Reasons (stupid) People Call 911

The next time you see on the news that a 911 dispatcher has told someone to go eff themselves, you should understand why people call the police in the first place:

This morning, just over an hour ago, we had a mother call for an officer to come wake their kid up for school. Wow! This isn't the first time we've dealt with this family. They called for the same thing a couple weeks ago.

And just a couple days ago, they were arguing with their 12 yo bipolar son and he broke some stuff in the house. "He's 5'4" and 125 bls!" screamed the grandmother into my ear. "Do you know how much damage a kid that size can do?"

I'm thinking not much. But then again, I'm reacting from the point of view of someone who had great parents who taught me to respect them, and our house, when I was much much younger and as a result, didn't have to deal with a pre-teen that was "out of control."

Now, I know that people with bipolar disorder are prone to rage, and they can be difficult, but the parents do have to take some responsibility. At some point, they have to be the ones to make sure their kids with mental disorders are compliant with medications and don't have the opportunity to slip into the clycles of mania and depression, and all the rage that goes with it.

So we sent an officer. An officer that's responded to wake the kid up before which we saw as a precedent. We probably should have an intervention to tell the officer she's enabling this family. But what can you do? I guess we'll threaten to send her out to talk to kids who won't clean up their room or who don't eat all their vegetables.

I sent a private message to the officer that said we could ask the mother if she wanted us to stand by to make her kid eat breakfast as well, maybe dress him, wipe his ass when he poops, etc.

The worst part of this whole thing is that the mother and stepdad are bastards, and dote on the two kids they've had together while the 12yo from the previous marriage gets pushed aside. Even a normal teen would act out in this situation--let alone one with bipolar disorder. The stepdad has even been sighted for child abuse!

Unfortunately, when the mom called today, she did call on a non-emergency number so we couldn't even ask the officer to ticket her for misuse of 911. But one day...one day she'll slip up and call 911 for some nannying request like this and we'll have her right where we want her.

I only hope Social Services can get involved and save this kid from his horrible parents. In my best dreams, parents like this are sterilized so they can't turn anymore innocent kids into little delinquents with their crap.

But I digress.

When you hear on the news that a 911 dispatcher has been fired for telling a caller off, realize that most of the day, we get calls like this. Remember that 85% (this stat is an average from a number of publised reports by metro 911 centers about their calls just google 911 calls) of calls into 911--a number for life and death emergencies, are not emergencies at all (have no imminent threat of harm to a person or property let alone a threat that could cause loss of life or destruction of property).

We get calls looking for phone numbers for other police departments (presumably these callers can't read a phone book or the internet, or even use their own precious iPhones to look up the right number), people who lost their ticket and want to know what day they have to go to court, people who want to know the phone numbers for certain restaurants, people who want police to come and make McDonalds construct a better burger (one caller was actually recorded using the phrase, "I want you to enforce my Value Meal") and the like.

It's only three digits so that it can be dialed quickly during an emergency, no so it's easier to remember when you're too lazy to pick up a phone book.

Week of Nov 14, 2009

So this week was a little quieter. I've started training a new dispatcher and while I will be training during the call taking phase of training, the first two weeks of our San Jose model training program is called Academy Week and we use it to familiarize trainees with the department and the city as well as geography etc.

Because of this, I haven't spent much time on the phones this week. So the calls I have to choose from are limited. There was, however, one...

me: 911 what is your emergency?

caller: there's a guy in a van that's been following me everywhere.

me: where are you now?

caller: we're headed back to my girlfriend's house from starbucks.

me: where is your girlfriend's house?

caller: [gives address] but this van started following us when we left.

me: can you describe the van to me?

caller: yeah it's white big van, with pin striping on it.

me: so you first saw him just a couple blocks from your gf's house and then what?

caller: well we went to starbucks and then, when we got back on 64th and started back, he was there again.

me: is he gesturing at you or anything?

caller: no but he's been following us the whole time.

