I missed this in November 2009/Chaos Theory

but it is important and relevant to what is going on in Tallahassee. my opinion first:

my opinion: I would like to say to Rick Jones, that my family and other families who have suffered through 9-1-1 tragedies, know the cost of training. It cost my daughter-in-law her life. And you can spend all your monies on the best technologies in the world, but if you do not have people who know how to use them appropriately those technologies are worthless. My daughter in law's life was priceless.

Chaos Theory
Nov 1, 2009 12:00 PM

By Glenn Bischoff (glenn.bischoff@penton.com)

Protocols and intuitive managers are key to reducing dispatcher pressure in 911 call centers.

Nathan Lee returned to his Florida home in the middle of the afternoon on Jan. 17, 2008. When he arrived, he found his two sons — a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old — together in the younger boy's crib. His wife and the boys' mother, Denise Amber Lee, was nowhere to be found.

She was found two days later in a shallow grave after being brutally raped. In the first frenetic hours after her abduction, mistakes allegedly were made by a 911 call-taker and dispatchers that hampered the search effort. Today, her family and friends are wondering why no national training and certification program exists for 911 telecommunicators, which they believe would help professionals in the sector better keep their wits in an intrinsically high-stress environment that becomes a crucible when things hit the fan.

Not on Alert

The first 911 call on the day of Denise Lee's abduction was placed by Nathan Lee. The 911 center that took that call and two others promptly issued BOLO (“Be On the LookOut for”) signals that allegedly were missed by the 911 center in an adjacent county. At some point during the ordeal, the assailant drove through that county with Denise Lee in tow.

Later in the afternoon, a witness called 911 to report that a child in the back seat of a green Camaro was pounding on the window and screaming hysterically. The “child” was Denise Lee, according to Peggy Lee, the victim's mother in law. According to Lee's family, that call was received by the same 911 center that allegedly missed the BOLOs issued after Nathan Lee's 911 calls. Somehow, the family alleges, no BOLO ever was issued for the call from the eyewitness nor were police cruisers dispatched, even though the eyewitness provided cross streets at several junctures until the car carrying Denise Lee peeled off onto another road.

Peggy Lee today serves as the community relations director for the Denise Amber Lee Foundation, which is lobbying for training and procedural reforms in the 911 sector. She has heard the recording from the eyewitness call and said the call-taker became flustered during the nine minutes she was on the line with the eyewitness. “That call-taker didn't know what to do — you could hear the chaos,” she said.

Denise Lee's father works in that county as a police detective. He said in an interview on a network-television newsmagazine that a fellow officer told him that the officer was certain the vehicle drove “right by him” but did not pursue, because “he never received the information.”

Local media reported that the county's sheriff defended the performance of the 911 center's call-takers and dispatchers that night but acknowledged that mistakes were made. Reportedly, two dispatchers were suspended as a result of this incident.

During the ordeal, Denise Lee somehow managed to get her hands on the assailant's wireless phone without him knowing and placed her own 911 call. She cleverly gave the call-taker vital information, such as the type of car, by speaking in a way that made her assailant think she was talking to him. After seven minutes the assailant caught on and the call ended. “That call was handled superbly,” Peggy Lee said. (Since this was quoted we have come to find out that the call was not handled "superbly" but it was handled well. The call taker was new, on few short months on the job, and has since had to move out of state because Denise's call effected her so greatly.)


However, Denise Lee's location couldn't be identified by the 911 system because she used a pre-paid wireless phone to place the call.

Unanswered Questions

The television newsmagazine posed this question: Could Denise Lee have been saved if the call-taker and dispatchers had kept their cool? It's a question that haunts her family.

Consequently, the Denise Amber Lee Foundation is lobbying for the creation of a national certification program for 911 call-takers and dispatchers. “We want to ensure that no other family has to endure the pure hell our family has experienced,” said Nathan Lee during this year's National Emergency Number Association (NENA) conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

Craig Whittington, NENA's newly elected president, who spent six years on the organization's educational committee before joining its executive board in 2007, is in favor of such a program. “You have to be certified to operate a tanning booth, but for 911 — the most critical link in emergency response — there is no certification,” Whittington said.

While a good idea, a national program likely would be difficult to create and maintain, said Rick Jones, NENA's director of operations. Funding would be at the heart of that difficulty. “When you address the need for training and certification, you indeed are going to escalate their costs,” he said.

Protocols and intuitive managers are key to reducing dispatcher pressure in 911 call centers.

Jones said that 911 call centers ideally would allocate 5% of their operating budgets for training but acknowledged that such a goal would be unrealistic for many, if not most, centers in the current economic environment. “Their training has been cut, and their practice time has been reduced for various reasons, [but] basically economic,” Jones said. “That starts to have a negative effect.”


The negative effect is three-fold. Rigorous ongoing training, core-competency standards and proficiency tests would increase the likelihood that call-takers and dispatchers act properly and — perhaps more important — instinctively. This, in turn, would make them more competent and confident, leading to reduced stress. And the less stressed that call-takers and dispatchers are, the less likely they are to lose their composure and make mistakes at crucial moments.


But such training, standards and testing largely are absent in the 911 world, a fact that Gordon Graham, the keynote speaker at NENA's conference, noted. Graham, a former California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer turned litigator and educator specializing in risk management, said, “Once you are hired, you will never have to take another test if you don't want to be promoted. The public deserves better.”

Grace Under Pressure

To illustrate the point, Graham spoke of US Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who landed his airplane in New York City's Hudson River in January after several birds flew into the craft's engines, rendering them inoperable. According to Graham, Sullenberger said in an interview shortly after his heroic actions saved the lives of everyone aboard Flight 1549 that he tried, throughout his flying career, to make small deposits each day into his memory bank, knowing that one day he would “have to make a massive withdrawal.”


