Be prepared for a rant.
Seriously, how can we wait? Right now there are two bills being proposed up in Tallahassee both requiring some sort of mandatory 9-1-1 dispatcher/call taker training. Both bills are flawed.
Both bills expect us to wait until 2012 before persons need to be certified. The bill headed to the house states that police and sheriff departments can submit to the Department of Health their training standards before 2012 and have them approved. This essentially means that the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office can submit for approval their training program and may not have to change their "business as usual".
Either way 2012 is way too far away.
Someone asked me just this morning (and it's what got me fired up even more than usual, I'm always fired up over this but still....) "Can we find out how many people die due to 9-1-1 mistakes?"
NO! There's no possible way to find this out without someone (preferably a regular citizen) overseeing the 9-1-1 community in Florida. How many people have died in Florida due to 9-1-1 mistakes? We have no idea.
We would never have known about Denise's mishandled 9-1-1 call if it hadn't been for Jane Kowalski. See bottom paragraph of this post http://toosad4words.blogspot.com/2009/01/denise-amber-leetop-ten-reasons-i.html
Jane, God bless her, hounded the NPPD until they figured out who she was. Once they figured it all out they had to REQUEST the information on her call from the CCSO. Why? Because they knew they not only mishandled the call and didn't dispatch a car but they weren't monitoring their Teletype and several BOLO's issued by the NPPD were ignored describing the suspect and his car. They were covering it up.
Their side of the story is one person thought the other person called the NPPD while the other person said the other one did. Yeah. Just like the one dispatcher said she thought the other dispatcher dispatched a car and the other dispatcher thought.....................
WE WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN.
Who's overseeing the 9-1-1 community in Florida?
Yep. 9-1-1 industry people.
As Nathan said in his speech YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?????
PEOPLE ARE DYING. And it's not just because of human errors. It's because we have a system where all the counties, townships etc... have different protocols and procedures.
We're not using technologies that are available to us. More and more people are using cell phones to report emergencies and we can't find them!!! The two most glaring examples are of course, Denise and Olidia Kerr Day. But how many others aren't being found? How about those football players lost in that boating accident? And how about the errors being made in these 9-1-1 centers? Olidia asked the dispatcher to have police waiting for her outside the station! Our call taker had a CAD and didn't use it! Or at least didn't use it properly because she wrote things down on a piece of paper! And then handed the piece of paper to a dispatcher! Huh? Florida's 9-1-1 "system", if you will, is flawed! Big time.
And more people are going to die. Some we'll hear about and others will be swept under the rug.
When is Governor Charlie Crist going to step up and say "This is wrong. We need to have someone OUTSIDE OF THE 9-1-1 INDUSTRY looking into these tragedies. And then 9-1-1 industry experts from many companies (not just one) looking into the problems, then suggesting and providing solutions! Our citizens are dying and we can do better!"
Having 9-1-1 industry peeps watchdogging their own industry is like having the fox watch over the henhouse.
I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to North Port City Commissioner David Garofalo, Senator Nancy Detert, Representatives Paige Kreegel and Ken Roberson for their hard work, dedication, diligence and compassion for our cause. You are our heroes and I'm in tears just thinking about all you are doing for us. You all have been simply wonderful.
But it is my opinion that we can do better. WE HAVE TO DO BETTER.
And to those lobbyists and companies with agendas to make more money and garner more control, I say........ shame on you. People are dying.
