Global Warming!

So a few days ago in about 24 hour period we saw Ice, Snow, Rain, Storms and a Tornado!

As the days move on and it gets colder everyone needs to remember to drive smart! We handled a couple bad accidents during that 24 hours and it was during the ice and snow part. And it really wasn't "that bad" to be considered any accumulation. Be aware of the conditions, drive safe. Too many people loose lives during bad weather when they could have stayed at home and waited it out until road crews could salt and scrape!

Hopefully this year there are less bad accidents, but comparing year to date statistics from last year it's not looking too good for our area.

Drive Smart, Drive Safe.

Oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving!

In Case Of Emergency, Break Glass.

Okay, fellow dispatchers, I need you to chime in here.

Let's say there was a catastrophic emergency in the area that would increase call volume, radio traffic, and mayhem in a center. Most facilities are staffed at minimum but have room for extra people (more consoles). Does anyone have a procedure sent in place that would call out to the off-duty dispatchers for an 'emergency hire' to get the center staffed to max. Since no one would be able to call through a long list of employees to hire in what would you do?

Well, during such unforeseen event I happened to go into work to assist during time of emergency, and boy we needed it. But Monday Morning quarterbacking has kicked in and people are complaining that "why did he get paid to go in on OT no one else got calls" yadda yadda. Frankly I didn't see anyone else show up, a few stayed over but not everyone. We kicked ass for 6 hours until problems were resolved and radios got quiet.

But, is that bad that I went into 'work' on my day off? Apparently I am the only one that enjoys what I do and 'wishes' that I was in on the big emergency calls. They will regret the day I am gone and working the streets and no longer working the radio because it seems that I am the only one here willing to go that extra mile!

Anyhow, I'm done rambling, I am tired for I have clocked 36 hours of OT in the last 3 days, see what I mean?

Spellcheck

When you're in the midst of typing information into a hot call sometimes your fingers are working too fast and, every once in a while, you will make a typo. Too bad you can't go back and change misspellings!

Typos are great, sometimes completely innocent misspellings and then there are the 'what the hell is that supposed to mean'. In the end they make for a good laugh.

For example, A warrant add-on I placed into LEADS (What we use in the state of IL to run for wants/warrants, drivers license and vehicle information) the address I typed was supposed to be 'washington' street, instead I typed 'wsdjomhypm' and didn't notice it for about 15 minutes until I pulled the paper off the printer. Whoops!

Most recently I type 'offender is on herion and alcolhol' into a mental transport call. Sound it out, for the rest of the night we were talking crazy!

Or you just type too damn fast and instead of typing a full sentence you just leave out half the conversation.

For an EMS run I typed "Pain in the lower apartment".. What I really meant was "Pain in the lower abdomen, caller in lower apartment".
Hey, I was close!

Summer Heat

They say with heat comes more violence.
So far we haven't seen that much more calls for service going on, which is very good for the community, not so good for keeping occupied at work.

I haven't really had anything 'out of the ordinary' to post here, as much of it has been the same mundane calls. But, one call sits on the top of my mind still..

It was about 11 PM and I took a 911 call from a residence on the far west side of the county, on the other line was a panicked 5 year old boy. "I just woke up and I can't find my mommy" he says. I ask him his address and he knows the numbers and that matches up on my ALI screen, I ask him if he knows where his mom is and he has no idea. "Just me and mommy live here" he says.
I ask if he knows what his mom's name is, he gives it and says something that caught me off guard "Can you look her up" and for a moment, and with the panic in his voice it sounded like he asked "Can you wake her up". My heart sank "What was that" I asked, and got the clarification I had hoped for. I stayed on the line for a few minutes until the Deputy arrived. The front door was locked and the little guy couldn't figure out how to get it unlocked, so the Deputy tried the back door, and was able to make entry.
Moments later the Deputy clears the call, "10-8 found mom, she was asleep in her room on her bed."

Now, albeit a strange call, I was glad it was a good ending and Mom wasn't off partying or whatever else could have been going on. But man that would have been a hell of a wake up call for the police to show up in your bedroom!

Mmm, Donuts!

This was some time ago when I first started. I get a call from an elderly female and this is how it went:

Me: 911 Where is the emergency!
Caller: Yes yes I woke up and came in the living room and there is a squirrel on my table eating my donut! I don't know how it could have got in here!

Really?! What the hell.

Of course, it's the departments policy to send an officer to all 911 calls as weird or stupid as they could be, so patrol went on over to investigate the donut bandit and sure enough there was a half eaten donut sitting on her coffee table. Unfortunately the bandit got away and hid elsewhere in her house.

The officer called in and let us know that the doors and windows were all shut but there were many holes in the walls and the donut loving squirrel snuck in that way.

Gotta love this job!