It was a sound strategy, Graham said, because doing so enabled Sullenberger to make instantaneous, life-and-death decisions on that fateful day. It's a lesson especially adaptable to the public-safety sector, whose personnel make such decisions on a daily basis.


“You will run into the unthinkable event someday, and you will have to make instantaneous decisions,” Graham said. “Whether you are prepared to do so is up to you.”


To prepare, Jones recommended that 911 emergency call centers at least implement protocols that every telecommunicator follows for every call the center receives. He suggested that centers adopt the protocols already established by the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Institute or PowerPhone (a provider of crisis communications training), and resist the temptation to create their own.


“That's dangerous, because a local agency doesn't have the expertise,” said Jones, who further cautioned that centers also should resist altering the national protocols, because “sometimes they over-modify them.”


Emergency call center managers also can play an important role in reducing the stress encountered by 911 call-takers and dispatchers, according to Steve Wisely, director of APCO's Communications Center and 911 services department. He said managers should be trained to have a calming effect on telecommunicators. “It's important that the supervisory leadership has training that will allow them to act in a calm manner, even when high-profile incidents are underway,” Wisely said. “The supervisors set the tone for the workers that are reporting to them.”


It's also important that supervisors recognize when a call-taker or dispatcher needs to decompress or a shoulder to lean on for a few minutes, Wisely said. “A support system needs to be in place where a person can get out of their seat and go to a quiet place to contemplate [an incident] or talk to somebody, if they're troubled by it,” he said.

This article originally appeared in Urgent Communications, a FIRE CHIEF sister publication.

http://firechief.com/training/ar/reduce-911-dispatcher-pressure-200911/index.html

NENA letter written by Craig Whittington to NBC

The letter below is from the current President of NENA to NBC in response to the Today Show airing last week. Momentum for National training and certification standards is building!!

To all NENA members and 9-1-1 professionals proudly serving in our nation's PSAP's. The follow letter was sent to NBC Last Friday...

Craig W

Craig Whittington, ENP
9-1-1 & Special Projects Coordinator
Guilford Metro 9-1-1
Greensboro, NC
NC NENA 9-1-1 Hall of Frame

President
National Emergency Number Association (NENA)

On Thursday, January 7, NBC's Today show ran a segment entitled, "911 [sic] Emergency: Are Operators Ready for Your Call?" Like anyone who saw this report, my heart goes out to Ms. Cantrell and her family. The loss of a child, especially one as young as Matthew, is every parent's worst nightmare. Mr. Rossen's report highlighted a number of the most pressing issues facing 9-1-1 today, including insufficient training requirements and standards, the
raiding of state 9-1-1 funds, and a lack of strong coordination and oversight at both the state and federal levels.

However, I regret that the story did not adequately represent the reality of 9-1-1 service in this country. Americans have come to expect a high quality of service when dialing 9-1-1, and rightly so; the public's expectations have been generated because our nation's emergency communications professionals have provided the public they serve with reliable, consistent, timely, and professional service literally billions of times since the nation's first 9-1-1 system was implemented just more than forty years ago.

Since the beginning, 9-1-1 has continuously and successfully adapted to changes in communication technologies and devices (cell phones, Voice over IP, etc.), overcoming a lack of funding, cooperative and proactive system planning and deployment, or comprehensive, nationwide standards for training of 9-1-1 telecommunicators. While the calls highlighted in the Today segment (including a Detroit call taker chastising a young boy for calling 9-1-1 and another telecommunicator falling asleep during a call) provide ample fodder for television and print stories, they are certainly the extreme exception and not the rule when it comes to everyday 9-1-1 center operations.

Additionally, no 9-1-1 call taker should ever be blamed if their local government or 9-1-1 Authority has not implemented practices designed to help telecommunicators save lives, such as Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD).

These implementations are major local policy decisions involving the 9-1-1 center, the local government, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provider, and Medical Director in order to ensure proper training, oversight, and regular audit and review. The decision to use EMD cannot be made at the discretion of the telecommunicator working in the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). Further, just "knowing CPR" as discussed in Mr. Rossen's interview with Ms. Cantrell does not sufficiently prepare a telecommunicator to provide CPR instructions over the phone. Walking a caller to 9-1-1 through a medical procedure, even one that may seem as basic as CPR, requires that an approved EMD training and certification provider certify the telecommunicator in EMD and that the 9-1-1 agency have an ongoing and approved EMD program (most often operated under strict state guidelines and inclusive of a regular Quality Assurance and Improvement process to assure compliance with the EMD program).

Nevertheless, no call for help should ever be mishandled. Any tragedy occurring because of a lack of training, supervision, or other shortfall of the 9-1-1 system is simply unacceptable. I, along with the thousands of NENA Members across North America, stand beside APCO President Mirgon, his association's membership, Congresswoman Eshoo, and the Congressional E9-1-1 Caucus in our commitment to working with all stakeholders in the emergency communications field, including decision makers at all levels of government, to ensure that our nation's 9-1-1 professionals are trained and equipped to deliver the same
high-level service to every caller - no matter where they live or travel or what device they use to contact 9-1-1. That is why NENA, in no uncertain terms, supports the development and implementation of standardized, mandatory, nationwide training requirements for every 9-1-1 telecommunicator serving in each of our nation's more than 6,000 PSAPs.

