the media has been kind. This was printed in today's Sun. Also read an article by Nathan's former little league coach Eric Ernst printed in the Herald Tribune this past week:
05/16/10
Lee's legacy now assured in E-911 bill
OUR POSITION: A deep bow to the people from our communities who worked to pass an E-911 bill that will make everyone safer in the future.
It took two sessions for the Florida Legislature to muster enough political will to pass a no-brainer of a bill improving the state's emergency 911 call operations, but that sorry fact was low on the list of concerns this week at a press conference acknowledging those whose hard work finally resulted in the bill's passage.
The bill came about primarily through the efforts of the family of Denise Amber Lee, whose 2008 murder in North Port after a botched 911 call provided the strongest possible example of the need for improvements in state emergency response standards. As noted in a report conducted by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, emergency call centers in the state may handle as many as 15 million 911 calls in a year, but a mistake in one or two highlighted the enormous, tragic consequences that come when the system fails.
The Lee case is exactly why the public needed to be assured that call centers were being operating with a high level of professionalism. Clearly, there was room for improvement.
Denise Lee's husband, Nathan Lee, took the lead role in the drive for higher standards in Florida, and has continued his outreach throughout the nation. Other family members have joined in. Many in the community have worked for reform through the Denise Amber Lee Foundation.
The result here has been a bill that will require all 911 call-takers and dispatchers in Florida to take a set level of training and pass a certification test in order to do their jobs. It also calls for training updates and renewal every two years. The full law will not take effect until 2012, giving all police agencies time to come into compliance.
As Nathan Lee said during during a press conference at the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, the bill is far from perfect, but it is an important step. It does focus attention and begin to plug a critical hole in the public safety system. For the future, Nathan Lee and the Lee Foundation will aim at moving official oversight of dispatch training into the Department of Law Enforcement. They also will work at developing one statewide curriculum for training.
Both are extremely worthy goals.
For now, however, congratulations are extended to the Lee family and the Lee Foundation. The Gulf Coast Community Foundation also helped drive the process. And our local legislators deserve a nod for their efforts to push the bill through, despite opposition from legislators who thought additional costs outweighed public safety considerations.
Rep. Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda, took up the bill last year. But Rep. Ken Roberson, R-Port Charlotte, and Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, managed to complete the job this session. A no-brainer from our perspective, but, amazingly, it took some heavy lifting, as well as a bit of compromise, to get it done.
A long time coming, yes. And a proper legacy for Denise Amber Lee. The improved training that will come as a result of this law just may help ensure another family and other communities will not see a repeat of this type of tragedy in the future.
http://sunnewspapers.net/articles/edStory.aspx?articleID=457156
Widower took his pain and made a difference
By Eric Ernst
Published: Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 1:00 a.m. Last Modified: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 9:18 p.m.
In most ways, Nathan Lee is an ordinary person. He's a salesman at Best Buy in Sarasota. He represents no special interest group. But this year he accomplished something unusual; he got a bill passed through the state Legislature.
The bill, awaiting the governor's signature, will elevate the first link of emergency response by requiring 911 operators at all of the state's 258 emergency call centers to undergo standardized training to earn certification.
It comes too late to help the woman who served as its catalyst. Lee's wife, Denise, was kidnapped, raped and killed in January 2008 in North Port. She might have been saved if a witness' call to 911 had been handled properly.
As Lee and others analyzed what went wrong, they realized the 911 system had deep flaws, starting with operator training.
Those shortcomings became Lee's cause. He set out to save others by pushing for mandatory, uniform 911 training statewide.
The heroic way he chose to deal with the pain speaks to his character and should be a point of pride for the two young boys he is raising on his own, state Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, said Wednesday. Detert joined the cause, with state Rep. Ken Roberson, R-Port Charlotte, to push companion bills through the Legislature.
It took three legislative sessions and a lot of behind-the-scenes backing.
Englewood businessman David Dignam advised Lee, helped him set up the Denise Amber Lee Foundation and used his Republican Party contacts to open doors.
Lee and his parents, Mark and Peggy, started traveling to Tallahassee to testify or visit with lawmakers.
The Herald-Tribune published a series that exposed breakdowns in 911 responses statewide. The Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice commissioned a $43,000 study of 911 responses that found a system fundamentally failing the public in key respects.
The articles and study became exhibits in legislative committee testimony.
People helped in other, unexpected ways, too. Bill Stiver, who runs an automotive shop in Englewood and is a pilot, flew local contingents to Tallahassee.
North Port City Commissioner David Garofalo and his peers sent 411 letters to other cities, encouraging them to support 911 reform.
Garofalo also pushed legislators. One day he left home at 3 a.m. to attend a 10-minute meeting in the state capital, then returned home for a meeting. "That's a day I drank a lot of coffee," he says.
Supporters organized phone banks to call lawmakers and anyone who could influence the process to keep the legislation on track.
Lee had a compelling story to illustrate a legitimate public safety shortcoming. The story also resonates nationally. Lee has traveled coast to coast -- sometimes at his own expense -- addressing many of the same problems exhibited in Florida.
On Wednesday, as the bill's backers gathered at a news conference in Venice, it was evident Lee has not found closure.
Maybe he never will. There are still others to save.
Eric Ernst's column regularly runs Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Contact him at eric.ernst@heraldtribune.com or (941) 486-3073.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100513/COLUMNIST/5131072/2273/NEWS?p=1&tc=pg
Showing posts with label The Herald Tribune. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Herald Tribune. Show all posts
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Punta Gorda death Herald Tribune and ABC 7
911 worker transferred after ambulance delay
Staff Report
Published: Friday, March 12, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:34 p.m.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY - An ambulance delay of 14 minutes for an elderly Punta Gorda woman in cardiac arrest led the Punta Gorda Police Department to transfer 911 worker Nancy Morris and investigate her handling of the call last week.
Josephine Henry, 91, was pronounced dead shortly after care workers at her assisted living center called 911.
Police say it appears an ambulance would not have saved her, but they are taking the mix-up seriously.
"Was it human error? Policy? Equipment? We're trying to find the problem and correct it," said Punta Gorda Police spokesman Troy Bettencourt.
The investigation into the Friday night call is ongoing, but police said that Morris immediately dispatched a police officer and fire truck but apparently failed to contact ambulance workers who are employed by Charlotte County, not the city.
Morris was one of two people on duty at the police dispatch center when the call came in at 11:04 p.m. on Friday, March 5.
Bettencourt said the dispatchers were busy with another medical call, a missing person case, and assisting police on an arrest. It was also shift change time.
"It can get very busy in there sometimes," Bettencourt said.
The Punta Gorda fire fighters, who are trained to give CPR, arrived at the assisted living center in two minutes and began trying to resuscitate Henry.
Morris is performing administrative tasks until the investigation is completed. She is a communications supervisor with the department and the most highly trained 911 worker.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100312/ARTICLE/3121036?Title=911-worker-transferred-after-ambulance-delay
http://www.abc-7.com/Global/story.asp?S=12118229
Staff Report
Published: Friday, March 12, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:34 p.m.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY - An ambulance delay of 14 minutes for an elderly Punta Gorda woman in cardiac arrest led the Punta Gorda Police Department to transfer 911 worker Nancy Morris and investigate her handling of the call last week.
Josephine Henry, 91, was pronounced dead shortly after care workers at her assisted living center called 911.
Police say it appears an ambulance would not have saved her, but they are taking the mix-up seriously.
"Was it human error? Policy? Equipment? We're trying to find the problem and correct it," said Punta Gorda Police spokesman Troy Bettencourt.
The investigation into the Friday night call is ongoing, but police said that Morris immediately dispatched a police officer and fire truck but apparently failed to contact ambulance workers who are employed by Charlotte County, not the city.
Morris was one of two people on duty at the police dispatch center when the call came in at 11:04 p.m. on Friday, March 5.
Bettencourt said the dispatchers were busy with another medical call, a missing person case, and assisting police on an arrest. It was also shift change time.
"It can get very busy in there sometimes," Bettencourt said.
The Punta Gorda fire fighters, who are trained to give CPR, arrived at the assisted living center in two minutes and began trying to resuscitate Henry.
Morris is performing administrative tasks until the investigation is completed. She is a communications supervisor with the department and the most highly trained 911 worker.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100312/ARTICLE/3121036?Title=911-worker-transferred-after-ambulance-delay
http://www.abc-7.com/Global/story.asp?S=12118229
Friday, November 13, 2009
Today's Herald Tribune
Since we learned about this motion I've been holding off commenting. I am doing my best to restrain myself from saying anything unladylike. It's unbelievable. "Special Relationship"? What's that? I just cannot understand how the sheriff's department, namely Bill Cameron (who was in charge the night Denise died) refuses to accept any responsibility for this debacle. He and the sheriff before him (John Davenport) and their cronies truly do not believe they did anything wrong and are doing anything wrong. It's unconscionable. No apologies. No nothing. They just want to wash their hands of the whole thing. "She would have died anyway" according to John Davenport. They would have swept the entire incident under the rug if Jane Kowalski had not persisted in her phone calls to the North Port Police Department and had we not read the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office Internal Affairs report. sigh.
Here's an article from today's paper by Jason Witz with the Herald Tribune.
Sheriff's Office wants Lee suit thrown out
By JASON WITZ Correspondent
Published: Friday, November 13, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 11:58 p.m.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY - Nathan Lee's wrongful death lawsuit against the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office should be thrown out because the agency gave no specific promises it would protect his wife, a motion released Thursday stated.
In a 13-page motion filed in Charlotte County circuit court, lawyers for the Sheriff's Office argued that 911 workers did not make "assurances to provide assistance uniquely responsive" to a key witness who reported seeing Denise Lee with her captor.
The motion asks a judge to dismiss Nathan Lee's lawsuit seeking damages from the Sheriff's Office in the murder of Denise Lee after her January 2008 kidnapping and rape. A hearing date for the motion has not been set.
The Sheriff's Office contends it would not be liable in Lee's death because no "special relationship" existed with her compared with the general public.
Although the operation of a 911 communication system is part of law enforcement services provided to the public, the agency is liable only when a special relationship is created, the motion states.
