Emergency Dispatcher Not The First To Be Fired Over 4-Minute Delay

lazy slob

Nope. You shouldn't get your job back. " Wheeler already had three suspensions and two reprimands over his five-year career" means that you are not good at a job that holds peoples' lives in your hands. Find another line of work. It sounds like McD's is at about your efficiency level.

Why do dispatchers ask so many stupid questions. Most of their calls that come in are a waste of time.
They sit around and gossipe about people's problems. Most are overweight and don't have a clue about
what is really going on. Why can't they just make it short and to the point. Majority seem like their writing a book.

Hmmm. Three suspensions and two reprimands in only 5 years. If he were a lawyer, he would have been disbarred for life. Notably, the article does not include what happened to the man trapped inside the burning home but his fella is clearly not suited for that job.

I understand that a 911 dispatcher has a stressful and difficult job, but this guy deserves to be fired. Just because the job is tough doesn't mean it's ok to screw up. People's lives depend on these dispatchers and if they can't keep up with the demands of the job, then they need to step down and be replaced by someone that can. No one is forcing anyone to take these jobs. If they find it to be too overwhelming, it's better for them to find another job than to end up messing up and costing someone their life. Thank you to all the dispatchers out there that are able to perform this job, it is greatly appreciated.

I used to work as a Security Dispatcher, we dispatched on house and business alarms of various natures. One night I dispatched out a alarm at a local business, the Call taker at the call center for the police let the alarm sit on the screen for 40 mins, before the PD were dispatched, by that time our guard and the store owner were onsite and in the store....the burg's ended up with 150k worth of jewelry.

#1 we weren't there. Unless you've done the job don't make judgement until all the facts are out. I have worked as a full time Medic for 18 years. I have been in the dispatch center, and believe me, you wouldn't want to sit there for 12 hours handling one call after another.

A four minute delay? Was he on another call? Maybe his system requires him to switch between land lines and radio. He maybe dealing with multiple fire alarms + dozens of ambulance runs at the same time. Yes, it happens FOR HOURS on end. Every move an ambulance makes ENROUTE / ON SCENE, etc is radioed in. He has to respond and document the system. You have no idea what his responsibilities are, or what his job entails. Maybe he is a good employee who works for incompetent a-holes who never deserved their promotions let alone their jobs.

When you call , I understand it's an emergency , but , you need to calm down long enough to tell them an address if you are on a cell phone and what is happening so they know who to send where. You would be surprised at some of the calls that people make , they are unintelligible and you can't blame the 911 dispatcher for not understanding , no one would be able to. Thankfully , they can get a physical address off of a landline phone , just not a cell phone. So please , for your own sakes , Try to hang in there and calmly state your need. I know in an emergency it's hard..but the call will go smoother and quicker.

The Communications Workers of America, has filed a grievance on his behalf.

The Man deserved to lose his job. What part of an emergency call don't they get??

My son is a 911 dispatcher. It's an extremely stressful job , dealing with anything and everything you can imagine. Just last week he got a call from a woman who killed her husband and was going to kill herself. He got her address and the woman hung up. He had already patched the police in on the call as soon as she said she killed him , and he tried a call back but got no answer. By the time the police got there , maybe 4 minutes from the time she called , she had shot herself as well. Then there was the other call he got a day or 2 later , a guy called , angry at the world , mostly his girlfriend , but at the world as well. He called a bomb threat in , said he built a bomb and it was going to go off and kill everyone in this building , my son traced the call and patched it in while he kept the guy talking , asking what the bomb was made if , did it have a timer , etc. The police got there while the guy was still on the phone talking to my son. No , there wasn't a bomb , he was just mad and needed attention apparently. Of all the cities in this area , only 1 handles their own calls. This is a major metropolitan area and between all the cities and counties included in the 911 area , there is a fair share of crime and crazy out there. It's a tough job , most people don't make it through training.