Further, in order to ensure that all Americans have access to the 9-1-1 service they expect and deserve, the patchwork technical solutions of the past will no longer suffice. Our nation's safety and security from threats both natural and manmade necessitate a new approach. As was alluded to during the Today story, most states underfund the vital system and infrastructure upgrades that are needed to ensure that 9-1-1 is able to effectively and efficiently handle all calls. The public and policy makers must be made aware of the need for an IP-based Next Generation emergency communications system that harnesses the power of broadband to ensure that all entities in the response chain can communicate and transmit voice, images, and data seamlessly.

In closing, I am sure we can agree that 9-1-1 personnel are our nation's first first responders and their training must be of the highest possible caliber. Each and every dollar spent on the training of our 9-1-1 professionals should be looked at as an investment in the quality of life for the community they serve and NOT as just another government expense. No one should ever call 9-1-1 for assistance and not get the very best trained public safety professional (with access to the best available technological resources) to answer their call for help. Lives depend on it.

I look forward to working with NBC and all other media outlets on future stories fully portraying both the successes and shortfalls of the 9-1-1 system as we work to educate and inform the public and government officials about the challenges faced by public safety professionals every day and how we can work together to solve them.

Respectfully,

Craig Whittington, ENP
NENA President

Reader's Digest November 2009

911 Calls Gone Tragically Wrong


http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/911-calls-gone-tragically-wrong/article166229.html


One afternoon in January 2008, Nathan Lee returned home from work to find his two little boys crammed into the same crib, crying. Their mother had left behind her cell phone and purse and disappeared. Within a couple of hours, police in her southwest Florida town had a pretty good idea of what had happened to Denise Amber Lee. She'd been spotted tied up with rope—had even managed to briefly call 911—while in the backseat of a car owned by a 36-year-old unemployed plumber named Michael King.

Some calls aren't taken seriously because the system is burdened with stupid calls, especially now that everyone has a cell.Around 6:30 that evening, a woman placed an urgent call to 911 reporting the precise location of King's Camaro. It had pulled up alongside her car at a traffic light, and she could see someone crying out for help and banging on the back window. (She thought it was a child.) Just a few miles away, police were desperately searching for Denise with dogs and a helicopter.

But tragically, the 911 center never passed along the motorist's report. One officer later told Denise's father he was "sure" the Camaro had driven right by him, but no one had told him to watch out for it. The next time anyone saw Denise Lee was a few days later. She was lying naked in a shallow grave; she'd been sexually assaulted and shot. "There is no doubt in my mind that if the 911 call had been handled properly, she would still be here," Nathan Lee says. "It will haunt me for the rest of my life."

If there's one thing we think we can count on, it's that a frantic call to 911 will bring a swift and effective response. Government's first priority, after all, is protecting its citizens. But a spate of recent cases reveal shocking flaws in our national emergency response system—at a cost measured in lives. It's a system overstressed by boneheaded calls about everything from hangnails to poor restaurant service, weakened by state governments raiding its funds, and hobbled by the incompetence of a few bad apples.

"You roll the dice" when making a call for emergency help, admits Ronald Bonneau, who runs a 911 center 30 miles south of Chicago. "Frankly, there are centers out there where the operators are not very well trained."

One of those inadequately trained operators was the Pittsburgh-area 911 worker who took a call from a woman last April asking police to remove her 22-year-old son from her home. When the operator asked whether the man, Richard Poplawski, had any weapons, the mother responded, "Yes, but they're all legal."

"Okay, but he's not threatening you with anything?" the operator asked.

"Look, I'm just waking up," the woman said. "I want him gone."

The operator reported the call to the police dispatcher with a note indicating that the son had "no weapons." As a result, police walked into a death trap. Poplawski, a former Marine recruit who'd been tossed out of boot camp, had donned a bulletproof vest and set up an ambush. He opened fire with an AK-47 rifle and two other guns, killing three officers and wounding a fourth.

Then there's the case of Brittany Zimmermann. In May 2008, the 21-year-old University of Wisconsin student dialed 911, then hung up without saying anything. Never mind the audible screams and sounds of struggle in the background—all caught on tape—the operator insists she heard no noise on the line. She neither informed police nor tried to call back. Later that day, Zimmermann's fiancé found her stabbed and beaten to death in her apartment. The call, police later acknowledged, "should have resulted in a Madison police officer being dispatched"—an action that might have saved the young woman's life.

Human error might also have cost the life of Darlene Dukes, an Atlanta woman who called 911 last August gasping for breath. Dukes, 39, reached a dispatcher who already had a string of mishandled calls on her record and who, according to her supervisor, had once fallen asleep so deeply at her desk that she tumbled from her chair. (She claims she fell as she leaned to pick up a paper.) That dispatcher sent paramedics to the wrong address, 28 miles from the caller's home. By the time an ambulance reached Dukes, an hour later, she was nearly dead from a blood clot in her lungs. She died soon after reaching the hospital.

At least the operator in the Dukes fiasco was finally fired (she's appealing her termination). Incredibly, most of the 911 personnel involved in the other tragedies are still on the job. One of the two operators found to have botched the Denise Lee case was suspended without pay for 60 hours; the other, for only 36. The woman who gave the "no weapons" message to Pittsburgh cops was given paid leave. The operator who failed to act on Brittany Zimmermann's call was allowed to transfer to another county position.

This lack of accountability doesn't just allow incompetent operators to remain on the job—it gives workers with bad attitudes license to abuse the people they are paid to protect. When a Nashville woman called 911 last spring because her boyfriend was threatening her with a knife, an operator was caught on tape muttering to himself after hanging up, "I don't give a s— what happens to you." The call center apparently took its time forwarding the information, and police arrived three hours later. But at least the victim in that case survived.