The Sheriff's Office contends that such relationship would exist only if, through employees, it makes assurances to provide assistance uniquely responsive to someone, and the person relies upon those assurances to his detriment, according to the motion.
Without that relationship, the attorneys contend, a governmental agency's duty to protect a person cannot be subject to a suit.
Lawyers say there is "no factual basis" to suggest any Sheriff's Office employees made any special promises during its 911 call with Tampa resident Jane Kowalski, who saw Denise Lee in the back of her abductor's car, near the Charlotte-Sarasota County line, pleading for help. Call takers failed to alert deputies, who were patrolling nearby.
Nathan Lee's suit accuses Sheriff Bill Cameron and his employees of being negligent in investigating the abduction of Denise Lee and contributing to her death.
Denise Lee, 21, was later found buried in a shallow grave in North Port, a few miles from where Kowalski had seen her in the car driven by unemployed North Port plumber Michael King, who awaits sentencing for his conviction for murder, kidnap and rape.
Lee is seeking a jury award of more than the statutory limit of $200,000. He said the motion seems contrary to the motto "To serve and protect."
"I'm just extremely frustrated," he said.
The Sheriff's Office is arguing it "had no duty to protect Denise," Nathan Lee added. "I definitely think the citizens of Charlotte County should be concerned about that."
Cameron said the agency would not comment.
Sheriff's Office lawyers say Kowalski was never told to take any action other than observe King's vehicle, court documents show.
But Lee's suit alleges that the Sheriff's Office's handling of Kowalski's call prevented her "from taking other action to help Denise Lee, thereby increasing the risk of harm faced by Lee."
Link:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091113/ARTICLE/911131037
Here's an article from today's paper by Jason Witz with the Herald Tribune.
Sheriff's Office wants Lee suit thrown out
By JASON WITZ Correspondent
Published: Friday, November 13, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 11:58 p.m.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY - Nathan Lee's wrongful death lawsuit against the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office should be thrown out because the agency gave no specific promises it would protect his wife, a motion released Thursday stated.
In a 13-page motion filed in Charlotte County circuit court, lawyers for the Sheriff's Office argued that 911 workers did not make "assurances to provide assistance uniquely responsive" to a key witness who reported seeing Denise Lee with her captor.
The motion asks a judge to dismiss Nathan Lee's lawsuit seeking damages from the Sheriff's Office in the murder of Denise Lee after her January 2008 kidnapping and rape. A hearing date for the motion has not been set.
The Sheriff's Office contends it would not be liable in Lee's death because no "special relationship" existed with her compared with the general public.
Although the operation of a 911 communication system is part of law enforcement services provided to the public, the agency is liable only when a special relationship is created, the motion states.
The Sheriff's Office contends that such relationship would exist only if, through employees, it makes assurances to provide assistance uniquely responsive to someone, and the person relies upon those assurances to his detriment, according to the motion.
Without that relationship, the attorneys contend, a governmental agency's duty to protect a person cannot be subject to a suit.
Lawyers say there is "no factual basis" to suggest any Sheriff's Office employees made any special promises during its 911 call with Tampa resident Jane Kowalski, who saw Denise Lee in the back of her abductor's car, near the Charlotte-Sarasota County line, pleading for help. Call takers failed to alert deputies, who were patrolling nearby.
Nathan Lee's suit accuses Sheriff Bill Cameron and his employees of being negligent in investigating the abduction of Denise Lee and contributing to her death.
Denise Lee, 21, was later found buried in a shallow grave in North Port, a few miles from where Kowalski had seen her in the car driven by unemployed North Port plumber Michael King, who awaits sentencing for his conviction for murder, kidnap and rape.
Lee is seeking a jury award of more than the statutory limit of $200,000. He said the motion seems contrary to the motto "To serve and protect."
"I'm just extremely frustrated," he said.
The Sheriff's Office is arguing it "had no duty to protect Denise," Nathan Lee added. "I definitely think the citizens of Charlotte County should be concerned about that."
Cameron said the agency would not comment.
Sheriff's Office lawyers say Kowalski was never told to take any action other than observe King's vehicle, court documents show.
But Lee's suit alleges that the Sheriff's Office's handling of Kowalski's call prevented her "from taking other action to help Denise Lee, thereby increasing the risk of harm faced by Lee."
Link:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091113/ARTICLE/911131037
Monday, September 28, 2009
Somehow I missed this about Denise
For Emergency Use Only
By Laura Sperling
Published: Friday, September 25, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 6:40 p.m.
When I called 9-1-1 the other night, my heart was galumphing like an off-kilter washing machine.
I wasn't dying. I was simply freaking out.
I had been driving the inside lane down a dark, crowded, rain-slicked U.S. 41. As the clot of cars and trucks headed south near Sarasota Memorial Hospital, the air suddenly ripped with the odd but unmistakable blast of a wailing locomotive -- so close-range that I thought impact was imminent.
The left half of my brain knew there are no train tracks anywhere near the hospital. The right half was screaming, "SWERVE OR YOU'RE GONNA DIE!" Somehow I didn't do either. Instead, I froze until I realized that the noise from hell was emanating from an adjacent pickup truck.
Apparently the driver was having a little "fun" with his train horn -- an add-on car accessory that seems to have no purpose other than to explode eardrums. One Web site that sells the horns warns that they can "ruin your hearing if you happen to be too close to them when they blow."
I'm reasonably certain that this level of noise violates a state statute, and I'm absolutely sure it can scare the daylights out of anyone who unexpectedly hears it from a few feet away, as I did. It could even trigger a bad accident.
As the panic subsided, I heard laughter, which made me want to tear the horn off that truck and twist it around the driver's neck. But he kept moving south and I turned toward home. On a side street I pulled over, dug out my cell phone and -- heart racing -- dialed 9-1-1.
On second thought ...
"What is the nature of your emergency?" the operator asked.
It was an unexpectedly tough question. Illegal and potentially destructive though the horn blast was, nobody was hurt. So did this really amount to a 9-1-1 "emergency"?
The operator didn't think so, I sensed. She was polite but unfamiliar with train horns. When I tried to describe one, she seemed more interested in getting my name down.
The knowledge that everything I said was being taped made me feel sheepish -- and a bit irrational. What if the hooligan tracked me down and blasted his horn in my driveway at 4 a.m.? My elderly neighbor might have a heart attack. Heck, I might. That would be 9-1-1 worthy, but I'd rather not go through it.
By the time the call ended, the truck/locomotive was long gone and I was perplexed. When I got home, I looked up state law on car horns. Florida Statute 316.271 bans "unreasonably loud or harsh sound," but it's only penalized as a moving violation, not a crime.
It's easy -- maybe too easy
I now realize I should have called a non-emergency line of the Sarasota Police Department. But I don't know that number and, on the road, 9-1-1 is so much easier to remember.
Indeed, it may be too easy. According to a recently released report sponsored by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, nonemergency contacts make up an estimated half of all calls to Florida 9-1-1 centers.
Some calls are just idiotic, like the ones from goofballs complaining about a disappointing fast-food meal.
But even people who should know better sometimes make questionable use of 9-1-1. As you may have read in the Herald-Tribune last week, an off-duty Longboat Key police officer dialed the emergency line to complain about cars on her Sarasota street. The traffic apparently was due to parents waiting to pick up their children at a nearby school.
The story took a darker twist when parents then called 9-1-1 on the officer, who was accused of aggravated assault in a conflict with one of the mothers.
The three threads that run through these examples -- mine included -- are frustration, easily accessible cell phones, and a mind-set that 9-1-1 is the best way to seek help. I doubt any of us were thinking about the collective impact on the emergency communications system.
Experts say a high volume of nonemergency calls can distract 9-1-1 staff and contribute to the kind of chaos seen -- to devastating effect -- in the Denise Lee case.
Lee, a North Port mom, was kidnapped and killed despite urgent 9-1-1 calls from her and witnesses. The information was relayed to Charlotte County dispatchers, but they failed -- for several reasons, including distractions and communication breakdowns -- to pass it on to deputies who might have been able to save Lee.
That outcome is too sad for words. I think of Lee often, but -- judging by my misguided 9-1-1 call -- not often enough.
E-mail: Laura.Sperling@heraldtribune.com
By Laura Sperling
Published: Friday, September 25, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 6:40 p.m.
When I called 9-1-1 the other night, my heart was galumphing like an off-kilter washing machine.
I wasn't dying. I was simply freaking out.
I had been driving the inside lane down a dark, crowded, rain-slicked U.S. 41. As the clot of cars and trucks headed south near Sarasota Memorial Hospital, the air suddenly ripped with the odd but unmistakable blast of a wailing locomotive -- so close-range that I thought impact was imminent.
The left half of my brain knew there are no train tracks anywhere near the hospital. The right half was screaming, "SWERVE OR YOU'RE GONNA DIE!" Somehow I didn't do either. Instead, I froze until I realized that the noise from hell was emanating from an adjacent pickup truck.
Apparently the driver was having a little "fun" with his train horn -- an add-on car accessory that seems to have no purpose other than to explode eardrums. One Web site that sells the horns warns that they can "ruin your hearing if you happen to be too close to them when they blow."
I'm reasonably certain that this level of noise violates a state statute, and I'm absolutely sure it can scare the daylights out of anyone who unexpectedly hears it from a few feet away, as I did. It could even trigger a bad accident.
As the panic subsided, I heard laughter, which made me want to tear the horn off that truck and twist it around the driver's neck. But he kept moving south and I turned toward home. On a side street I pulled over, dug out my cell phone and -- heart racing -- dialed 9-1-1.
On second thought ...
"What is the nature of your emergency?" the operator asked.
It was an unexpectedly tough question. Illegal and potentially destructive though the horn blast was, nobody was hurt. So did this really amount to a 9-1-1 "emergency"?
The operator didn't think so, I sensed. She was polite but unfamiliar with train horns. When I tried to describe one, she seemed more interested in getting my name down.
The knowledge that everything I said was being taped made me feel sheepish -- and a bit irrational. What if the hooligan tracked me down and blasted his horn in my driveway at 4 a.m.? My elderly neighbor might have a heart attack. Heck, I might. That would be 9-1-1 worthy, but I'd rather not go through it.
