911 dispatchers dish on calls

BATESVILLE, Ark. (AP) - “911. What’s your emergency?” dispatcher Brian Presley asks.

A young, frightened male caller tells Presley that he is a college student who has been viewing pornography on his computer.

The caller goes on to say that while he was viewing porn, a message popped up on his phone saying he “had been restricted for safety issues” and that he had been instructed to go to PayPal to pay a fine and that the FBI was watching his phone.

The caller was adamant he was only viewing adult pornography and was concerned the FBI would show up at his home.

“It’s a scam, sir,” Presley reassures the caller, assuring him that the FBI doesn’t send out phone messages. “If you’ve broken the law, an officer will come to your home and visit with you.”

The Batesville Daily Guard (https://bit.ly/1Nb656w ) reports that call was just one of the 200-300 calls Presley and dispatcher Ramona Hubbard took recently during their 12-hour shift at Batesville Dispatch. While 911 is supposed to be reserved for emergencies, dispatchers receive many calls from people who don’t know where else to turn.

Presley said when people call 911 it is their last hope. “You try everything else and then you call 911,” he said.

Dispatchers have to be prepared to hear anything when a call comes in.

Such was the case about a month ago. Presley said a woman called, saying people were trying to “kill them” and there were eight or nine of them and they looked like ninjas.

“She said they came up in the yard and were biting the heads off of puppies,” Presley said.

She and a man were later arrested at a grocery store after calling back saying ninjas had followed them to the store.

“That ties up valuable resources,” Hubbard said of such calls. “(But) you have to go look and see.”

In another call Presley received, a young man from out of state had gone to the hospital and since he was underage, consent from his parents was needed to treat him. Presley was asked to contact the police department in the boy’s hometown and requested an officer to be sent to the boy’s home to make contact with his parents.

When police arrived, the boy’s mother answered the door and was told her son was in the hospital. The woman reportedly fell apart, and then called Presley as instructed.

Presley explained to the woman that she needed to call the hospital to consent to the procedure.

“You don’t understand,” the woman said. “My son was killed in a car wreck four days ago.”

Presley said one of the boy’s friends had called her and told her that her son had died.

“He had actually staged his own death here,” Presley said. “He didn’t want to get married.”

While one might think these types of calls are more apt to come along on a weekend or during a full moon, Thursdays are one of dispatch’s busiest days, according to Presley.

Some of the calls dispatch receives can be easily avoided by removing cellphones from toy boxes. Presley explained that even though cellphones may not have service, they can still call 911.

“We get 40 to 50 calls a day from kids playing with cellphones,” Presley said. “That’s a huge, huge problem.”

“We can’t just let them go,” Hubbard added. “We have to see what’s wrong. … Sometimes they help.”

Accidents also raise the call volume. One accident can net 100 calls, according to Presley.

“Nobody will stop to help but will call,” he said.

When someone calls 911 Presley said the first thing he wants to hear is the address of the emergency because many people use cellphones and the location of cellphones cannot be pinpointed.

“Cellphones drop calls,” Presley said.

Therefore, cellphone owners are encouraged to sign up for Smart911 at www.smart911.com and create a profile that will include a home address, emergency contacts and other information that may be needed to respond to an emergency.

Surprisingly, many times callers do not know where they’re at, as was a case Presley dealt with some years ago. Presley said a man called 911 at 2 a.m. saying he had wrecked his truck and needed help but he didn’t know where he was. The man was on a cellphone and at the time, there were very few of them and no location systems.

Presley asked the man if he was in Independence County and could hear a woman screaming in the background. Presley then asked the man what he was doing prior to the wreck. The man replied they had been swimming in a “big wide thing.”

Presley then asked if it was a river or a creek but the man didn’t know, nor did he know which way the water was running.

Presley then asked to speak to the woman who said she was cut and bleeding badly. She didn’t know their location either. In the meantime, Presley had officers out looking at the typical swimming areas.

“I was wracking my brain because clearly the woman with him was hurt,” Presley said.

He then had an idea. Presley asked the man to sit down on the road and describe the gravel.

“And he did. I knew where he was. It was 2-inch washed rock. They had just built that road,” he said.

The couple was found at Lock No. 2 in Locust Grove.

“You would be surprised at how many people don’t know their surroundings,” dispatch supervisor Bill Hicks added.

After finding out the location of the emergency, Presley then wants callers to just answer the questions of the dispatcher.

“Many times the callers are understandably emotional or the caller’s mind is altered by a substance. It would help us get help there incredibly faster if we could get them to answer the questions we ask,” Hubbard said.

When a call comes in, not only do dispatchers have to be prepared to hear anything, they must be able to react to the type of emergency it is. Dispatchers are responsible for keeping the caller on the phone while contacting police, fire and/or medical responders as well as sending out a text, making a call sheet and keeping up with where all officers are.

“We try to find out as many details as we can either by listening to the situation that is going on since some people call and lay the phone down. We try to find out their surroundings, names, weapons, direction of travel if someone leaves, what they are wearing and ages. We also check on the officers every three minutes depending on the type of call. We must know the officers’ location if they check out somewhere all the while listening to six major radio stations, one regular phone with three lines, and last but not least - our 911 lines. So, hearing is a huge part of our jobs along with paying attention to detail,” Hubbard said.

All the while they must show empathy to the caller without getting too emotionally involved.

And they must quickly relay information to police officers and/or medical responders.

“We have to take a five-minute conversation and put it in a 20-second message,” Presley said.

The phones are constantly ringing at dispatch and every call must be answered.

“A lot of times we eat lunch and it will be cold, or you couldn’t go to the bathroom,” Hubbard said. “We do it because we care.”

“Almost 100 percent of our calls are fueled with emotions,” Presley said. “We get cussed at least once a day.”

“People are in distress, rude, angry … I give them (dispatchers) all credit. They never lose their temper on the phone. They might go outside and scream and holler after,” Hicks said with a laugh.

They have to keep their cool even if it involves someone they know personally, as was the case in April, when Independence County Cpl. John Carroll was found shot at his home.

“We have to keep our composure like with John Carroll. He’s like one of us and we have to handle that,” Hubbard said.

The split between the county and city police departments only adds to the job. Dispatchers now must distinguish what department to call on - city or county. And at times it can be difficult.

Hicks explained that while U.S. Pizza and Batesville Furniture are located within a few yards of one another, U.S. Pizza is in the city limits but Batesville Furniture is in the county.

“And they’re just 100 feet apart. … It’s not easy,” he said.

Presley has been a dispatcher off and on for more than 20 years and said he had never considered the job until his next-door neighbor, who was a police officer, suggested he apply.

“You have to have the want to do it, a desire to help people. It’s certainly not the paycheck,” he said.

Hubbard has been at dispatch for a year and a half and didn’t know at first if she would be able to do the job.

“I thought, ’Oh Lord, they’re doing so much. I don’t know,” she said.

But Hubbard took to the job like a “duck to water,” according to Hicks.

“I really have a passion for it. I like helping the people and making sure the officers are safe,” Hubbard said.

There are currently eight dispatchers - two per shift who sit in a room for 12 hours a day together.

“A lot of it is partnership. If they don’t get along it’s not going to work,” Hicks said.

Hicks became the dispatch supervisor in August 2014.

“I enjoy the crew I work with. They’re good people. They try hard,” Hicks said.

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Information from: Batesville Guard, https://www.guardonline.com/