Mother called police immediately

That's horrible that it wasn't reported immediately to a policeman. Did that happen here in the Shoals area?

I am so happy the young girl is ok. Thank God for the ones that help teach our children how to react in these situations.

Did that happen here in the Shoals area?

Tac, I believe this happened in Sheffield. There was a small article in the TD about the incident, maybe a couple of days ago.

What city did this happen in and what school was it close too?

I hope the mother follows up to see why the dispatcher didn't report the incident to the officers.

Not good..Scary..

It happened on 18th street in Sheffield.

OK, let me stress a point here that I learned the hard way.

If you are ever in trouble and need help -- dial 911. If you are ever a witness to something - a crime or otherwise -- dial 911 DO NOT EVER CALL THE POLICE DEPARTMENT DIRECT LINE.

I know there are recorders in the Laud 911 control room and I think there are in the Colbert 911 control room -- meaning, not only do they record the call taht you make -- both sides of the conversation, but they also record the conversations that go on in the room between the dispatchers. Like, "oh that is probably just a ticked off moma trying to get her baby daddy in trouble."

I had a scary situation one night with a man on my doorstep -- I've told teh story before -- Stupid me, called the direct to the PD because I wasn't hurt and there was no need for the Fire Dept to be called so I avoided dialing 911. NO ONE EVER CAME TO CHECK ON ME. No cop car ever patrolled my neighborhood and No one followed up with me to make sure I was ok or to get my statement of what was going on. I was very unnerved and upset by this, so I called a friend at the FPD the next day and emailed him a full report -- they followed up and there is documentation of my phone call/report but there is nothing else. The dispatcher said they were patrolling my area, but there is no documentation where he sent word to the officers on shift.


If she dialed the PD at Sheffield there may not be a lot of documetnation -- I'm not sure, but I have a friend that I will check with and see what he tells me.

If she dialed 911 and got no response --
I would be following up with the Colbert County EMA Director Mike Melton to get an investigation (personnel not criminal mind you) as to when that call was made, if she talked to a male or female, what their exact response to her report was and get them to pull the tapes of that call and then I would file a complaint with them. I know that Mr. Melton runs a pretty good crew over there in Colbert County. He will be more than happy to hear her side of the story and make sure that his crew are doing their jobs appropriately.

All calls to the Colbert 911 system are recorded. HOWEVER, ALL LAW ENFORCEMENT CALLS ARE TRANSFERRED TO THE APPROPRIATE LAW AGENCY. Meaning that when the call is answered by the Law enforcement agency the call is disconnected by the 911 center. 911 logs would show that a call was placed, complaint was heard by the dispatcher, and transferred to police to be handled.

I live just a few streets over from there. Could someone post the artcile link?

quote:

Originally posted by Georg55crs:
I want to give clarification to the crime news this week. A stranger -- an older man in a LaSabre Car... tried to get a young girl playing basketball in her own drive to get into his car. The siblings all were taught what to do in this scenerio and acted quickly and appropriately. The mother proceded to call the police. It was their dispatcher that did not follow up and take the report and follow it onto the officer. This happened fairly near our school system.... The mother also notified all of them of the iccident. The police officer got the information from someone in the community and notified the mother that the report had not been made. I feel sure that the dispatcher has a reprimend in their employment record by now... or will be soon. This iccident happened early afternoon, daylight, with other people around. The adult that saw it at first thought it was someone that knew the family the way he pulled up so close to talk. When the children reacted appropriately and the driver quickly took off the witnessing adult had a good description to add to the report.

Thank you Mother,
Thank you teachers,
Thank you for teaching how to act and react.
The good wins out again.

If you know of this person.. please report. Our children are precious and do not need to be a victim of some sick old man.

OK - so what exactly was clarified in this post?

We don't know the neighborhood.
We don't know when it happend (other than general time of day).
We don't know the police department that (supposedly) didn't respond.
We don't know the "school system" that the incident took place in.

I'm not saying this event didn't happen. But it sounds too much like many "generic" alarms that get perpetrated on the internet.

Yes Purplehaze you are correct that the call is transferred, but there is documentation of the call and even the "conversation" the dispatcher had with the PD. The Dispatcher is not a receptionist that transfers a call with a push of a button -- they tell the PD or whoever what they have on the line so they will know where the call needs to go too.