By the time the call ended, the truck/locomotive was long gone and I was perplexed. When I got home, I looked up state law on car horns. Florida Statute 316.271 bans "unreasonably loud or harsh sound," but it's only penalized as a moving violation, not a crime.
It's easy -- maybe too easy
I now realize I should have called a non-emergency line of the Sarasota Police Department. But I don't know that number and, on the road, 9-1-1 is so much easier to remember.
Indeed, it may be too easy. According to a recently released report sponsored by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, nonemergency contacts make up an estimated half of all calls to Florida 9-1-1 centers.
Some calls are just idiotic, like the ones from goofballs complaining about a disappointing fast-food meal.
But even people who should know better sometimes make questionable use of 9-1-1. As you may have read in the Herald-Tribune last week, an off-duty Longboat Key police officer dialed the emergency line to complain about cars on her Sarasota street. The traffic apparently was due to parents waiting to pick up their children at a nearby school.
The story took a darker twist when parents then called 9-1-1 on the officer, who was accused of aggravated assault in a conflict with one of the mothers.
The three threads that run through these examples -- mine included -- are frustration, easily accessible cell phones, and a mind-set that 9-1-1 is the best way to seek help. I doubt any of us were thinking about the collective impact on the emergency communications system.
Experts say a high volume of nonemergency calls can distract 9-1-1 staff and contribute to the kind of chaos seen -- to devastating effect -- in the Denise Lee case.
Lee, a North Port mom, was kidnapped and killed despite urgent 9-1-1 calls from her and witnesses. The information was relayed to Charlotte County dispatchers, but they failed -- for several reasons, including distractions and communication breakdowns -- to pass it on to deputies who might have been able to save Lee.
That outcome is too sad for words. I think of Lee often, but -- judging by my misguided 9-1-1 call -- not often enough.
E-mail: Laura.Sperling@heraldtribune.com
Friday, April 10, 2009
A Call to Improve 9-1-1/Editorial in yesterday's Herald Tribune
My opinion to start with article to follow.
FWIW, as our foundation (The Denise Amber Lee Foundation) continues our fight for 9-1-1 improvements in Florida and now across the country, we would never want people to lose faith in 9-1-1. Call 9-1-1 in an emergency. 9-1-1 is wonderful. But it's my opinion it needs standards so that all 9-1-1 centers are on the same page and that they be equipped with the best technology available. 9-1-1 should be evolving along side of consumer communication technology. And we should all learn what our cell phones can and cannot do.
Do you realize many students during the Virginia Tech massacre were all texting 9-1-1? Sadly, you can't text 9-1-1. They didn't know. We need to be educated, young people, old people, middle aged people all need to know what their phones can and cannot do.
Dispatchers are getting a lot of heat. Sadly the dispatcher in Plant City lost her job during this horrific economy. But even more sad and tragic is Jennifer Johnson's family lost a loved on. Jennifer lost her life. Denise lost her life. Olidia Kerr Day lost her life.
Something has to be done. I'm so glad the Herald Tribune stepped up and took on this story. They should be commended.
God bless all call takers and dispatchers out there with compassion, diligence, guidance and patience. We're on your side and we only want to make your jobs easier. You are our front lines, LITERALLY.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090409/OPINION/904091053
Published: Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 at 6:18 p.m.
The skill, or lack of it, in handling a 911 call can mean the difference between life and death. It can also mean the difference between employment and job loss, as Plant City emergency personnel recently learned.
Their treatment of a 911 call on Nov. 15, from a kidnapped woman who was later found dead, brought the firing this week of a dispatcher and the resignation of her supervisor. Two other people connected to the case resigned or retired.
As the Tampa Tribune reported, an internal investigation concluded that the dispatcher and her supervisors failed to follow up appropriately on the victim's desperate call from the trunk of car.
"This was a human breakdown, not an equipment failure," Plant City Police Chief Bill McDaniel was quoted as saying. "Our emergency communication center is state of the art," he said, noting that dispatchers undergo a 16-week training course.
In this case, errors were punished by job loss. But statewide, 911 mistakes tend to draw light reprimand, the Herald-Tribune's Zac Anderson reported in a series earlier this year.
The Denise Lee aftermath
That series marked the anniversary of the kidnapping and slaying of Denise Lee, a young North Port mother. In her case, a witness's call to Charlotte County's 911 center was mishandled.
Ever since, Lee's grieving survivors have pushed the state to institute reforms, such as standardized training and certification for 911 operators, to help prevent other tragedies in the future.
Currently, Florida has no statewide requirements for training. Standards vary widely by jurisdiction, Anderson reported. Sarasota County's 911 call center is accredited, but it is in the minority.
A bill pending in the Legislature would change that by requiring all emergency 911 dispatchers to earn certification by October 2012. The measure (CS/SB 2040 in the Senate, and CS/HB 769 in the House) gained committee approval, but it still has a long legislative gantlet to run as the clock ticks down on the annual two-month session.
The bill deserves full consideration. Training certification is no cure-all, but it would bring needed consistency to the 911 system. Consistency, in turn, could simplify and improve emergency communication.
High stress, low pay
As we have said before, any discussion of 911 problems should recognize the good work that dispatchers do and the extraordinarily stressful conditions they face, often for relatively low pay.
These workers are tasked with making urgent, knowledgeable decisions, even if the caller is incoherent or panicked. They must be able to use technology, classify calls, select proper codes, find the nearest available police cars, and sometimes talk a person through lifesaving measures.
These are important skills. Statewide certification requirements would be a step toward ensuring that they get the professional respect -- and wage compensation -- they deserve.
FWIW, as our foundation (The Denise Amber Lee Foundation) continues our fight for 9-1-1 improvements in Florida and now across the country, we would never want people to lose faith in 9-1-1. Call 9-1-1 in an emergency. 9-1-1 is wonderful. But it's my opinion it needs standards so that all 9-1-1 centers are on the same page and that they be equipped with the best technology available. 9-1-1 should be evolving along side of consumer communication technology. And we should all learn what our cell phones can and cannot do.
Do you realize many students during the Virginia Tech massacre were all texting 9-1-1? Sadly, you can't text 9-1-1. They didn't know. We need to be educated, young people, old people, middle aged people all need to know what their phones can and cannot do.
Dispatchers are getting a lot of heat. Sadly the dispatcher in Plant City lost her job during this horrific economy. But even more sad and tragic is Jennifer Johnson's family lost a loved on. Jennifer lost her life. Denise lost her life. Olidia Kerr Day lost her life.
Something has to be done. I'm so glad the Herald Tribune stepped up and took on this story. They should be commended.
God bless all call takers and dispatchers out there with compassion, diligence, guidance and patience. We're on your side and we only want to make your jobs easier. You are our front lines, LITERALLY.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090409/OPINION/904091053
Published: Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 at 6:18 p.m.
The skill, or lack of it, in handling a 911 call can mean the difference between life and death. It can also mean the difference between employment and job loss, as Plant City emergency personnel recently learned.
Their treatment of a 911 call on Nov. 15, from a kidnapped woman who was later found dead, brought the firing this week of a dispatcher and the resignation of her supervisor. Two other people connected to the case resigned or retired.
As the Tampa Tribune reported, an internal investigation concluded that the dispatcher and her supervisors failed to follow up appropriately on the victim's desperate call from the trunk of car.
"This was a human breakdown, not an equipment failure," Plant City Police Chief Bill McDaniel was quoted as saying. "Our emergency communication center is state of the art," he said, noting that dispatchers undergo a 16-week training course.
In this case, errors were punished by job loss. But statewide, 911 mistakes tend to draw light reprimand, the Herald-Tribune's Zac Anderson reported in a series earlier this year.
The Denise Lee aftermath
That series marked the anniversary of the kidnapping and slaying of Denise Lee, a young North Port mother. In her case, a witness's call to Charlotte County's 911 center was mishandled.
Ever since, Lee's grieving survivors have pushed the state to institute reforms, such as standardized training and certification for 911 operators, to help prevent other tragedies in the future.
Currently, Florida has no statewide requirements for training. Standards vary widely by jurisdiction, Anderson reported. Sarasota County's 911 call center is accredited, but it is in the minority.
A bill pending in the Legislature would change that by requiring all emergency 911 dispatchers to earn certification by October 2012. The measure (CS/SB 2040 in the Senate, and CS/HB 769 in the House) gained committee approval, but it still has a long legislative gantlet to run as the clock ticks down on the annual two-month session.
The bill deserves full consideration. Training certification is no cure-all, but it would bring needed consistency to the 911 system. Consistency, in turn, could simplify and improve emergency communication.
High stress, low pay
As we have said before, any discussion of 911 problems should recognize the good work that dispatchers do and the extraordinarily stressful conditions they face, often for relatively low pay.
These workers are tasked with making urgent, knowledgeable decisions, even if the caller is incoherent or panicked. They must be able to use technology, classify calls, select proper codes, find the nearest available police cars, and sometimes talk a person through lifesaving measures.
These are important skills. Statewide certification requirements would be a step toward ensuring that they get the professional respect -- and wage compensation -- they deserve.
Friday, January 23, 2009
In the Herald Tribune
Yesterday the Sun-Herald had a piece in the editorial section. I posted it yesterday.
Today this was in the Herald Tribune editorial page. I imagine (and can only guess it's in response to the response they received for Zac Anderson's articles last weekend.
I'm in a rather funky mood and I may blog more tonight but it's been a rather dramatic week and I'm struggling with my thoughts. Anyhow, here's a copy of what was in the Herald Tribune this morning. I'll blog more tonight about my thoughts. And believe me, I have a lot of them.
Today this was in the Herald Tribune editorial page. I imagine (and can only guess it's in response to the response they received for Zac Anderson's articles last weekend.
I'm in a rather funky mood and I may blog more tonight but it's been a rather dramatic week and I'm struggling with my thoughts. Anyhow, here's a copy of what was in the Herald Tribune this morning. I'll blog more tonight about my thoughts. And believe me, I have a lot of them.
Warning on 911
Series shows a need for improvements in training, pay and accountability
Published: Friday, January 23, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 6:40 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 6:40 p.m.