Last January, a 911 operator fielded a call reporting that an Orlando woman, Loyta Sloley, had been kidnapped. The operator was able to reach Sloley on her cell phone, but she wouldn't—or couldn't—tell him where she was. He then brusquely lectured her that she was "going to be in some serious trouble" and could be charged for the expense of a manhunt if she didn't cooperate. It took nearly a half hour in all for the operator to dispatch police. By the time the cops arrived, Sloley's ex-boyfriend had shot and killed her and turned the gun on himself.

Maybe the most heartbreaking case of all was the one involving five-year-old Robert Turner . He called 911 in Detroit twice when his mother collapsed. But the dispatchers thought the call was a prank.

Police arrived to find the boy's mother, 46-year-old Sherrill Turner, dead on the floor. A jury convicted the first operator of willful neglect. But she appealed her firing, and it was overruled this past summer. She is already back on the job.

Bad operators are not the only issue. It's amazing how many idiots burden the system with stupid calls, especially now that nearly everyone carries a cell phone. In February, a Boynton Beach, Florida, man called 911 because Burger King did not have lemonade. He didn't get his drink, but he did get a court summons. In 2006, an Oregon woman called to ask the police, who had responded earlier to a noise complaint at her home, to return to the house. Eventually, she admitted why: One officer was "the cutest cop I've seen in a long time." She saw him again soon enough—when he arrested her for the dumb call. A California study found that as many as 45 percent of the emergency calls placed from cell phones in the state were frivolous or prank calls.

You can imagine what that does to the 911 system. It creates delays and overworks operators. And this is happening at a time when states are cutting back in every category and, worse, have begun raiding funds intended to keep 911 centers fully staffed and well equipped. More than $200 million in fees collected from cell phone users and earmarked for upgrades to the 911 system around the country have been diverted by state governments to pay for needs outside emergency response, according to a recent Associated Press investigation. In Wisconsin, $100 million meant for 911 upgrades will be used to plug other holes in the budget. In New York, a new fee instituted to fund 911 services will pay for general budget items and new police uniforms. Emergency budgets are getting "hammered," says Craig Whittington, president of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). "It's ridiculous."

Fortunately, people determined to protect the quality of our 911 service are out there. California recently enacted legislation that will impose penalties running up to $250 per call for needless 911 calls. Groups like NENA have begun publicly rebuking politicians who attempt to divert 911 funding to other purposes.

And some of the victims of 911 failures are turning their tragedies into crusades. Among them is Michael Cantrell, whose toddler accidentally strangled in a soccer net. Cantrell's wife called 911, but the operator could not, or simply would not, tell her how to perform CPR. Together with Nathan Lee, Cantrell has launched a campaign for a minimum training standard like the one required for paramedics nationwide. At the very least, our 911 operators should be willing and able to explain lifesaving procedures, warn police about weapons at a scene, and treat any child's call seriously, unless there's good reason to think it's a prank.

Maybe it's time we declared a 911 emergency. After all, what could be more urgent than making sure our national security safety net is up to the task of saving lives?




A Cry for Help
A tragic misunderstanding may have contributed to the 2006 death of Sherrill Turner, 46, who collapsed in her Detroit home. Her five-year-old son, Robert, called 911 twice. Help never came. Excerpts from the tape:

Robert: My mom has passed out.

Dispatcher: Where's Mr. Turner at?

Robert: Right here.

Dispatcher: Let me speak to him.

Robert: She's not gonna talk.

Dispatcher: Okay, well, I'm going to send the police to your house and find out what's going on with you …

Three hours later, Robert tried again.

Robert: My mom has passed out in her room.

Dispatcher: Where's the grown-up at?

Robert: In her room.

Dispatcher: Let me speak to her before I send the police over there.

Robert: She's not gonna talk.

Dispatcher: Okay, well, you know what? Then she's gonna talk to the police because I'm sending them over there.

Robert: [Inaudible]

Dispatcher: I don't care. You shouldn't be playing on the phone. Now put her on the phone before I send the police out there … and you're going to be in trouble.

Robert's mother, who suffered from an enlarged heart, was dead by the time police arrived. The first operator appealed her termination and is back on the job answering calls.



3 Things You Can Do
DON'T BE THE PROBLEM Call 911 only in true emergencies. Remind children that the punishment for a prank 911 call is serious.

SUPPORT THE CAUSE Find out how you can help Nathan Lee fight for change—and get involved in your own state—by visiting the foundation he started in his wife's memory (www.DeniseAmberLee.org).

SPEAK UP Is your state diverting 911 funds for other purposes? Find the number for your state legislator (votesmart.org) and call to find out. Does your area have training standards for 911 operators? If it doesn't, ask local officials why.

Thank you, Mr Whittington of NENA for your support

God bless you and other 9-1-1 industry leaders and employees who are continually trying to improve their call centers. If we can help you, please, we welcome all opportunities to do what we can.

President Whittington Sets '09-'10 Objectives

Posted: Thu, 07/23/2009 - 08:18

As I begin my term as NENA President and look towards the next twelve months, I offer you four goals for our association. It is up to all of us, every member of the NENA family, to do our part in making them a reality.

•First, we must maintain NENA’s role as a 9-1-1 and public safety leader;
•Second, we must commit to growing our association;
•Third, we should raise the standards by which 9-1-1 professionals are measured by getting behind the Emergency Number Professional program;
•And, finally, we must advocate for mandatory state and national training standards for all who serve in our nation’s 6,000 plus PSAPs.

