My mother worked as a 911 operator in NYC for 20 years. That job is very stressful. We haven't discussed this case yet, but I'm sure she has a whole lot to say about it and the operator in question.
I'm so glad that the city implemented 311.

:( for the little boy and his family.

What happens if the 911 dispatcher sent out a police car to what turned out to be a prank and someone else who needed the help couldn't get it because the cops took to long to arrive?

-Rudey

Pranks are a problem. People calling 911 with non-emergency situations are a problem. Thinking a child is pulling a prank after he calls TWICE is a BIG problem.

Whether or not the city can be held legally responsible, something needs to be done. That woman should be out of a job and should be made to publically apologize to that child and the family. I don't know how she can sleep at night, the "what if's" should be keeping her awake.

Seriously. If a little kid calls and sounds as frustrated as he did, wouldn't a bell go off in your head??? I know that they get alot of prank calls, but when he called BACK?! I seriously hope they fire her!

We've had both good and bad experiences with 911. When my daddy had an abdomenal anuerysm (we didn't know at the time), he just stood up and said, "I'm having the worst pain of my life!" then collapsed. My mother started called 911, and the operator was slow as molasses, so after giving her their address, she hung up to give my daddy CPR. The operator called back to say, "Don't you EVER hang up on us!" to which my mother responded, "I'm giving him CPR - send an ambulance!" and hung up again. As it was, my daddy had close to 90# on my mother, so she was trying to get him on the bed, too.

When my mother had her first heart attack, I called 911, and they were there in a flash. I told the paramedics what her symptoms were, and that she usually went to a hospital across town. They were calmly getting her ready for the ambulance, and said to me, "Can you still get in touch with your brother?" I said yes, and they said, "Tell him we're going to St. Clair. We don't have the time to go to UPMC," still calmly. I was so impressed by their professionalism, I wrote a letter of commendation to them afterwards. She was technically DOA, but because of their speed and wisdom, my mother is still with us (another heart attack and 4 surgeries later!).

What totally ticked me off was the amount of people who did NOT pull over, even with the ambulance's loud speaker and a police escort!

I noticed that here in Charlotte, people tend to keep driving and pretend they don't see the emergency vehicles, and when you pull in front of them, or in their way to get out of the way of an emergency vehicle, they flip you off or honk!

In my hometown, Peoria, IL, you better get out of the way of that emergency vehicle, because it's coming through that red light, whether you stop or not.

The one bright spot of that day was that, since we had a police escort, three of the drivers who DIDN'T pull over were pulled over by the police! That's three drivers who learned an expensive lesson!

They should fine people who do 911 pranks...kinda like people whose burgler alarms give false alarms on a repeated basis.
I don't care if someone is 6 years old. A fine is in order.

I agree with you. Fine pranksters...I mean really its not like they don't have their name and address of where they can send the bill, especially given the options...

1. Send EMS to a call: it's a prank and someone else (who needed the service) dies.

2. Do not send EMA to a call: it wasn't a prank and someone dies.

They should send EMS and if it's a prank, fine them the $200 (on average) it would have cost to ride in it from the house to the hospital. Ok, maybe $100...but I would fine them.

In my city, you are only allowed one "grace" false burglar alarm....after that, its about $75 a pop. It doesn't matter if it was caused by Fluffy the family cat or something else.

Its more than that to send an ambulance to your house.

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.