Madison Police messes up again?

[TracyThom]

In Friday's State Journal, the 911 director stated that on the day of the murder, the Communications Center received 115 911 hangups, and 83 of those were from cell phones. In Saturday's State Journal, it was also released that the dispatcher who made the mistake was transferred out of the 911 center on her own request.

 

From personal experience, I can tell you that the Comm. Center's cell phone tracking ability varies. I've heard 911 distress calls from cell phones dispatched in a variety of ways. Sometimes an officer will get a lot of information such as "the call came from the area of 122 West Doty Street." I've also heard calls dispatched only giving the intersection "Near Main and Pinckney." I've also heard calls dispatched when the dispatcher only has the block number "2200 block of Allied." The tracking ability really does vary.

[lcbj68c]

I can only speak from personal observation, day in and day out for the past six years. While the examples you sighted above are correct, the notion that the technology can pinpoint the house number or building number occurred in 4 of 519 911 hangup calls that I responded to. Yes, I researched them all. Often times, the computers and GPS "think" they have an address narrowed down as 123 Flickaflacka Lane, only to respond and find out that there is a 121 Flickaflacka Lane and a 125 Flickaflacka lane. Now what? Go pounding on all the doors of the neighborhood? No, that doesn't happen. Again, the Madison Police Department's policy was to NOT SEND a police officer to a 911 hangup call from a cell phone unless it could be absolutely verified that an emergency was occurring. Even further, we don't know the exact detail of coordinates given, and as detailed above, near 95% of the time, it can not even be wittled down to within a 4 block radius, a true needle in a haystack.

 

Emergency services call takers and dispatchers are required to make critical judgments under very tight timelines for the purpose of quickly determining whether a particular situation requires a response and if so, the nature and the necessary personnel and equipment. The commitment of emergency services resources in situations that do not warrant them can diminish the availability of these resources for other emergency needs. It seems the dispatcher WAS PRUDENT in utilizing her professional judgment and training in an effort to ascertain what would be an appropriate response. In that response, she had to answer other 911 calls and placed the task in a queue, in a prudent manner to call back at a later time when available to do so. Whether a computer system error deleted the task from a queue, she never got around to it, shift change, or a variety of reasons why a call back was never attempted has yet to be determined. However, I can say with a great deal of certainty that a lawsuit will not be successful and will be quite frivilous.

[RU Rah Rah]

From what I've seen/read, it's sort of an open question as to whether the 911 should/could have dispatched someone in time to have made much of a difference. (I don't know enough about the tech and dispatch issues to offer much insight there.)

 

What is beyond dispute, however, is that the handling of this has been an absolute PR debacle for Dane County and the city. The call itself was only disclosed after The Isthmus broke the story, and, even then, the county official involved in overseeing 911 operations seemed offended that anyone would have the audacity to question how the call had been handled. What's more, when asked if the dispatcher in question had returned to his/her regular duties, he said yes -- when it turns out, in fact, that this person had been reassigned. Basically, he seems to be stonewalling.

 

What makes this even worse is that we have had at least three notable unsolved murders over the past year. I think it's mainly just bad luck, but the police just don't seem to be making much progress on any of them.

[RockCoCougars]

Not sure if the MPD is to blame, but it seems that there is a ton more violent "stranger on stranger" crime in Madison these days. Muggings, carjackings, murders, etc. There are also lots of "bad areas" in town now. Not even twenty years ago, that wasn't the case. Madison is quickly becoming Rockford with two lakes and a capital building.

[PeaveyFury]

Since they violated protocol, it's almost certain the family will sue.

 

Yep:

 

http://www.channel3000.com/news/16601400/detail.html

[DuWayne Steurer]

Not sure if the MPD is to blame, but it seems that there is a ton more violent "stranger on stranger" crime in Madison these days. Muggings, carjackings, murders, etc. There are also lots of "bad areas" in town now. Not even twenty years ago, that wasn't the case. Madison is quickly becoming Rockford with two lakes and a capital building.

Rockford has cleaned up quite a bit. Still have some serious issues, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be.

 

[dadofandrew]

Madison has always been known to be a bit lax on minor offenses. It is not a shock to see crime increasing in an area policed as such.

 

Very sad to see the lawsuit, but it is par for the course.

[homer]

Actually Madison has cracked down on a lot of minor offenses in the last 10 - 15 years.

 

I think it's just growing pains. The population has really increased in Dane County.