I wasn't really sure what kind of call this was going to be. We get lots of "road rage" incidents that start off like this where someone accidentally or intentionally cuts off another driver in traffic and the offended party is incensed. We call them traffic altercations and they can escalate quickly to more serious incidents like felony menacing (if one or more parties pulls out a knife or weapon and points it at the other party).
There were some things, though, that made it not seem like the run o' the mill traffic altercations: the driver of the van was not yelling or even glaring at the caller--and the caller stopped at a business (this particular starbucks does not have a drive-thru) and the driver of the van didn't follow him into the parking lot or try to approach him once he and his gf got out of the car.
I knew, from having lived in the area myself, that the shopping center with the starbucks held a grocery store, and a number of other businesses and just across the street is a nearly identical set up with even more fast food restaurants, another grocery store, a gas station etc. It's not rare to pull out of the neighborhood or onto the major road that goes by those stores, notice another car on the road behind or in front of you, and actually be headed to the same business as that person--and time of day plays a role as well--near lunch time, there's a possibility that the person is going to pull into Chipotle, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell, etc and get food just as you were. Even if they choose a different fast foood joint, there's a good possibility you'll see them headed back to their house or place of employment on your return trip.
I was wondering if that was what was happening here. It does seem like the person might be following you, but it's really just a coincidence with the chances heightened due to patterns of behavior etc.

Me: where'd he go when you pulled into the shopping center with Starbucks?

caller: I don't know. but we started back going west on 64th, and he was somehow behind us?

me: but you didn't see him in the parking lot or anything?

caller: no. he came from somewhere else. he wasn't behind us when we pulled out. And I think he was smoking a bowl.

Someone in this call was experiencing a little paranoia--my money is on the person calling 911 claiming a guy in a van is following him.

Week of October 30th, 2009

me: 911 What is your emergency?

her: turn on Cnn right now. Angelina Jolie is on there talking all about it.

me: i actually don't have a tv here in the dispatch center. what's she talking about?

her: she's talking about a movie about to come out that's about my life.

me: what do you mean...about your life.

her: in short: I am Angelina jolie.

At this point, I knew I had a CIT call. The young woman on the other end of the line was having a break from reality, but I didn't quite know where this was going.

her: just get a cop here right now. my father is coming. he's coming to rape me and he's been doing it all my life. this time he'll probably kill me.

me: where is your father right now?

her: at the store

me: and he's on his way over there right now?

her: yes. listen just turn it to cnn and you'll find out all about it. there's a movie

me: I can't get to cnn right now, tell me what they are saying?

her: it's me, it's angelina jolie and she's talking about a movie that's based on my life. the main character is based on my life and i'm playing her.

There were a couple times in here I had to put her on hold because I couldn't figure out which direction the delusions were taking. She thought she was Angelina Jolie but at the same time she answered to her real name and gave me her real address and phone number. She believed she was Angelina Jolie on CNN talking about a movie in which the main character was raped by her father and that the character was based on her real life.

The real dialogue was much more circular than this, but up until this point, I was asking her to confirm and reconfirm her address and phone number. The purpose of this was to shift her attention away from the schzophrenic break, and calm her down by creating a rhythm of question and answer to simple questions. The rhythm itself, and I'm not sure if there's any research on this, seems to help calm people down==repeating things they know and say in a certain rhythm whenever they are asked ie address, phone numbers etc.

me: is there anyone else in the house with you?

her: no. but my father watches. he watches the house and he knows when the cops come.

me: where is he right now?

Her: I don't know. but he has an explosive temper..an explosive temper. he can be very violent. and he always watches.

me: tell me a little bit about what's been going on today. earlier you were saying there was something about a movie on cnn? when did you start watching cnn today?

her: oh man. it's on commercial now. if you'd been watching you'd know. you'd know. we are going to make cinematic history...cinematic history.

From time to time she'd repeat a phrase like that for emphasis. She sounded very intelligent. She had a strong vocabulary and she used little rhetorical strategies like repetition and even pitch changes and interesting sentence construction to emphasize her point.

The trouble was her point was so disjointed that it was frustrating her to try and get it across and it was confounding to anyone trying to draw a linear conclusion from it--other than "o what a noble mind is here o'er thrown."


her: Here's the thing the character that comes in at the end is so sublte that...well let's just say that the people who know what I'm talking about are probably laughing their heads off right now. Cinematic History.

In the end, paramedics and officers arrived and I stayed on the phone with her until she was satisfied that the people knocking on her front door were the police and not someone pretending to be the police. Not, perhaps, my best call, that one was also a CIT call a couple months back, but, still a good one.