Considering the nature of the work - fielding callers who range from babbling toddlers to dying crime victims -- 911 emergency operators will make mistakes. Miscommunication will happen.
But if perfection is out of reach, reliability and accuracy are not. The public should expect these of its 911 systems.
Some systems fall short, as a recent Herald-Tribune investigative series detailed.
Among the millions of 911 calls received in Florida over the past five years, hundreds (at the least) were seriously mishandled, reporters found.
Florida and some other states have no statewide requirements for "training, staffing or quality control" at 911 centers, the series pointed out. Standards and success rates vary by jurisdiction. In some counties, such as Broward and Sarasota, 911 operators get classroom training. In others, such as Manatee, they don't.
Some agencies don't formally track complaints, reporters noted, and many 911 centers "tolerate repeated mistakes" -- a disturbing trend caused, in part, by the difficulty of retaining workers in this stressful field. It seems that experience matters, but is not highly compensated: The median annual salary is under $32,000, data indicate.
To make the best of a difficult job, these workers need thorough training, good technological tools that they know how to use, fair compensation and accountability.
None of that comes cheap, but Florida and the nation should find a way to pay for these improvements.
Case for reform
A year ago, mistakes by the Charlotte County 911 center revealed the aching distance between perfection and failure. Operators there received a call that could have helped catch a kidnapper, but the process fell apart, operators did not follow through and law enforcement was not notified. Ultimately the abduction victim, a young North Port mom, died.
The blame for that loss lies squarely on the killer. But the case shows how important a well-run 911 system is to the cause of public safety.
An internal investigation into the handling of the 911 calls faulted two staff members, and details portrayed an office caught flat-footed and unprepared. The two workers were suspended and retrained, but the victim's family wants systemic reforms.
As the newspaper series noted, some counties, such as Alachua and Sarasota, have made strong strides in 911 quality control. But problems -- though proportionally rare -- can happen anywhere, including:
Sarasota County in 2004. According to a report in the Herald-Tribune, a misunderstanding occurred on two 911 calls concerning the crash of a small plane in Venice. Authorities did not get to the scene until 19 hours later. One 911 operator was reassigned at her request, and more training procedures were implemented.
Lapeer County, Mich. Officials there blamed "outmoded equipment for system failures to the (911) lifesaving system," according to an article in the County Press. "To keep up with technological advances, cash strapped 911 must find $15.2 million to replace it."
Nashville, Tenn. A policy requiring 911 operators to ask callers a lengthy "checklist" of questions delayed medical help. After complaints and an investigation, the policy was changed.
Detroit. Last year a woman there became the first 911 operator in the country to be convicted for mishandling a case. Reportedly, she mistook for a prank a 5-year-old boy's call about his mother, who had collapsed and later died. The operator, convicted of misdemeanor neglect and fired, was sentenced to probation and community service.
Madison, Wis. In December a 911 operator -- trying to answer another call -- reportedly mishandled a call from a college student who was under attack. The girl was later found slain.
Recognize reality
Any discussion of 911 problems must recognize the extraordinary conditions that operators and dispatchers often face on the job.
These workers are multi-taskers, asked to quickly make detailed, knowledgeable decisions -- even if the person on the other end of the phone is incoherent or panicked. They must be able to use technology, classify calls, select proper codes, find the nearest available police cars, and sometimes talk a caller through lifesaving measures.
These are valuable skills that should be developed through training and office accreditation, and be fairly compensated. Paying for them is a challenge, however, as are efforts to develop user-friendly equipment that keeps up with telecom advances and gets operators the information they need.
To help fund 911 improvements, Florida could increase the 50-cent monthly fee that phone users pay toward this purpose.
A fee hike may prove necessary, but caution is warranted: Both land-line and cell-phone users pay a variety of other taxes, on top of the 911 fee, that add substantially to government coffers. The combined communications tax rates are among the highest in the nation, according to nonprofit Florida Tax Watch.
Much of the revenue produced by the general communications taxes are used for schools, infrastructure and other long-term needs that are important but have nothing to do with phone service. In the future, shifting some of that all-purpose money toward 911 -- which, in Sarasota County, also receives some funding from sales taxes as well as county fire and ambulance fees -- should be considered.
More federal grant money for 911 technology upgrades, training and nationally recognized accreditation would help as well. If such funding is not already under consideration as part of President Obama's economic recovery plan, it should be.
Monday, January 19, 2009
The Herald Tribune 9-1-1 stories
There were several 9-1-1 stories written by Zac Anderson which were published this past Saturday, Sunday and today (Monday).
I think I have them all. See these links:
Critical flaws in Florida's 911 system
911's experience gap
The legacy of Denise Amber Lee
Standards and accreditation at 911 call centers
911 rules are a hard sell
FWIW, I cannot give much incite as to other counties 9-1-1 centers. I have to trust what Mr Anderson has written. I have met Mr Anderson a couple of times and his diligence truly impressed my husband and me. And, believe me, we've met many reporters.
This is a little off topic but I have to say the majority of the reporters I've met, let's say 80%, I have genuinely gotten to like. I think most of them do care and look at us as more than just a story. There is that other 20% that I think are snakes. There's that 80/20 rule. I imagine this to be the case in most industries. You've got nice people, and then you have the "pleasant" but not really so nice people.
I'll lump Zac in with the 80%. He's got to be one of the smartest and most driven reporters I've met. I was truly impressed. And, for him it most definitely was about his story. But, he still was able to express compassion for us as a family. He gave our thoughts and feelings respect.
Also, FWIW, we're not media "whores". Someone said something not so nice to me the other day and I just want to set the record straight. We don't like the spotlight. We have been thrust into a situation that's not comfortable for us. Putting your pain on display the way Nathan has, isn't easy. But he does it. Rick (Goff) does it. I do it. Why? Well, I know why I do it. I do it for Nathan. I'd do anything for Nathan if it was the right thing for him. Same for Brian. But I can only guess as to why Nathan and Rick do it. I guess it's because they (me too) desperately NEVER want to see this happen to another family. Denise fought so hard. To fight the way she did and then to die in vain? It's still seems so surreal to me. We know there will always be mistakes. We know that to err is human. And, we truly can forgive human error. But, we have a very difficult time forgiving people that don't recognize the problems (or worse do recognize the problems) and don't fix them at the expense of loss of life. It just seems unconscionable.
I don't think Mr Anderson was trying to throw anyone under the bus as was said in many comments to his articles. Publishing people's names for mistakes they made in the past, made me a bit uncomfortable but maybe he needed to do that for credibility.
I'm just grateful he wrote the articles. For a while I felt as if I was going crazy because it seemed as if no-one was listening. I feel saddened that Denise's case isn't isolated. It would be so much easier to accept and understand if it was.
When it happened, I had an inkling of "this must happen more than we suspect. We never would have known about it if Ms Kowalski hadn't been so persistant in being heard." I imagined it happening in big cities and small towns. I thought that right away. Imagine the cover ups. I think they're scattered through the country.
The CCSO has absolutely no transparency at all.
So, I'm truly am glad he wrote the articles. He did his research.
I do hope that, if anything, it brings about awareness. And that when future legislation is presented, that maybe this will help sway people's votes into making positive changes in the 9-1-1 industry.
And, FWIW, then I'll stop running on, out of the 4 9-1-1 calls Sarasota County received the night we lost Denise, ALL were handled perfectly. Kudos from us to them.
God bless all call takers and dispatchers, everywhere, with guidance and strength.
Anyone have any ideas of how we can Governor Crist's attention? He's the only person who can insist on an external investigation into what happened in the CCSO 9-1-1 center that night.
You'd think he'd be interested in this! So far, he's ignored our attempts at communication with him.
I'm thinking of starting a petition and going door to door. The only problem with that is, I'd have to tell Denise's story over and over again. How painful would that be? And even if the angels in blue were to do it, it would still be painful for them as well. They never met Denise but they've grown to love her.
I hate the idea of email. Because, it's cold and I don't know if email petitions are taken as seriously as hand signed petitions. Maybe at future events we should have a petition clip board and carry it wherever we go.
I'm just starting to think (not aloud) but as I type. Same thing.
Oh! several people have asked about the picture at the top right of the blog. Ben, Tammy's (http://www.amomandherblog.com/) husband took it. Mark was very upset over the gray hair. So, I'll be doing something about that tomorrow. Still, I think it's a great pic because it expresses exactly how I was feeling.
Much love and peace to all. And thank you, Zac Anderson, for bringing light to this issue.
I think I have them all. See these links:
Critical flaws in Florida's 911 system
911's experience gap
The legacy of Denise Amber Lee
Standards and accreditation at 911 call centers
911 rules are a hard sell
FWIW, I cannot give much incite as to other counties 9-1-1 centers. I have to trust what Mr Anderson has written. I have met Mr Anderson a couple of times and his diligence truly impressed my husband and me. And, believe me, we've met many reporters.
This is a little off topic but I have to say the majority of the reporters I've met, let's say 80%, I have genuinely gotten to like. I think most of them do care and look at us as more than just a story. There is that other 20% that I think are snakes. There's that 80/20 rule. I imagine this to be the case in most industries. You've got nice people, and then you have the "pleasant" but not really so nice people.
I'll lump Zac in with the 80%. He's got to be one of the smartest and most driven reporters I've met. I was truly impressed. And, for him it most definitely was about his story. But, he still was able to express compassion for us as a family. He gave our thoughts and feelings respect.
Also, FWIW, we're not media "whores". Someone said something not so nice to me the other day and I just want to set the record straight. We don't like the spotlight. We have been thrust into a situation that's not comfortable for us. Putting your pain on display the way Nathan has, isn't easy. But he does it. Rick (Goff) does it. I do it. Why? Well, I know why I do it. I do it for Nathan. I'd do anything for Nathan if it was the right thing for him. Same for Brian. But I can only guess as to why Nathan and Rick do it. I guess it's because they (me too) desperately NEVER want to see this happen to another family. Denise fought so hard. To fight the way she did and then to die in vain? It's still seems so surreal to me. We know there will always be mistakes. We know that to err is human. And, we truly can forgive human error. But, we have a very difficult time forgiving people that don't recognize the problems (or worse do recognize the problems) and don't fix them at the expense of loss of life. It just seems unconscionable.
