Could be depending on where you live. When I worked in healthcare, it cost us (the hospital) about $200 to send an ambulance to a home. But that doesn't include the cost of rescue unit that would respond as well - yet another bill :(

Why on earth would someone prank call 911? That's just nuts. I mean I could see a little kid accidentally dialing the number, but aside from that, I couldn't imagine anyone intentionally pranking 911.

They should make a call to 911 a $1. That's it.

I guarantee pranks will drop.

Everyone can afford $1 in an emergency.

-Rudey

That is the exact reason, there are to many comedians out there trying to be funny!:mad:

Also, 911 is always publicized to call. Prank or not, a call should be treated as a true event. The 911 Operator does not know for sure, no one does.

I call 911 to report something but I try to be quick and detailed as I can. I was trained that way while most people are not.

They need to publicize the Local Police and Fire numbers better.!

Hell, Kansas City has changed their #s 3 times in 10 Years and try to find it in the phone book!:mad:

It would make it less likely that a witness to (for example) a serious car wreck to call when the drivers and passengers in the affected vehicles might be incapacitated.

I'd think about spending the $1.00 if I figured that the scene was so bad that someone else had likely already made that call.

That's messed up s***!

The dispatcher should be fired. I also smell a lawsuit.

My house was robbed one evening and we called 911 to get the police house. 911 was busy so my mother told my father to hang up. When he did, they called back immediately.

I can sort of see why this operator thought the 1st call was a prank, but after the second call you'd think she might take it a little more seriously.

:( She should have taken that call seriously-most Teachers, Parents etc. teach children the importance of making emergency calls and or pulling fire alarms. I put the fear of God in my students about both-there are serious penalties to be paid if one is caught "playing around"

Chicago allows for only one false alarm call. After that the first offense is $500. Each repeat call is $1000. Each false alarm costs the city on the average $4000.

$500 ! :eek:

The one in Colorado.

Both my mother's house and my house have security systems - mine is a little more "touchy". If the alarm goes off, and no one responds to the service, the police are sent out and it costs my mother $100 per call, while I pay $150 per call. We get one grace call per month.

On the other hand, the houses where I live have an automatic light switch that causes your carriage/porch lights to blink, so the ambulance doesn't lose time searching for an address. That's just built into all of the houses - and wonderful! I wish my mother had that, but then again, my daddy had been on boro council for years, so they all know exactly where we are/she is.

With regular home owners paying that much, I think that prank callers should realize that 1) there is no such thing as a private call to an emergency service from any phone, and 2) I think the punishment should be Community Service, plus a fine. If they even had to ride in an ambulance one night while someone's life is in danger, I have to believe that only the sickest puppies would not see the errors of their ways.

Unfortunately, that's not at all uncommon -- at least it's not uncommon for a response to take a lot longer.

And now there are two ...
 

From www.clickondetroit.com today:

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- A Detroit woman whose 911 call was revealed during a news conference for another 911 caller, who also did not receive a response from authorities, spoke about her experience at a news conference announcing a $25 million lawsuit Tuesday.

"I just put it in God's hands," said Lorraine Hayes (pictured), who was left paralyzed following a shooting on Jan. 12, 2005.

Her attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, said the woman repeatedly called 911 to report that she was shot in her head and back by her boyfriend, and the operator refused to send help

Note to self: Don't move to the City of Detroit!

Yeah, no kidding. I've only had to call 911 once in Detroit and I couldn't even get through. After I had tried for about three minutes I just quit trying to call.

I wonder if it was the same operator who answered the little boy's call.

Naw, a lot of times you call 911 you just get a busy signal.

I PMed you.

The attorney for both "victims" said the voices sound similar, although the second lady talked to more than one operator.

And yeah, they have cut fire and police services in the City of Detroit due to financial problems. All the auto company layoffs aren't going to help the financial problems any either. I'm glad I don't live in the city proper and I work for a health care system, so if something happened while I was at work, there wouldn't be a need for 911...

Have you ever seen robocop?

While I say we lived in "Detroit," it was really a very small suburb called Berkley.

One night while I was at work, Mrs. DA could see some flames at the bottom of the water heater where a door had come off.

She called 911 for some advice on whether it was dangerous, and almost before she was off the phone the entire Fire Department and two Cop cars were out in front.

Of course the City Hall/Fire Department was only two or three blocks away.

Man, y'all get off Detroit. :( We all know it's the future of most of the frostbelt cities...

Seriously though. We all know what needs to be done--it's more of a matter of how that can get accomplished that is the issue(without the money or proper infrastructure in place (i.e. mandates, taxing, etc)).

Also, while I don't want Fieger to get rich off of this one, I hope this calls a lot of attention (*ahem* Granholm) to the city's dire straits.

enigma_AKA

Did they have kosher slurpees at 7-11 when you lived there?

Hey, I've always said I enjoyed living and working in Detroit when we were there.

It was a good news town back then, and I really liked the folks I worked with -- a few of whom are still on the air there.

I don't think I've ever had a slurpee in my life -- let alone a kosher one!

Poor family. :(

Boy's ignored 911 call leads to charges
 

DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- Two 911 dispatchers who authorities say wrongly assumed it was a prank when a 5-year-old boy called to report that his mother had collapsed have been charged with neglect of duty.

By the time an officer arrived, the boy's 46-year-old mother was dead.

"I understand they get quite a few crank calls, but you have to take it seriously when someone calls 911," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Wednesday in announcing charges against Sharon Nichols, 43, and Terri Sutton, 47.

They could get a year in jail if convicted of the misdemeanor.

Worthy said the mother, Sherrill Turner, might be alive today had the dispatchers done their jobs correctly.

The president of the dispatchers' union did not immediately return a call for comment.

Click here for the article.

I'm glad they are not getting away with this.

I called 911 once because I thought someone was in my house (I lived alone) and I was put on hold. I was like "okay, god forbid I'm dying". I was just absolutely shocked.

I think it would be great if Phoenix had a 311. I've had to call 911 so many times for traffic lights being out (which is annoying but I don't know what other number to call and let's face it people can't handle traffic lights being out, which in turn could cause a fatal accident).

I'm glad the family filed a lawsuit.

Not having read all five pages, is the women still working there? I don't care how long she's been employed with 911, you don't do shit like that. I hate to say this, but I hope she is the main plaintiff being sued along with the PD who hired her in the first place. That mother might still be alive if that woman had just done her damn job.

911 was devised for EMERGENCY calls only.

A lot of calls today aren't true emergencies, and a lot of them are fake. In many cities, the system is completely overwhelmed with little or no funds to expand and fix it. I'll bet that this kind of operator decision happens fairly often, but fortunately without the terrible consequences.

The situation here is tragic, but I can understand how it happened.

Whether the operators here should be fired and/or face other punishment is the decision of their superiors. Hopefully, they have a better understanding of the situation than we do.

My mom is a 911 dispatch supervisor here in San Diego and they were all SHOCKED at what happened. She told me that they dispatch police officers to all 911 calls except sudden hangups (so if you ever call 911, at least say "help!").

However we also have major call-answering time problems in San Diego, which is due to short staffing. My mom has been working sooo much overtime because of it..

When you wonder why something like this could happen, consider this:

"ALOHA, Ore. (July 14) - A woman who called 911 to get "the cutest cop I've seen" sent back to her home got a date all right - a court date.

The same sheriff's deputy arrested her on charges of misuse of the emergency dispatch system."