[lcbj68c]

Updating; The family of the Madison girl is dropping their federal lawsuit against the dispatcher, Madison PD, and the City of Madison, WI. Presumably at the recommedation of their lawyer.

 

Link: http://www.wsaw.com/brittanyzimmermann/headlines/26005264.html

 

The court documents are also available at the top of the linked page.

[PeaveyFury]

How's this going to help.

 

Just FYI, blue = sarcasm here on the board.

[orca1963]

I can only speak from personal observation, day in and day out for the past six years. While the examples you sighted above are correct, the notion that the technology can pinpoint the house number or building number occurred in 4 of 519 911 hangup calls that I responded to. Yes, I researched them all. Often times, the computers and GPS "think" they have an address narrowed down as 123 Flickaflacka Lane, only to respond and find out that there is a 121 Flickaflacka Lane and a 125 Flickaflacka lane. Now what? Go pounding on all the doors of the neighborhood? No, that doesn't happen. Again, the Madison Police Department's policy was to NOT SEND a police officer to a 911 hangup call from a cell phone unless it could be absolutely verified that an emergency was occurring. Even further, we don't know the exact detail of coordinates given, and as detailed above, near 95% of the time, it can not even be wittled down to within a 4 block radius, a true needle in a haystack.

 

Emergency services call takers and dispatchers are required to make critical judgments under very tight timelines for the purpose of quickly determining whether a particular situation requires a response and if so, the nature and the necessary personnel and equipment. The commitment of emergency services resources in situations that do not warrant them can diminish the availability of these resources for other emergency needs. It seems the dispatcher WAS PRUDENT in utilizing her professional judgment and training in an effort to ascertain what would be an appropriate response. In that response, she had to answer other 911 calls and placed the task in a queue, in a prudent manner to call back at a later time when available to do so. Whether a computer system error deleted the task from a queue, she never got around to it, shift change, or a variety of reasons why a call back was never attempted has yet to be determined. However, I can say with a great deal of certainty that a lawsuit will not be successful and will be quite frivilous.

As someone who works in the emergency field I agree with you for the most point. However, as you probably know, many people in this field get complacent, burned out and many times the "cowboy factor" takes over. This person should be evaluted completly to see if she falls in any one of these categories. Just because many calls are bogus you cannot assume any call is. Working in any branch of emergency means a dedication that does not allow for complacency. (sp?). When you reach the point of bitterness, or "it's probably not a real emergency anyway", you need to move on. I don't believe that is what happened here, but do believe that it should be fully investigated regardless.

[orca1963]

 

http://media.movieweb.com/news/03.2006/louieB.jpg

 

These are the only two people in the world with the ability to do this, and one of them is dead.

 

Forgive my ignorance...who are these people?

[lcbj68c]

I think it is the counterintelligence people on the show "24'

[lcbj68c]

Also, I think a full investigation was done 3 months ago when the this issue cropped up. The family sued, but I wanted to point out in the update that they have since dropped their lawsuit. I can only presume that their lawyers were unable to make any headway in attempting to prove negligence. It was dropped against all three entities as well, inlcuding the dispatcher, the police department, and the City of Madison. Given the recent events with my Dad, I know that I wouldn't just drop the suit just to drop it and not deal with it anymore and presumably this family wouldn't either. I can only therefore assume, as I've stated in previous posts that the lawsuit was very unlikely to be successful and their lawyers finally realized it or were finally able to convince the parents of such.

[brewcrew00]

I wonder this every time I read the thread title, is "Madison Police Messes Up Again" proper? I would think it's "Madison Police Mess Up Again" Sorry, it just looks wrong every time I see it.

[TooLiveBrew]

You are correct brewcrew00.

[ccbrew]

I think it is the counterintelligence people on the show "24'

Correct. The woman on the left can pinpoint the exact location of any cell phone in the greater LA area..somehow. The man on the right died tragically/unintentionally comically in a toxic gas attack.

 

[PeaveyFury]

Updating with the breaking news of a new lawsuit against the County, again not particularly surprising considering the reported content of the 911 call:

 

http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/latest/432509

[RU Rah Rah]

Sooner or later, the audio of that 911 call is going to be released. The WSJ reported last month: "The sounds recorded from the minute-long call were described as a scream and the sounds of struggle, according to sworn statements from Madison police included in a search warrant that had been sealed for several months but unintentionally released on Dec. 3."