I don't think Mr Anderson was trying to throw anyone under the bus as was said in many comments to his articles. Publishing people's names for mistakes they made in the past, made me a bit uncomfortable but maybe he needed to do that for credibility.
I'm just grateful he wrote the articles. For a while I felt as if I was going crazy because it seemed as if no-one was listening. I feel saddened that Denise's case isn't isolated. It would be so much easier to accept and understand if it was.
When it happened, I had an inkling of "this must happen more than we suspect. We never would have known about it if Ms Kowalski hadn't been so persistant in being heard." I imagined it happening in big cities and small towns. I thought that right away. Imagine the cover ups. I think they're scattered through the country.
The CCSO has absolutely no transparency at all.
So, I'm truly am glad he wrote the articles. He did his research.
I do hope that, if anything, it brings about awareness. And that when future legislation is presented, that maybe this will help sway people's votes into making positive changes in the 9-1-1 industry.
And, FWIW, then I'll stop running on, out of the 4 9-1-1 calls Sarasota County received the night we lost Denise, ALL were handled perfectly. Kudos from us to them.
God bless all call takers and dispatchers, everywhere, with guidance and strength.
Anyone have any ideas of how we can Governor Crist's attention? He's the only person who can insist on an external investigation into what happened in the CCSO 9-1-1 center that night.
You'd think he'd be interested in this! So far, he's ignored our attempts at communication with him.
I'm thinking of starting a petition and going door to door. The only problem with that is, I'd have to tell Denise's story over and over again. How painful would that be? And even if the angels in blue were to do it, it would still be painful for them as well. They never met Denise but they've grown to love her.
I hate the idea of email. Because, it's cold and I don't know if email petitions are taken as seriously as hand signed petitions. Maybe at future events we should have a petition clip board and carry it wherever we go.
I'm just starting to think (not aloud) but as I type. Same thing.
Oh! several people have asked about the picture at the top right of the blog. Ben, Tammy's (http://www.amomandherblog.com/) husband took it. Mark was very upset over the gray hair. So, I'll be doing something about that tomorrow. Still, I think it's a great pic because it expresses exactly how I was feeling.
Much love and peace to all. And thank you, Zac Anderson, for bringing light to this issue.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Oh My! 9-1-1 and the State of Florida
Critical flaws in Florida's 911 system
By Zac Anderson
Published: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 1:00 a.m. Last Modified: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 2:59 p.m.
First of three parts
Moving ceremony for Denise Lee
Harold Muxlow 911 call Audio
Sabrina Muxlow 911 call Audio
Jane Kowalski 911 call Audio
Dispatchers get 911 call from Denise Amber Lee Audio
Lee's father speaks in Tallahassee Audio
One year after Denise Lee's murder Video
911 caller tells police about hearing Denise Amber Lee's screams Video
Every year, Florida 911 workers make hundreds of critical errors that endanger lives and leave people waiting for help, a Herald-Tribune investigation has found.
Records show that Florida’s 911 call takers and dispatchers — the vital link between emergency responders and distressed callers — send help to the wrong address or neglect to send any help at all.
They fall asleep on the job and abandon their posts to run errands. They argue with heart attack victims and hang up on hysterical callers.
In the most egregious cases, 911 workers listen to callers’ pleas for help and simply decide not to send a police officer or ambulance.
Despite chronic errors and even deaths, state officials and many local agencies have done little to stop the mistakes.
Florida’s 911 centers have no uniform standards and little oversight. Unlike at least 32 other states, Florida does not mandate training or certification for dispatchers. In some cases, the Herald-Tribune found, dispatchers have been allowed to start processing calls just two days after being hired.
And the mistakes are piling up.
The newspaper spent six months gathering and analyzing five years’ worth of discipline reports and complaints against 911 centers across the state. The paper reviewed more than 1,000 cases from more than half of Florida’s 67 counties. It also interviewed more than 50 current and former 911 workers, supervisors, policymakers and victims of 911 mishaps.
Although the vast majority of calls are handled correctly, the newspaper found that mistakes occur every day and that government officials have neglected the 911 system, allowing it to lag years behind police, firefighters and paramedics in training and other standards.
Among the findings:
--Each year in Florida, hundreds of 911 dispatchers violate protocols designed to ensure swift and accurate emergency response, complaint documents show. More than a third of those mistakes delay the arrival of police, fire or medical responders, threatening lives.
--Hundreds more 911 employees demonstrate gross unprofessionalism with actions that include sleeping on the job, not showing up for work, leaving stations unattended or turning off emergency alert tones so that they will not be disturbed.
--Dozens of errors put emergency responders in jeopardy when dispatchers failed to fully describe a dangerous situation or update criminal databases. A Gainesville police officer faced a suspected killer during a traffic stop on Sept. 14, 2006, but did not know because of a dispatcher’s error, records show.
--Heavy turnover and training standards that vary widely from one community to the next virtually ensure mistakes will be made by overworked, ill-prepared phone and radio operators. Even so, top law enforcement officials lobby against more training because of concerns about money.
--Most 911 centers have adopted standards that draw on accepted industry practices. But no minimum standards are required by Florida law. In addition, Florida officials do not require 911 centers to track mistakes or determine if errors were fatal.
--Even when mistakes are discovered, 911 administrators often dole out light punishment, allowing operators to rack up multiple mistakes without serious consequences. A Bradenton dispatcher was reprimanded for 9 offenses during her first 11 months on the job. Three times she sent rescue workers to the wrong address on “serious calls,” and once she failed to alert police about a missing 4-year-old.
Julie Righter, a national expert on 911 standards who runs a center in Nebraska, said 911 workers have an extremely tough job and handle most calls without incident.
They perform thankless work for little pay, yet are a key cog in a system that saves lives. But Righter also said that the competence of a 911 operator should not be a factor in whether someone lives or dies. And many 911 centers have a long way to go before the proper standards are in place to ensure there is little chance “you’ll have an error when someone’s life is on the line,” she said.
Raising standards has been difficult. The two main voices of law enforcement in Florida — the Florida Police Chief’s Association and the Florida Sheriff’s Association — have opposed increased requirements because of the expense.
In the absence of statewide standards, the 911 system has continued to tolerate mistake after mistake.
Widespread problems
Every so often, a tragic error by a 911 dispatcher captures headlines because someone dies.
A year ago today, a mishandled call to Charlotte County’s 911 center robbed law enforcement officers of a critical opportunity to save 21-year-old Denise Lee.
A concerned driver heard someone screaming in the back of a Camaro on U.S. 41 and called 911. The caller was so concerned she stayed on the phone for nine minutes, following the car to give street-by-street locations.
Although 911 workers suspected that the passenger might be Lee, dispatchers failed to send help.
Several deputies were just minutes away.
The young North Port mother was found two days later, buried in a shallow grave with a single gunshot wound.
Blame was passed around. The radio operators blamed the 911 call taker for shouting across the room instead of calmly sending a computer message. The Sheriff’s Office defended the call taker and disciplined the radio dispatchers for not taking action.
It was a communication breakdown that shook the community’s faith in the 911 system.
A year before Lee’s death, another death was attributed to inaction by 911 employees, this time in Pasco County. For seven minutes, 911 supervisor David Cook refused to offer lifesaving advice to a caller whose girlfriend was choking and near death. The supervisor did not want to get on the phone with a “hysterical caller,” according to reports in the St. Petersburg Times. Co-workers later reported that when Cook learned the woman had died, he joked, “She must have bitten off more than she can chew.”
More recently, inaction by dispatchers was partly blamed for the death of a Plantation woman who dialed 911 while driving to the police station.
For three minutes she begged for help as a man with a gun chased her down the street. She described where she was and told the 911 operator she was driving to the police station. But when she arrived, no officers had been sent to protect her.
The man shot Olidia Kerr Day to death, then killed himself.
Many of the officials who run the state’s 250-plus 911 centers argue that these sensational episodes are the result of isolated and rare human errors.
But the Herald-Tribune found hundreds of mishandled calls that might have contributed to someone’s death if not for one thing — luck.
--In Escambia County, a new 911 call taker sent ambulances to the wrong address three times in a four-month span. She delayed help for an unconscious person, car accident victims and a person having a seizure. In the car accident case, the caller gave the location as North Z Street and repeated “Z, like zebra,” records show. The dispatcher entered North C Street.
--At least twice in the past five years in Pinellas County, ambulance drivers arrived on the scene to find their patients holding a gun. The 911 workers failed to warn the paramedics, according to a complaint log.
--In Sarasota County, a woman called 911 from the Chili’s restaurant in Venice to report an unconscious person and clearly stated the address. The dispatcher sent paramedics to a Chili’s in Sarasota.
--In Hardee County, a 911 worker walked out of the call center, leaving it empty with no one to answer the phone for eight minutes while she looked for a co-worker. Another worker failed to report an escaped prisoner who had jumped out of a window at a nearby county courthouse. Five days later, the same woman sent paramedics to the wrong address for a heart attack, delaying help by 27 minutes, records show.
The Herald-Tribune found more than 600 similar mistakes statewide in the past five years. The actual number is likely measured in thousands. The Herald-Tribune was only able to review complaints and discipline reports from about 40 of the state’s more than 250 centers that directly or indirectly handle 911 calls.
Several dozen agencies contacted by the newspaper did not comply with Florida public records law, failing to respond to written and e-mailed public records requests. Other centers reported no problems or just a handful, even though 911 experts say errors occur in most centers practically every day.
Why mistakes happen
There is a reason so many 911 workers — nearly 75 percent for some agencies — leave within the first year.
They are asked to field life-or-death calls under extreme stress for less than $30,000 a year.
In a matter of seconds, they must ask the right questions to understand an emergency, assign a priority to the call and pass on the correct information to responders.
The large number of non-emergencies, nearly half of all calls for some agencies, can create a “boy who cried wolf” phenomenon, in which workers take real emergencies less seriously because they have dealt with so many minor issues.