I remember several years ago that 911 took a call and when they went to transfer it to the Sheriff's ofc -- the dispatcher for the SHeriff told the 911 dispatcher that they didn't handle those calls and to transfer it to someone else. SHe didn't tell her who to transfer it too, but that the Sheriff dept didn't handle that. I don't think dispatcher is there.

If the lady in SHeffield called a direct line to the PD -- there is no recording of the complaint only the proof that she made a phone call. If she told the "dispatcher" a description of the car and everything then she probably had to tell her story several times if she dialed 911, but if she called the PD -- then that is an issue to take up with the PD.

quote:

Originally posted by jagorham:

quote:

Originally posted by Georg55crs:
I want to give clarification to the crime news this week. A stranger -- an older man in a LaSabre Car... tried to get a young girl playing basketball in her own drive to get into his car. The siblings all were taught what to do in this scenerio and acted quickly and appropriately. The mother proceded to call the police. It was their dispatcher that did not follow up and take the report and follow it onto the officer. This happened fairly near our school system.... The mother also notified all of them of the iccident. The police officer got the information from someone in the community and notified the mother that the report had not been made. I feel sure that the dispatcher has a reprimend in their employment record by now... or will be soon. This iccident happened early afternoon, daylight, with other people around. The adult that saw it at first thought it was someone that knew the family the way he pulled up so close to talk. When the children reacted appropriately and the driver quickly took off the witnessing adult had a good description to add to the report.

Thank you Mother,
Thank you teachers,
Thank you for teaching how to act and react.
The good wins out again.

If you know of this person.. please report. Our children are precious and do not need to be a victim of some sick old man.

OK - so what exactly was clarified in this post?

We don't know the neighborhood.
We don't know when it happend (other than general time of day).
We don't know the police department that (supposedly) didn't respond.
We don't know the "school system" that the incident took place in.

I'm not saying this event didn't happen. But it sounds too much like many "generic" alarms that get perpetrated on the internet.

IT WAS IN THE PAPER, complete with a description of the car and what the man did.

I am not going to search for it, but it was there, I read it for myself.

Anyone know if this person has been caught yet?

You mean this link, Kindred?

http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20080202/NEWS/447824758/1013/NEWS03

And I hope they do catch this person. And I'm glad the kids had the good sense to haul it when approached.

In the time it takes the '911 dispatcher' to relay the information to the appropriate agency, and THEN for the complaintant to REtell the 'story', valuable time is lost. In a 'perfect world', 911 would give the call out DIRECTLY TO the appropriate OFFICER to respond.

In a "perfect world" one center would handle ALL emergency calls slimming the chance that calls would slip through the cracks and not be handled. Insuring that ALL calls would be recorded and not cut off when they are transferred.

And sorry, the communication that occurs with a center and a police agency, in many cases, leaves a lot to be desired. Police DO NOT want 911 involvement. They seem to think that 911 is interferring with their territory.

At least that's my opinion and in this case, I do know what I'm talking about.

Hey, I agree that this wasn't handled properly, but there is a bright side believe it or not...at least you can still reach a human being fairly quickly by calling "911" there in the Shoals. The last time we dialed "911" here in L.A., we were on hold for over 15 minutes (listening to a recording in English and Spanish ) and then got told that there were no officers available to respond for at least an hour. Thank goodness it wasn't a life or death struggle like someone trying a home invasion or a drive by shooting, we just had drunken and rowdy trespassers at 2:00am that we wanted gone without an incident. As it was, my husband went out and put himself in possible jeopardy to ask them to leave. Thank goodness they did so without any trouble.

I agree that one center should handle all of the 911 calls for an area. When you get a call and the dispatchers are in the same room to know what is going on and then dealing with an officer or Fire Dept one on one would get great service to the community. You don't have to "be a cop" to be a good dispatcher for the PD either -- it takes working together and learning from each other.

In today's world, there is NO REASON for each individual agency to have its own dispatcher. Most MODERN 911 centers are set up to dispatch calls DIRECTLY TO the appropriate agency/officer. NW Alabama is sadly 'out-of-date'.