First, we must maintain NENA's role as a 9-1-1 and public safety leader.
NENA has become the premier public safety association in North America because of our active and involved membership. For me, volunteering for chapter and national committees and attending events and conferences has always filled me with a sense of purpose and prepared me to better serve the public we are sworn to protect. With that in mind, I encourage you to expand your involvement in NENA and to be a leading voice in your center and in your community. Share your experiences and knowledge with those around you. You can be the one who re-energizes your office. You can be the one who pushes for real change in the 9-1-1 system. You can be the one who becomes a leader in moving us towards a Next Generation 9-1-1(?) system. Remember, your participation is instrumental to moving NENA and public safety forward.
Second, we must commit to growing our association.
Every emergency communications professional would benefit from joining NENA. Reach out to those who have not yet made the commitment to be part of our family – one that will embrace and utilize their unique talents and viewpoints. Tell others about the benefits of NENA membership: the support system, the operations and technical standards and best practices, the educational opportunities, the unparalleled informational resources and body of knowledge. Let them know that everyone benefits when we come together to speak with a unified voice. Help them to understand the real difference they can make for 9-1-1 every day by joining our mission.
Third, we should raise the standards by which 9-1-1 professionals are measured by getting behind the Emergency Number Professional program.
The ENP designation is, without a doubt, the premier certification in our industry. Nearly two-hundred thousand people in North America and hundreds of thousands around the world serve in public safety communications. However, currently only eight hundred of these individuals are ENP certified. We need to do better. I call on each of us to make ENP certification a priority in 2009. If you are an ENP, take it upon yourself to mentor someone and help them achieve this milestone. If you are not already an ENP, I strongly urge you to begin the course of study so that you can take the test in the fall. And even if you are not yet eligible to sit for the exam, be proactive. Start participating and accumulating points so that you can become an ENP in 2011 or 2012. It is not beyond your reach!

And, finally, we must advocate for mandatory state and national training standards for all who serve in our nation’s 6,000 plus PSAPs.
Almost every state requires certification of police officers, firefighters, paramedics, barbers, and even tanning bed operators. However, sadly, many states do NOT have requirements regarding the training and certification of emergency communications personnel. It is our responsibility to ensure that any call to 9-1-1 is received with the same level of professionalism and expertise no matter where it originates. I am very proud to say that NENA stands beside organizations such as the Denise Amber Lee Foundation in advocating coast-to-coast certification, and I ask you and your organization to lend your support. Never should anyone dial 9-1-1 for assistance and not get the very best trained public safety professional to answer their call. 9-1-1 personnel are our nation’s first first responders and their training must be viewed as an investment, not an expense. Lives depend on it

These are big goals, but I truly believe that we, the members of the NENA family, have what it takes to accomplish all of them. Like you, I am dedicated to NENA’s success and to improving public safety. If what I propose sounds difficult, let me share this quote from old police Lieutenant of mine. He was a man who loved to be tough on us, not to be mean, but because he knew it would make us rise to the occasion. He said, “There is nothing you can’t do. There are just things you haven’t done yet.” Throughout my career and my service to NENA I have always tried to keep these words and their meaning in my heart.

I thank you for this opportunity to serve NENA, and I look forward to working with you this year. Let’s begin this journey together, so that next year we can look back and say that there truly was nothing we couldn’t do.


Craig Whittington, ENP
President

"Chaos Theory" from Urgent Communications

In light of DateLine airing again tonight, I thought I'd post this to update persons new to the case on what the foundation is doing and what we're fighting for. We so hope and pray such errors are minimized and that more people don't have to die needlessly. Denise's tragedy is not an isolated incident. Problems happen more than most people know. We can improve this folks! And people truly are out there trying but we need your help!

Jul 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Glenn Bischoff

Protocols and intuitive managers are key to reducing pressure in 911 centers.

Nathan Lee returned to his Florida home in the middle of the afternoon on Jan. 17, 2008. When he arrived, he found his two sons — a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old — together in the younger boy's crib. His wife and the boys' mother, Denise Amber Lee, was nowhere to be found.

She was found two days later in a shallow grave after being brutally raped. In the first frenetic hours after her abduction, mistakes allegedly were made by a 911 call-taker and dispatchers that hampered the search effort. Today, her family and friends are wondering why no national training and certification program exists for 911 telecommunicators, which they believe would help professionals in the sector better keep their wits in an intrinsically high-stress environment that becomes a crucible when things hit the fan.

The first 911 call on the day of Denise Lee's abduction was placed by Nathan Lee. The 911 center that took that call and two others promptly issued BOLO ("Be On the LookOut for") signals that allegedly were missed by the 911 center in an adjacent county. At some point during the ordeal, the assailant drove through that county with Denise Lee in tow.

Later in the afternoon, a witness called 911 to report that a child in the back seat of a green Camaro was pounding on the window and screaming hysterically. The "child" was Denise Lee, according to Peggy Lee, the victim's mother in law. According to Lee's family, that call was received by the same 911 center that allegedly missed the BOLOs issued after Nathan Lee's 911 calls. Somehow, the family alleges, no BOLO ever was issued for the call from the eyewitness nor were police cruisers dispatched, even though the eyewitness provided cross streets at several junctures until the car carrying Denise Lee peeled off onto another road.

Peggy Lee today serves as the community relations director for the Denise Amber Lee Foundation, which is lobbying for training and procedural reforms in the 911 sector. She has heard the recording from the eyewitness call and said the call-taker became flustered during the nine minutes she was on the line with the eyewitness. "That call-taker didn't know what to do — you could hear the chaos," she said.

Denise Lee's father works in that county as a police detective. He said in an interview on a network-television newsmagazine that a fellow officer told him that the officer was certain the vehicle drove "right by him" but did not pursue, because "he never received the information."

Local media reported that the county's sheriff defended the performance of the 911 center's call-takers and dispatchers that night but acknowledged that mistakes were made. Reportedly, two dispatchers were suspended as a result of this incident.