Add it all up and the potential for errors — misunderstanding an address, pushing the wrong key on a computer keyboard, getting distracted — is high.
That is why the best dispatch centers establish excruciatingly detailed protocols for answering 911 calls and require months of intense training. They make sure seemingly small errors do not go unmentioned and hold people to high standards.
But in Florida, the 911 agencies have been left largely on their own, with no statewide requirements for training, staffing or quality control, little oversight and paltry state funding.
As a result, training and monitoring vary widely.
In Bradenton, new 911 dispatchers have 14 weeks to master everything and begin working on their own. They learn on the job with no classroom training. In Broward County, new hires spend 12 weeks confined to a classroom and the training program lasts a full year.
The lack of standards is a problem nationwide, said Nancy Pollock, a 911 consultant who ran centers in Minnesota.
“Unfortunately the only way this is going to change is if the highest government in an area takes ownership of this, and in most cases that’s the state,” she said.
In the absence of a state standard, several national accreditation programs lay out best practices.
Yet because the state does not push accreditation, only 15 of Florida’s 911 centers, among them Sarasota County’s, have qualified.
Ignoring the problem
Many of the county governments, sheriff’s offices and municipalities that oversee 911 centers do little to track life-threatening mistakes.
The state of New York requires every 911 center to track complaints.
But only a few of the Florida centers contacted by the Herald-Tribune could provide copies of a complaint log, or a list of every disciplinary action taken against 911 employees. For many, the only way to review 911 errors is to pull dozens of individual personnel files, and sift through thousands of pages looking for discipline reports.
Even that will not catch all of the mistakes because documents describing errors are not always retained.
As a result, many 911 centers operate with no way of knowing how many errors are made, who is making them and how to reduce errors.
In Escambia County, 911 manager Bob Boschen said he began keeping a complaint log after the Herald-Tribune contacted him to request complaint documents last year.
Boschen said he realized that tracking problems is part of providing “the best customer service.” His goal now is to have less than two valid complaints a month.
Some Florida 911 agencies, including Escambia, systematically seek out mistakes in regular audits of every dispatcher.
In Sarasota County, dispatch managers randomly review 10 law enforcement calls each week and 3 percent of medical calls each month to make sure employees verified addresses, classified emergencies properly and asked the right questions.
The checks expose where employees need training and discourage complacency, said Sarasota sheriff’s Capt. Jeff Bell, who runs the 911 center.
“It’s a little scary because you’re really opening yourself for criticism,” said Pollock, the consultant. “But a smart manager views complaints as a good thing. If you have something wrong you want to know about it before something really tragic happens.”
Yet while some agencies have documented more than 100 problems in their 911 centers over the past five years through complaint tracking, the Herald-Tribune found four agencies that recorded no problems at all. Others had very few.
The Bradenton Police Department — an agency with 15 dispatchers — had 20 discipline cases, while Charlotte County, with more than twice as many dispatchers, had just 10.
A former Charlotte County 911 worker told the Herald Tribune that she witnessed problems in the center that went undocumented.
Amy Corbett, who worked in Charlotte County’s 911 center for four months in 2006 and left for personal reasons, said most of the people in the 911 center were competent professionals, but she remembered an incident where a call taker was sleeping on the job and the other workers just laughed and threw candy at her.
“I didn’t see them handle mistakes that happened,” Corbett said. “Some were swept under the carpet, or you’d just have a supervisor talk to you, but it was never anything that was formal.”
Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Sherman Robinson said his office has no record that Corbett reported the problems she saw in the 911 center. Robinson said that if a problem was brought to their attention they would have taken action.
Charlotte does not keep a complaint log. Officials say their informal system works because they get few complaints, and discipline is adequate.
“I can’t tell you the last time I got a complaint,” Robinson said. “I think we hold people to a pretty good standard.
”
Few consequences
Beyond training and monitoring, some experts say dispatch mistakes in Florida have been increased by lax punishment when errors are discovered.
In some cases, even when a mistake ends in tragedy, the punishment is light.
The two dispatchers who did not send deputies to investigate the 911 call shortly before Lee’s death were each suspended but stayed on the job. It was the first time in five years that Charlotte County had suspended a dispatcher, a common punishment elsewhere. Then-Sheriff John Davenport said they were good employees who just slipped up.
The Herald-Tribune’s investigation found that punishment levels vary widely from one place to the next.
In Alachua County, where the 911 center has been held up as a model of excellence, employees are twice as likely to be suspended as 911 workers statewide, the Herald-Tribune’s analysis shows.
But in many 911 centers, managers tolerate repeated mistakes.One Manatee County dispatcher delayed emergency workers six times during her first year on the job, including not sending an ambulance to a motorcycle accident. She was suspended for one day.
Other Manatee dispatchers have similar track records. One was late for work fives times in a year and received a day’s suspension. Another was disciplined five times in a year — for insubordination, attendance problems and an ambulance delay — without receiving more than a letter of counseling.
In April 2008, 17-year-old Braden River High School senior Bre Doran’s boyfriend flipped his truck near State Road 64 in Manatee County. Doran passed out when her head shattered the windshield. When she woke up, Doran could not move her neck.
“It hurt so bad,” she said.
A passing driver called 911.
At the Manatee County 911 center, Mary Ellen Holloway took the call. She made a computer mistake and the information was never forwarded to a radio dispatcher responsible for sending an ambulance.
Doran waited 91 minutes before the error was discovered and an ambulance arrived.
It was not Holloway’s first mistake.
Four months earlier, in December 2007, Holloway committed the same computer error and failed to send help to a woman complaining of abdominal pain.
The error that left Doran stranded was Holloway’s fourth discipline episode in seven months. She received a warning and remedial training.
Holloway said the experience with Doran’s truck rollover shook her. She has not had an error since.
“The county takes very seriously issues like that, and I know for myself it was scary for me,” Holloway said.
Bill Hutchison, Manatee County’s public safety director, said he believes the agency has a balanced approach to discipline. The best thing for the public is often to retrain employees, not fire them, he said.
The Herald-Tribune analysis found that punishments statewide rarely end a dispatcher’s career. Only 2 percent of the complaints ended in termination and only 18 percent involved a demotion, loss of job or a suspension.
Most people escape with a warning, even after repeat mistakes involving high priority calls: those involving medical emergencies or imminent threat.
The Herald-Tribune found more than 25 people who kept their job even after being disciplined four times and nearly 200 employees who were disciplined at least twice.
Escambia County 911 dispatcher John “Jason” Dunn had 10 discipline episodes between 2004 and 2007, the most for his agency.
Dunn had five documented ambulance delays in three years, including one episode where he came into work groggy after staying up for 24 hours and sent paramedics to the wrong nursing home for a patient with “chest pains and in severe respiratory distress.”
In an interview last week, Dunn noted that he has not had an error in more than a year.
“Five delays, that sounds like a lot, right?” he said. “I know it seems bad, but you have to consider the total volume of calls, the hundreds of thousands of calls I handled perfectly. It’s tough because every call is important. It’s a job where you want 100 percent accuracy, but that’s impossible.”
Staff writer Chris Davis contributed to this report.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090117/ARTICLE/901170311
By Zac Anderson
Published: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 1:00 a.m. Last Modified: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 2:59 p.m.
First of three parts
Moving ceremony for Denise Lee
Harold Muxlow 911 call Audio
Sabrina Muxlow 911 call Audio
Jane Kowalski 911 call Audio
Dispatchers get 911 call from Denise Amber Lee Audio
Lee's father speaks in Tallahassee Audio
One year after Denise Lee's murder Video
911 caller tells police about hearing Denise Amber Lee's screams Video
Every year, Florida 911 workers make hundreds of critical errors that endanger lives and leave people waiting for help, a Herald-Tribune investigation has found.
Records show that Florida’s 911 call takers and dispatchers — the vital link between emergency responders and distressed callers — send help to the wrong address or neglect to send any help at all.
They fall asleep on the job and abandon their posts to run errands. They argue with heart attack victims and hang up on hysterical callers.
In the most egregious cases, 911 workers listen to callers’ pleas for help and simply decide not to send a police officer or ambulance.
Despite chronic errors and even deaths, state officials and many local agencies have done little to stop the mistakes.
Florida’s 911 centers have no uniform standards and little oversight. Unlike at least 32 other states, Florida does not mandate training or certification for dispatchers. In some cases, the Herald-Tribune found, dispatchers have been allowed to start processing calls just two days after being hired.
And the mistakes are piling up.
The newspaper spent six months gathering and analyzing five years’ worth of discipline reports and complaints against 911 centers across the state. The paper reviewed more than 1,000 cases from more than half of Florida’s 67 counties. It also interviewed more than 50 current and former 911 workers, supervisors, policymakers and victims of 911 mishaps.
Although the vast majority of calls are handled correctly, the newspaper found that mistakes occur every day and that government officials have neglected the 911 system, allowing it to lag years behind police, firefighters and paramedics in training and other standards.
Among the findings:
--Each year in Florida, hundreds of 911 dispatchers violate protocols designed to ensure swift and accurate emergency response, complaint documents show. More than a third of those mistakes delay the arrival of police, fire or medical responders, threatening lives.
--Hundreds more 911 employees demonstrate gross unprofessionalism with actions that include sleeping on the job, not showing up for work, leaving stations unattended or turning off emergency alert tones so that they will not be disturbed.
--Dozens of errors put emergency responders in jeopardy when dispatchers failed to fully describe a dangerous situation or update criminal databases. A Gainesville police officer faced a suspected killer during a traffic stop on Sept. 14, 2006, but did not know because of a dispatcher’s error, records show.
--Heavy turnover and training standards that vary widely from one community to the next virtually ensure mistakes will be made by overworked, ill-prepared phone and radio operators. Even so, top law enforcement officials lobby against more training because of concerns about money.
--Most 911 centers have adopted standards that draw on accepted industry practices. But no minimum standards are required by Florida law. In addition, Florida officials do not require 911 centers to track mistakes or determine if errors were fatal.
--Even when mistakes are discovered, 911 administrators often dole out light punishment, allowing operators to rack up multiple mistakes without serious consequences. A Bradenton dispatcher was reprimanded for 9 offenses during her first 11 months on the job. Three times she sent rescue workers to the wrong address on “serious calls,” and once she failed to alert police about a missing 4-year-old.
