Angela Huddle, a member of the IAED’s Police Council of Standards with over 27 years in the 911 industry, discusses some common mistakes she’s seen emergency dispatchers make when handling police calls.
Isabel talks with Steve Zenes, 911 Operations Coordinator with the Morris County Communications Center. They discuss how police dispatch is different from fire and EMS, why "Tell me exactly what happened" matters, and parallels between police work and research...
The most critical and difficult part of the Emergency Police Dispatcher's (EPD) job may be the gathering of the initial problem description, which uses a scripted Protocol Case Entry Question (CEQ) but also requires interpretation on the part of the EPD. Specifically, at the beginning of the call, the EPD asks the caller the CEQ "Ok, tell me exactly what happened" (TMEWH). Based on the caller's response, the EPD selects a Chief Complaint (CC) Protocol—a specific protocol that provides the prompts to drill down into the caller's situation—the primary reason for calling 911. Selecting the wrong...
Isabel Gardett talks with Chris Knight, a member of the Police Council of Standards for the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED), and Meghan Broadbent, a research data analyst for IAED. They discuss how to balance data from research with police experience, the current trend of the public calling for more data collection regarding police, and the role of emergency dispatch in both...
The reality of police dispatching is that there is nothing routine. Police calls change frequently simply due to the type of business. A perceived cold call of "breaking and entering" into a property can quickly turn into an in-progress "robbery" when it is discovered that a suspect is on the scene and has a weapon. A report of an "assault" can quickly turn into an "active assailant (shooter)" situation, one of the most dangerous and complex types of incidents. The constantly-changing police world is just never routine. Because of the constantly-changing nature of policing and police...