During the ordeal, Denise Lee somehow managed to get her hands on the assailant's wireless phone without him knowing and placed her own 911 call. She cleverly gave the call-taker vital information, such as the type of car, by speaking in a way that made her assailant think she was talking to him. After seven minutes the assailant caught on and the call ended. "That call was handled superbly," Peggy Lee said.

However, Denise Lee's location couldn't be identified by the 911 system because she used a pre-paid wireless phone to place the call.

The television newsmagazine posed this question: Could Denise Lee have been saved if the call-taker and dispatchers had kept their cool? It's a question that haunts her family.

Consequently, the Denise Amber Lee Foundation is lobbying for the creation of a national certification program for 911 call-takers and dispatchers. "We want to ensure that no other family has to endure the pure hell our family has experienced," said Nathan Lee during last month's National Emergency Number Association (NENA) conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

Craig Whittington, NENA's newly elected president, who spent six years on the organization's educational committee before joining its executive board in 2007, is in favor of such a program. "You have to be certified to operate a tanning booth, but for 911 — the most critical link in emergency response — there is no certification," Whittington said.

While a good idea, a national program likely would be difficult to create and maintain, said Rick Jones, NENA's director of operations. Funding would be at the heart of that difficulty. "When you address the need for training and certification, you indeed are going to escalate their costs," he said.

Jones said that 911 call centers ideally would allocate 5% of their operating budgets for training but acknowledged that such a goal would be unrealistic for many, if not most, centers in the current economic environment. "Their training has been cut, and their practice time has been reduced for various reasons, [but] basically economic," Jones said. "That starts to have a negative effect."

The negative effect is three-fold. Rigorous ongoing training, core-competency standards and proficiency tests would increase the likelihood that call-takers and dispatchers act properly and — perhaps more important — instinctively. This, in turn, would make them more competent and confident, leading to reduced stress. And the less stressed that call-takers and dispatchers are, the le
ss likely they are to lose their composure and make mistakes at crucial moments.

But such training, standards and testing largely are absent in the 911 world, a fact that Gordon Graham, the keynote speaker at NENA's conference, noted. Graham, a former California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer turned litigator and educator specializing in risk management, said, "Once you are hired, you will never have to take another test if you don't want to be promoted. The public deserves better."

To illustrate the point, Graham spoke of US Airways Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who landed his airplane in New York City's Hudson River in January after several birds flew into the craft's engines, rendering them inoperable. According to Graham, Sullenberger said in an interview shortly after his heroic actions saved the lives of everyone aboard Flight 1549 that he tried, throughout his flying career, to make small deposits each day into his memory bank, knowing that one day he would "have to make a massive withdrawal."

It was a sound strategy, Graham said, because doing so enabled Sullenberger to make instantaneous, life-and-death decisions on that fateful day. It's a lesson especially adaptable to the public-safety sector, whose personnel make such decisions on a daily basis.

"You will run into the unthinkable event someday, and you will have to make instantaneous decisions," Graham said. "Whether you are prepared to do so is up to you."

To prepare, Jones recommended that 911 emergency call centers at least implement protocols that every telecommunicator follows for every call the center receives. He suggested that centers adopt the protocols already established by the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Institute or PowerPhone (a provider of crisis communications training), and resist the temptation to create their own.

"That's dangerous, because a local agency doesn't have the expertise," said Jones, who further cautioned that centers also should resist altering the national protocols, because "sometimes they over-modify them."

Emergency call center managers also can play an important role in reducing the stress encountered by 911 call-takers and dispatchers, according to Steve Wisely, director of APCO's Communications Center and 911 services department. He said managers should be trained to have a calming effect on telecommunicators. "It's important that the supervisory leadership has training that will allow them to act in a calm manner, even when high-profile incidents are underway," Wisely said. "The supervisors set the tone for the workers that are reporting to them."

It's also important that supervisors recognize when a call-taker or dispatcher needs to decompress or a shoulder to lean on for a few minutes, Wisely said. "A support system needs to be in place where a person can get out of their seat and go to a quiet place to contemplate [an incident] or talk to somebody, if they're troubled by it," he said.

http://urgentcomm.com/policy_and_law/mag/sops-training-reduce-call-takers-stress-200907/index.html?smte=wl

YouTube ~ NENA 2009 ~ Strategic Alliances

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATpCtoPCZOA

You can see Nate at about the 1:52 minute mark. This is what it's all about. Certification and standardization is a good start. Dear God, make it happen.

God bless all the dedicated call takers and dispatchers out there who are fighting this fight with us and for us. You really are our first line of defense in homeland security. Without your dedication and diligence the firefighter would never get to the fire, the EMT would never get to the medical emergency and the police could not stop an abduction in progress and prevent a murder.

Thank you for fighting the good fight! God bless you.

National certification program for 911 telecommunicators is long overdue

Great article! Thank you, Glenn, for sharing our story. Thank you, Craig Whittington for introducing us to Glenn. You, dear Craig, are going to be an absolutely fantastic NENA president especially if you accomplish all you've set out to do. It's clear your family loves you, and your NENA family loves you. God bless you with guidance and strength through your journey as president. And again, thank you for helping us.

Before you all read the article there are some very minor errors regarding Denise's call. (Admittedly it is a complicated story). She did get a hold of her abductor's cell phone and kept the call taker on the line or 7 minutes giving as much information as she could. That call was handled very professionally and our hats off to the call taker who had to take that call. It must have been an emotionally difficult call. God bless you. The call that was not aired went to a different comm center. The eyewitness had that particular call taker on the line for 9 minutes giving cross streets. That call taker in a neighboring county failed to enter the information immediately and they failed to dispatch a car and worse never let the neighboring agencies know about the call. It's very glaring when listening to the 9-1-1 calls how different the counties are as far as standards. And Mr Graham is absolutely correct that supervisors need to be held accountable.