Julie Righter, a national expert on 911 standards who runs a center in Nebraska, said 911 workers have an extremely tough job and handle most calls without incident.
They perform thankless work for little pay, yet are a key cog in a system that saves lives. But Righter also said that the competence of a 911 operator should not be a factor in whether someone lives or dies. And many 911 centers have a long way to go before the proper standards are in place to ensure there is little chance “you’ll have an error when someone’s life is on the line,” she said.
Raising standards has been difficult. The two main voices of law enforcement in Florida — the Florida Police Chief’s Association and the Florida Sheriff’s Association — have opposed increased requirements because of the expense.
In the absence of statewide standards, the 911 system has continued to tolerate mistake after mistake.
Widespread problems
Every so often, a tragic error by a 911 dispatcher captures headlines because someone dies.
A year ago today, a mishandled call to Charlotte County’s 911 center robbed law enforcement officers of a critical opportunity to save 21-year-old Denise Lee.
A concerned driver heard someone screaming in the back of a Camaro on U.S. 41 and called 911. The caller was so concerned she stayed on the phone for nine minutes, following the car to give street-by-street locations.
Although 911 workers suspected that the passenger might be Lee, dispatchers failed to send help.
Several deputies were just minutes away.
The young North Port mother was found two days later, buried in a shallow grave with a single gunshot wound.
Blame was passed around. The radio operators blamed the 911 call taker for shouting across the room instead of calmly sending a computer message. The Sheriff’s Office defended the call taker and disciplined the radio dispatchers for not taking action.
It was a communication breakdown that shook the community’s faith in the 911 system.
A year before Lee’s death, another death was attributed to inaction by 911 employees, this time in Pasco County. For seven minutes, 911 supervisor David Cook refused to offer lifesaving advice to a caller whose girlfriend was choking and near death. The supervisor did not want to get on the phone with a “hysterical caller,” according to reports in the St. Petersburg Times. Co-workers later reported that when Cook learned the woman had died, he joked, “She must have bitten off more than she can chew.”
More recently, inaction by dispatchers was partly blamed for the death of a Plantation woman who dialed 911 while driving to the police station.
For three minutes she begged for help as a man with a gun chased her down the street. She described where she was and told the 911 operator she was driving to the police station. But when she arrived, no officers had been sent to protect her.
The man shot Olidia Kerr Day to death, then killed himself.
Many of the officials who run the state’s 250-plus 911 centers argue that these sensational episodes are the result of isolated and rare human errors.
But the Herald-Tribune found hundreds of mishandled calls that might have contributed to someone’s death if not for one thing — luck.
--In Escambia County, a new 911 call taker sent ambulances to the wrong address three times in a four-month span. She delayed help for an unconscious person, car accident victims and a person having a seizure. In the car accident case, the caller gave the location as North Z Street and repeated “Z, like zebra,” records show. The dispatcher entered North C Street.
--At least twice in the past five years in Pinellas County, ambulance drivers arrived on the scene to find their patients holding a gun. The 911 workers failed to warn the paramedics, according to a complaint log.
--In Sarasota County, a woman called 911 from the Chili’s restaurant in Venice to report an unconscious person and clearly stated the address. The dispatcher sent paramedics to a Chili’s in Sarasota.
--In Hardee County, a 911 worker walked out of the call center, leaving it empty with no one to answer the phone for eight minutes while she looked for a co-worker. Another worker failed to report an escaped prisoner who had jumped out of a window at a nearby county courthouse. Five days later, the same woman sent paramedics to the wrong address for a heart attack, delaying help by 27 minutes, records show.
The Herald-Tribune found more than 600 similar mistakes statewide in the past five years. The actual number is likely measured in thousands. The Herald-Tribune was only able to review complaints and discipline reports from about 40 of the state’s more than 250 centers that directly or indirectly handle 911 calls.
Several dozen agencies contacted by the newspaper did not comply with Florida public records law, failing to respond to written and e-mailed public records requests. Other centers reported no problems or just a handful, even though 911 experts say errors occur in most centers practically every day.
Why mistakes happen
There is a reason so many 911 workers — nearly 75 percent for some agencies — leave within the first year.
They are asked to field life-or-death calls under extreme stress for less than $30,000 a year.
In a matter of seconds, they must ask the right questions to understand an emergency, assign a priority to the call and pass on the correct information to responders.
The large number of non-emergencies, nearly half of all calls for some agencies, can create a “boy who cried wolf” phenomenon, in which workers take real emergencies less seriously because they have dealt with so many minor issues.
Add it all up and the potential for errors — misunderstanding an address, pushing the wrong key on a computer keyboard, getting distracted — is high.
That is why the best dispatch centers establish excruciatingly detailed protocols for answering 911 calls and require months of intense training. They make sure seemingly small errors do not go unmentioned and hold people to high standards.
But in Florida, the 911 agencies have been left largely on their own, with no statewide requirements for training, staffing or quality control, little oversight and paltry state funding.
As a result, training and monitoring vary widely.
In Bradenton, new 911 dispatchers have 14 weeks to master everything and begin working on their own. They learn on the job with no classroom training. In Broward County, new hires spend 12 weeks confined to a classroom and the training program lasts a full year.
The lack of standards is a problem nationwide, said Nancy Pollock, a 911 consultant who ran centers in Minnesota.
“Unfortunately the only way this is going to change is if the highest government in an area takes ownership of this, and in most cases that’s the state,” she said.
In the absence of a state standard, several national accreditation programs lay out best practices.
Yet because the state does not push accreditation, only 15 of Florida’s 911 centers, among them Sarasota County’s, have qualified.
Ignoring the problem
Many of the county governments, sheriff’s offices and municipalities that oversee 911 centers do little to track life-threatening mistakes.
The state of New York requires every 911 center to track complaints.
But only a few of the Florida centers contacted by the Herald-Tribune could provide copies of a complaint log, or a list of every disciplinary action taken against 911 employees. For many, the only way to review 911 errors is to pull dozens of individual personnel files, and sift through thousands of pages looking for discipline reports.
Even that will not catch all of the mistakes because documents describing errors are not always retained.
As a result, many 911 centers operate with no way of knowing how many errors are made, who is making them and how to reduce errors.
In Escambia County, 911 manager Bob Boschen said he began keeping a complaint log after the Herald-Tribune contacted him to request complaint documents last year.
Boschen said he realized that tracking problems is part of providing “the best customer service.” His goal now is to have less than two valid complaints a month.
Some Florida 911 agencies, including Escambia, systematically seek out mistakes in regular audits of every dispatcher.
In Sarasota County, dispatch managers randomly review 10 law enforcement calls each week and 3 percent of medical calls each month to make sure employees verified addresses, classified emergencies properly and asked the right questions.
The checks expose where employees need training and discourage complacency, said Sarasota sheriff’s Capt. Jeff Bell, who runs the 911 center.
“It’s a little scary because you’re really opening yourself for criticism,” said Pollock, the consultant. “But a smart manager views complaints as a good thing. If you have something wrong you want to know about it before something really tragic happens.”
Yet while some agencies have documented more than 100 problems in their 911 centers over the past five years through complaint tracking, the Herald-Tribune found four agencies that recorded no problems at all. Others had very few.
The Bradenton Police Department — an agency with 15 dispatchers — had 20 discipline cases, while Charlotte County, with more than twice as many dispatchers, had just 10.
A former Charlotte County 911 worker told the Herald Tribune that she witnessed problems in the center that went undocumented.
Amy Corbett, who worked in Charlotte County’s 911 center for four months in 2006 and left for personal reasons, said most of the people in the 911 center were competent professionals, but she remembered an incident where a call taker was sleeping on the job and the other workers just laughed and threw candy at her.
“I didn’t see them handle mistakes that happened,” Corbett said. “Some were swept under the carpet, or you’d just have a supervisor talk to you, but it was never anything that was formal.”
Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Sherman Robinson said his office has no record that Corbett reported the problems she saw in the 911 center. Robinson said that if a problem was brought to their attention they would have taken action.
Charlotte does not keep a complaint log. Officials say their informal system works because they get few complaints, and discipline is adequate.
“I can’t tell you the last time I got a complaint,” Robinson said. “I think we hold people to a pretty good standard.
”
Few consequences
Beyond training and monitoring, some experts say dispatch mistakes in Florida have been increased by lax punishment when errors are discovered.
In some cases, even when a mistake ends in tragedy, the punishment is light.
The two dispatchers who did not send deputies to investigate the 911 call shortly before Lee’s death were each suspended but stayed on the job. It was the first time in five years that Charlotte County had suspended a dispatcher, a common punishment elsewhere. Then-Sheriff John Davenport said they were good employees who just slipped up.
The Herald-Tribune’s investigation found that punishment levels vary widely from one place to the next.
In Alachua County, where the 911 center has been held up as a model of excellence, employees are twice as likely to be suspended as 911 workers statewide, the Herald-Tribune’s analysis shows.
But in many 911 centers, managers tolerate repeated mistakes.One Manatee County dispatcher delayed emergency workers six times during her first year on the job, including not sending an ambulance to a motorcycle accident. She was suspended for one day.
Other Manatee dispatchers have similar track records. One was late for work fives times in a year and received a day’s suspension. Another was disciplined five times in a year — for insubordination, attendance problems and an ambulance delay — without receiving more than a letter of counseling.
In April 2008, 17-year-old Braden River High School senior Bre Doran’s boyfriend flipped his truck near State Road 64 in Manatee County. Doran passed out when her head shattered the windshield. When she woke up, Doran could not move her neck.
“It hurt so bad,” she said.
A passing driver called 911.
At the Manatee County 911 center, Mary Ellen Holloway took the call. She made a computer mistake and the information was never forwarded to a radio dispatcher responsible for sending an ambulance.
Doran waited 91 minutes before the error was discovered and an ambulance arrived.
It was not Holloway’s first mistake.
Four months earlier, in December 2007, Holloway committed the same computer error and failed to send help to a woman complaining of abdominal pain.