If I am not mistaken, in Lauderdale County 911 dispatches for all for municipality officers, the Fire Dept, the Ambulance service, all of the volunteer fire departments/rescue squads and I think they have the County Sheriff Dept now too...but I may be wrong about the LCSD. THe only department they don't dispatch for is Florence Police. I don't see the CHief letting that money go out of his budge though so he'll fight til the end on being the holdout.

Guys, come on now.

Ya'll are destroying a fairly good thread with your animosity towards one another. Please take it to Pm's or ignore each other.

Being part of the problem, makes it blow out of proportion even worse.

This thread is a good thread, and one that should be left up.

~Amanda

I agree with Amanda. Please let it go!

Ok Manda....Sorry Hon....I guess I am in defence mode right now...I know these post are uncalled for...I agree....My problem is...I am not perfect enough for others...So...with that said....You asked me to stop...and I said earlier I would and I didnt...Sorry to almost everyone about that...but since Manda has asked,,,Yall have fun......The Roofer...

Amanda, PM coming at cha!

Manda, I like you - you are a sweetheart.

Roofer, you couldn't be more wrong about me (the Govt check thing did make me chuckle though).

I just hope one day you will see why you were wrong and admit it.

I will stop for now.

quote:

Originally posted by DixieChik:
If I am not mistaken, in Lauderdale County 911 dispatches for all for municipality officers, the Fire Dept, the Ambulance service, all of the volunteer fire departments/rescue squads and I think they have the County Sheriff Dept now too...but I may be wrong about the LCSD. THe only department they don't dispatch for is Florence Police. I don't see the CHief letting that money go out of his budge though so he'll fight til the end on being the holdout.

Lauderdale SO has its own dispatcher.

Thanks for the correction on the LCSD dispatcher DogSoldier -- I knew they were considering moving it a few years ago and I thought they probably had by now. Is it a bad thing?

I know the municipalities were adjusting to the change, but I think with time it will be a good change.

A 'bad thing'? Consider this: When I was a cop in TN, our 911 center had 2-3 dispatchers working 24/7....and we were a SMALL county of less than 10,000 people. When a 911 call came in, 2 dispatchers ALWAYS picked up....one to field the call, the other to assist/listen, etc. One of the dispatchers was DEDICATED to the local police, one to the Sheriff's Office and one to the Fire Department/EMTs or THP, etc. Upon gathering the info, the dispatcher fielding the call CONTACTS AN OFFICER DIRECTLY and assigns the call.

In Sheffield/Colbert County, when one calls 911, the 911 operator asks what the emergency is, THEN REroutes the call to the agency having jurisdiction over the call, where the caller THEN has to REgive the info. IMO, valuable time is wasted.

quote:

Originally posted by DixieChik:
Thanks for the correction on the LCSD dispatcher DogSoldier -- I knew they were considering moving it a few years ago and I thought they probably had by now. Is it a bad thing?

I know the municipalities were adjusting to the change, but I think with time it will be a good change.

I have a VERY good friend who is a dispatcher for 911 in Lauderdale, I will ask if this is the case. I know they stay really busy most of the time.

LCSO dispatch is on the 2nd floor of the Lauderdale County courthouse with the Sheriff's Office. Lauderdale 911 REroutes county emergency calls to to LCSO dispatch. Then the LCSO dispatcher assigns the call to an available officer.

I agree with you Dogsoldier -- I believe it should be a single 911 center with dedicated dispatchers in one center to be able to field and handle the calls -- I think it would be best for the entire community, but there is obviously some resistance on the part of the Chief and possibly the Sheriff to get that accomplished. The EMA director is actually a former LEO for Florence so he knows some about the way the PD handles calls. It is definitely a start in the right direction that they are handling all other calls though so that when that change does happen -- they will be well prepared. I think it will be in the future, but how long it will take time will tell.

I was asking if you knew of any "bad" now with the LCSD dispatchers -- other than that it is a call transferred to them that wastes precious time?

I have ZERO complaints aginst LCSO dispatchers. However.....

When YOU are the one on the reporting end of a 911 call, TIME is something you cannot afford to waste through passing the call along, which is EXACTLY how the current system is set up to 'work'. It's antiquated and should be updated.

I absolutely agree.

There are federal grant monies available to do such upgrades. It makes one wonder why it hasn't been done. If 'PoDunk, TN' can have a modern 911 call center with agency-dedicated dispatchers, why not Florence?