In any case, thank you for telling our story. Hopefully the 9-1-1 industry can learn from this debacle and minimize some of these errors by insisting on having our very first line of defense (call takers) become certified and make them live up to a set of standards.

National certification program for 911 telecommunicators is long overdue

Jun 11, 2009 1:59 PM, By Glenn Bischoff


http://urgentcomm.com/policy_and_law/commentary/national-certification-911-telecommunicators-20090611/

FORT WORTH, Texas — In his keynote address earlier this week at the National Emergency Number Association conference, Gordon Graham, the erstwhile motorcycle cop turned litigator/educator, spent much of the hour talking about the value of ongoing rigorous training, performance metrics and accountability as risk-management tactics. He bemoaned the lack of core-competency tests in the 911 emergency communications sector.

"Once you are hired, you will never have to take another test, if you don't want to be promoted. The public deserves better," Graham said.

Regarding those promotions, Graham also spoke of the need for supervisors to do the jobs for which they were hired.

"On every public-safety tragedy, I guarantee that you will find the fingerprints of supervisors who didn't act like a supervisor," he said. "Too many supervisors can't make the transition from buddy to boss. This is a problem lying in wait. You have to promote people who have the guts to supervise."

Graham's message was music to the ears of Craig Whittington, NENA's newly elected president, who spent six years on the organization's educational committee before joining its executive board in 2007. He told me shortly after Graham's speech that he would like to see a national certification program for 911 call-takers and dispatchers.

"You have to be certified to operate a tanning booth, but for 911 — the most critical link in emergency response — there is no certification," Whittington said.

The family and friends of Denise Amber Lee couldn't agree more with that sentiment. The 21-year-old Lee was abducted from her Florida home in January 2008, then brutally raped, killed and buried in a shallow grave by her assailant. She was found two days after her abduction. Lee's family and friends believe she might be alive today had the system — and those who work in it — performed better on the day of her abduction and have created a foundation in her name that champions 911-sector reform.

The first 911 call on that day was reportedly placed by Lee's husband Nathan, who had returned to the family's home in mid-afternoon to discover his wife missing and his two young sons — ages 2 and 6 months at the time — together in the baby's crib. The 911 center that took the call promptly reportedly issued a "be on the lookout" alert, or BOLO, which the family alleges was missed inexplicably by the 911 center in an adjacent county. At some point during the ordeal, the assailant drove through that county with Denise Lee in tow.

Later in the afternoon, a witness reportedly called 911 to report that a child in the back seat of a green Camaro was pounding on the window and screaming hysterically. The "child" was Denise Lee. According to Lee's family, that call was received by the 911 center that allegedly missed the first BOLO. Somehow, her family alleges, no BOLO ever was issued for the call from the eye witness.

Denise Lee's father works in that county as a police detective. He said in an interview on a network television newsmagazine that he was told by one fellow officer that the officer was certain the vehicle drove "right by him" but he had no idea that he should pursue because "he never received the information."

Reportedly, the county's sheriff defended the performance of the 911 center's call-takers and dispatchers that night, but he acknowledged that mistakes were made. Two dispatchers were suspended as a result of this incident.

During the ordeal, Denise Lee somehow managed to get her hands on the assailant's wireless phone without him knowing. She placed a call to 911 and cleverly gave the call-taker vital information, such as the type of car and its location — down to the cross streets — by speaking in a way that made her assailant think she was talking to him. After 7 to 9 minutes — reports vary — the assailant caught on and the call ended. Somehow, the crucial information provided by Denise Lee never made it to officers in the field, according to her family. And, her location couldn't be identified by the 911 system because she used a pre-paid wireless phone to place the call.

Steve Largent, the former congressman from Oklahoma and member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame, spoke during the NENA conference in his current role of CTIA president and CEO. He told of one particular tactic used by his Seattle Seahawks coach Chuck Knox, who was the first to regularly practice the plays the team would use at the end of games when they desperately needed to score. Today, every team does this, but in Largent's playing days, the practice was considered cutting-edge. According to Largent, the tactic was quite effective, because the players knew just what to do at the most stressful, frenetic juncture of the game.

Before telling the Knox story, Largent said something that well could be applied to the Lee tragedy. "You [911 call-takers and dispatchers] are a phone call people hope they never have to make. They count on you. You have to have a game plan in place and know what play to call."

There are few jobs as stressful as that of 911 call-taker/dispatcher. No one outside of that world can empathize with what these dedicated professionals encounter on a daily basis. When journalists make mistakes, publications run corrections. When 911 telecommunicators make mistakes, people die. Undeniably, it's a tough job — which is all the more reason for them to be at the top of their game.

The Denise Amber Lee Foundation is lobbying for the creation of a national certification program for 911 call-takers and dispatchers. "We want to ensure that no other family has to endure the pure hell our family has experienced," Nathan Lee said this week at the NENA conference.

It seems like a reasonable request.

NAED The Denise Amber Lee Foundation in Vegas

what a week!

The night before

It started out on Sunday with Nathan feeling ill. We thought it might be stress. We spent the day in and out of the doctor's office. Thank goodness, his doctor will see him on a Sunday. It turned out he was admitted into the hospital in the wee morning hours Monday (the morning we were flying to Vegas) with appendicitis. He's okay now. He's still weak. It wasn't an auspicious way to start the week. I was an emotional wreck starting out.

