1-1 calls. In order to play a

call back, they have to go back to the equipment room (if nothing else

is going on), pull the tape, rewind it, and play it back. And, yes,

this is time consuming and frustrating. Some centers don't even TAPE

their 9-1-1 calls - they can't afford the equipment. Yes, it doesn't

sound right, but it is a reality in many financially strapped

communities. Since your magazine is sold nationwide, this is important

to point that out to your readers.

Did you know that not every jurisdiction in the United States HAS

9-1-1

service? Not only that, but even in areas with 9-1-1 service, cell

calls may be routed to the 9-1-1 center nearest the tower, which may

not

serve the same area that the caller is in. The call is often

transfered

to several (yes, several) agencies before the right jurisdiction is

located. Dispatchers across the country can tell you about the

frustrations of trying to locate the correct jurisdiction for a caller

who needs emergency assistance but was routed " incorrectly " because of

the location of the tower their cell phone hit on.

It was nice that New York City detectives talked to your magazine about

this issue, but detectives are often NOT aware of the complexities of

9-1-1 and how cellular phones have impacted communications centers

nationwide. I would like to suggest that you speak with communications

center supervisors across the country and with the Association of

Public

Safety Communications Officers (APCO) @ www.apcointl.org. Also,

dispatchers across the country regularly exchange ideas, problems and

gripes using email discussion lists. One of the most popular is " The

Console " at http://www.911console.com/

Thank you for listening...

Annette Hallmark

Texas A & M University Police Dept.