The plane

On the plane I sat next to an Iraqi war veteran who had lost his leg in a roadside bombing. He was very instrumental in making me feel better. He was just a young man. I think he said he was 26. His name was Pete. We talked at length (it's a five hour flight) about Post Traumatic Stress. His experiences mirror ours in many ways even though they are different in many ways. We talked of nightmares, flashbacks and anger.

But, you know, what a remarkable young man he was. Here I was trying to give him comfort by allowing him to talk because he says he never talks about it but felt he could talk to me, when he really surprised me. He said "hey, I lost a leg. And, yeah, the worst and scariest was losing my sight even temporarily. But, your son........ Your son lost his wife in the most tragic of ways. And losing a leg pales in comparison".

How remarkable is that? He said he'd pray for Nathan and our family even though it's difficult for him to pray. I told him I'd pray for him even though it was difficult for me to pray. And he said "no. Concentrate on your family". What a gift. I'm crying now thinking of it.

Arriving in Vegas

Well, we finally arrived and I felt..... I don't know how I felt but I felt soothed and better. I was so worried about Nathan. He was being operated on at the time we were arriving in Las Vegas. I can't express how much my maternal instincts were in overdrive. I couldn't stop thinking of losing Denise and having the fear of losing Nathan too. And all it was, was his appendix. I knew I was over reacting but the maternal drive just wouldn't slow down. It's weird to explain.

Well, there we were in Vegas and both Mark and I were wrecks with worry and lack of sleep. Thank goodness for Mike Rossi one of our foundation members that accompanied us. He just took over. We were pretty much penniless going out there because Nathan had the bank roll and of course he wasn't there. Mike just went into overdrive and took over. He was taking care of cabs and taking us to Kinko's and arranging meetings and checking us in and he pretty much was leading us through Monday and Tuesday morning. He took care of all the logistics because we were just wiped out emotionally and physically. I don't think he would have treated his own parents better. I'll never forget all he did for us.

The meeting

Things got better after our meeting with the 9-1-1 industry leaders Tuesday afternoon. What wonderful men. Brilliant men. You could see their brains working on what to do to help prevent what happened from happening again. They listened patiently to our story. They expressed compassion. But mostly (at least for me) they gave us hope. Hope that things will change. They were very sincere. All there had different ideas on how to accomplish this but all agreed that we need to continue to speak up and things need to change.

At the meeting were many fascinating people. The most fascinating, of course, was Dr. Jeff Clawson. No. You've never heard of him but you should! He's the man that started back in 1979 to write all the 9-1-1 protocols we use today. He, along with others, continue to improve them as technology and cultural situations evolve. He was very moved and perhaps a bit appalled by our story. You could see his brain working on better protocols as we were speaking. It was an honor just to be in the same room with him! not to mention being able to share our story. See pic of me with Dr. Clawson.

Scott Freitag, Eric Parry and Alan Fletcher from NAED (National Academies of Emergency Dispatch) were all there offering hope and suggestions of where the 9-1-1 industry is to go with correcting and helping minimize tragedies like ours. Scott Freitag was also moved by our story. He, too, has experienced tragedy in his young life. He has a beautiful family and seemed genuine in his offer to help us. Eric Parry has such a dynamic personality it's hard to pin down where to start. He took us by the hand (almost literally) and guided us through who to meet, what classes to attend, what to listen for...... He also invited us to speak in a couple of sessions.

What truly awesome individuals these men are. See pic of Mark and I with Scott Freitag.

Also in the meeting was the out going president of NENA (National Emergency Number Association) Ron Bonneau and the in coming president Craig Whittington. What can I say about them other than these men are dedicated professionals whose mission in life seems to be continually improve our 9-1-1 industry. This is what they do! How honorable is that?

I was humbled. I had no idea so many people cared so much and so many people are truly dedicated in making our lives so much safer.

I am immersed in this 9-1-1 thing as you all realize by now. This is all I talk about other than my grandbabies who I get to see today:o) I live, eat, drink, breathe this 9-1-1 stuff. To be able to talk to people who are just as immersed in it as I am was truly a gift that I'll forever treasure. Denise, sweetheart, people are listening!

We take 9-1-1 so for granted. We as civilians truly do. We have no clue as to all that goes into making a 9-1-1 call successful. We have no clue of how all the links in the chain need to work together. We have no clue that men and women are continually working behind the scenes (and have been for decades) just so we can be and feel safe.

What I gleaned in this meeting (and remember I was emotional so I could be off) was the medical and fire protocols for 9-1-1 would receive superior grades if you graded them. But the police protocols still need a lot of work. That the police are the most resistant to change and loss of control. The police say it's because the dynamics are so varied. But every man in that room that day agreed that the police could do better. Or that the 9-1-1 industry needs to do better where police are concerned.

After that meeting I felt confident, strong, safe (which I hadn't felt in a long time), and secure in the knowledge that what we're doing as a foundation is right and necessary. I knew we were right in our cause but these men gave me a validation I needed. They gave me hope that our story wasn't falling on deaf ears.

Needless to say they gave me strength and it was a strength that would last me the rest of the week. I had to tell our story at least a couple hundred times. A couple of those times were in front of classes. It was cathartic but it was difficult. It was the men in that room that gave me the strength to do it.

I can't write anymore now. I'm in tears with gratitude and an overwhelming sense of pride in our mission.

But there is more to the story. I have to tell you about the dispatchers we met. And the call center supervisors. And the classes we attended. Peter Bellmio with the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children. The Medicine Hat contingent.... About Nicole and Heidi from the San Diego Sheriff's Department...... God bless those two girls for helping me in the booth for they too gave me strength. And Kevin Willett. Geesh. Without him........... I would never have made it out there.

But I'll have to save all that because I'm emotionally spent.

Much love and peace,

Peggy