The error that left Doran stranded was Holloway’s fourth discipline episode in seven months. She received a warning and remedial training.
Holloway said the experience with Doran’s truck rollover shook her. She has not had an error since.
“The county takes very seriously issues like that, and I know for myself it was scary for me,” Holloway said.
Bill Hutchison, Manatee County’s public safety director, said he believes the agency has a balanced approach to discipline. The best thing for the public is often to retrain employees, not fire them, he said.
The Herald-Tribune analysis found that punishments statewide rarely end a dispatcher’s career. Only 2 percent of the complaints ended in termination and only 18 percent involved a demotion, loss of job or a suspension.
Most people escape with a warning, even after repeat mistakes involving high priority calls: those involving medical emergencies or imminent threat.
The Herald-Tribune found more than 25 people who kept their job even after being disciplined four times and nearly 200 employees who were disciplined at least twice.
Escambia County 911 dispatcher John “Jason” Dunn had 10 discipline episodes between 2004 and 2007, the most for his agency.
Dunn had five documented ambulance delays in three years, including one episode where he came into work groggy after staying up for 24 hours and sent paramedics to the wrong nursing home for a patient with “chest pains and in severe respiratory distress.”
In an interview last week, Dunn noted that he has not had an error in more than a year.
“Five delays, that sounds like a lot, right?” he said. “I know it seems bad, but you have to consider the total volume of calls, the hundreds of thousands of calls I handled perfectly. It’s tough because every call is important. It’s a job where you want 100 percent accuracy, but that’s impossible.”
Staff writer Chris Davis contributed to this report.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090117/ARTICLE/901170311
Denise Amber Lee and today's papers
This just in SNN6 is going to carry the tribute live.
The Sun
Resident's to celebrate Denise Amber Lee's Memory
NORTH PORT -- Not many people knew who the shy Denise Amber Lee was until after she died. But in the days following her Jan. 17, 2008, abduction and murder, she became a household name.
Residents in North Port, Englewood, Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Rotonda rallied to raise money for the family Lee, 21, left behind -- her young sons, Adam and Noah, and grief-stricken husband, Nathan.
Every week for months, residents planned fundraisers and memorials, including benefit runs, car washes, picnics, self-defense classes, silent auctions, yard sales, a tree planting, a jewelry party, a golf tournament and a family fun day in the park in Denise's honor.
On Saturday, a year after Lee's death, the community will come together again to celebrate her life.
"It's going to be more uplifting instead of a sad memorial service," said Dave Garofalo, a family friend and a member of the Denise Amber Lee Foundation created to improve the 911 dispatch system and bring a state-of-the-art 911 call center to North Port.
A North Port city commissioner, Garofalo invited Nathan, his parents, Peggy and Mark, and Denise's father, Rick Goff, to his office at City Hall recently to organize the 11 a.m. ceremony in front of City Hall on Saturday.
Shortly after Lee's death, about 250 residents gathered at the same location to remember Denise. Saturday's service includes some of the same people who were a part of last year's memorial.
Garofalo said it's important to invite politicians because of the foundation's goal of strengthening 911 dispatchers' training.
"When an officer goes to your house for a domestic dispute, you know he's certified," Garofalo said. "When a paramedic is doing CPR on a patient, you know he's certified. You should have the same feeling when you call 911 -- that the dispatcher has had enough training and is certified to handle the call properly. They are a part of the first line of defense. They should have some kind of certifications."
Garofalo said the foundation will continue gently pushing its efforts, despite a poor economy.
"I don't want to see us (the foundation) push to pass a bill that becomes an unfunded mandate that local governments cannot afford," he said. "But that doesn't mean we can't do all we can to make people aware of the flaws in the system."
Nathan says he is grateful for all those who have helped his family.
"Nathan's message is that he cannot bring back his wife, but he can make things better by making people aware of her story," Garofalo said.
Nathan took this week off to help plan for the ceremony and spend time with Adam and Noah.
The Lee and Goff families, as well as the foundation, also will honor Tampa resident Jane Kowalski on Saturday.
Kowalski is the driver who called Charlotte County dispatchers on the night Denise was murdered. She told the 911 operator what she was witnessing in the car behind her, reportedly driven by suspect Michael King. Kowalski said she saw who police believe to be Lee banging on the window and screaming. Lee's body was found two days later off Toledo Blade Boulevard, and King was charged in her death.
Garofalo arranged for Kowalski to be given a key to the city for her dedication and "follow-through" attitude in trying to get deputies to respond to the suspicious activity she reported.
A bagpiper from the city police department will open the ceremony with "Amazing Grace," choir members from South Biscayne Church will sing, and Nathan plans to speak, as well as several others.
"The biggest reason for people to come on Saturday is to see (how) much Denise has made a difference in the community," Nathan said. "They will see how much a negative has been turned into a positive impact throughout our community and our country.
"It will be sad in a way, but it's a celebration about how much has risen from the ashes. Our boys are doing great. We are doing our best to make Denise happy, and we are not going to be miserable our whole lives."
If you go
Speakers for the Denise Amber Lee remembrance at 11 a.m. Saturday in front of North Port City Hall include state Reps. Paige Kreegel and Ken Roberson; the Rev. Dave Baldridge, pastor of Englewood United Methodist Church; Dave Dignam of Key Agency in Englewood; North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis; North Port City Commissioner David Garofalo; and Nathan Lee, Denise's widower.
E-mail: eallen@sun-herald.com
By ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH
North Port Community News Editor
The Herald
Memorial to honor life of a mother
By John Davis
Published: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.Last Modified: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 12:16 a.m.
NORTH PORT - The city that a year ago watched the unfolding tragedy of the abduction and murder of 21-year-old North Port mother Denise Lee will pause Saturday at City Hall to remember her.
Click to enlargeDenise Lee
A memorial ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. in front of City Hall, 4970 City Hall Blvd. State and local leaders and Nathan Lee, Denise's husband, are scheduled to speak.
Lee was taken from her home Jan. 17, 2008, touching off a massive, multi-agency search that ultimately failed to save her. Michael King, 37, of North Port, is awaiting trial on kidnapping, rape and murder charges.
The Lee abduction became a symbol for flaws in the 911 system when investigators found later that a witness, Jane Kowalski, reported seeing a passenger struggling in a dark colored Chevrolet Camaro on U.S. 41 that night. Kowalski's information never made it to deputies patrolling nearby after Charlotte County's 911 center mishandled her call. At the time, authorities had a description of King's car, a green Camaro, and were looking for the vehicle.
Nathan Lee has started a nonprofit foundation, the Denise Amber Lee Foundation, with a goal of improving the emergency call system in Florida and across the nation. He lauded Kowalski for her 911 call.
"She has been amazing towards my family," Lee told city leaders this week. "What she did that night is something everybody should do. It doesn't matter who you are."
North Port will award Kowalski a key to the city Saturday in recognition of her attempts to save Denise.
Kowalski's mishandled call has garnered national media attention and led to a state law on voluntary statewide training standards for people who work in emergency communications centers.
But Nathan Lee, who indicated he plans to sue Charlotte County over its response to Kowalski's call, said more improvements are needed.
This story appeared in print on page BN1
The Sun
Resident's to celebrate Denise Amber Lee's Memory
NORTH PORT -- Not many people knew who the shy Denise Amber Lee was until after she died. But in the days following her Jan. 17, 2008, abduction and murder, she became a household name.
Residents in North Port, Englewood, Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Rotonda rallied to raise money for the family Lee, 21, left behind -- her young sons, Adam and Noah, and grief-stricken husband, Nathan.
Every week for months, residents planned fundraisers and memorials, including benefit runs, car washes, picnics, self-defense classes, silent auctions, yard sales, a tree planting, a jewelry party, a golf tournament and a family fun day in the park in Denise's honor.
On Saturday, a year after Lee's death, the community will come together again to celebrate her life.
"It's going to be more uplifting instead of a sad memorial service," said Dave Garofalo, a family friend and a member of the Denise Amber Lee Foundation created to improve the 911 dispatch system and bring a state-of-the-art 911 call center to North Port.
A North Port city commissioner, Garofalo invited Nathan, his parents, Peggy and Mark, and Denise's father, Rick Goff, to his office at City Hall recently to organize the 11 a.m. ceremony in front of City Hall on Saturday.
Shortly after Lee's death, about 250 residents gathered at the same location to remember Denise. Saturday's service includes some of the same people who were a part of last year's memorial.
Garofalo said it's important to invite politicians because of the foundation's goal of strengthening 911 dispatchers' training.
"When an officer goes to your house for a domestic dispute, you know he's certified," Garofalo said. "When a paramedic is doing CPR on a patient, you know he's certified. You should have the same feeling when you call 911 -- that the dispatcher has had enough training and is certified to handle the call properly. They are a part of the first line of defense. They should have some kind of certifications."
Garofalo said the foundation will continue gently pushing its efforts, despite a poor economy.
"I don't want to see us (the foundation) push to pass a bill that becomes an unfunded mandate that local governments cannot afford," he said. "But that doesn't mean we can't do all we can to make people aware of the flaws in the system."
Nathan says he is grateful for all those who have helped his family.
"Nathan's message is that he cannot bring back his wife, but he can make things better by making people aware of her story," Garofalo said.
Nathan took this week off to help plan for the ceremony and spend time with Adam and Noah.
The Lee and Goff families, as well as the foundation, also will honor Tampa resident Jane Kowalski on Saturday.
Kowalski is the driver who called Charlotte County dispatchers on the night Denise was murdered. She told the 911 operator what she was witnessing in the car behind her, reportedly driven by suspect Michael King. Kowalski said she saw who police believe to be Lee banging on the window and screaming. Lee's body was found two days later off Toledo Blade Boulevard, and King was charged in her death.
Garofalo arranged for Kowalski to be given a key to the city for her dedication and "follow-through" attitude in trying to get deputies to respond to the suspicious activity she reported.
A bagpiper from the city police department will open the ceremony with "Amazing Grace," choir members from South Biscayne Church will sing, and Nathan plans to speak, as well as several others.
"The biggest reason for people to come on Saturday is to see (how) much Denise has made a difference in the community," Nathan said. "They will see how much a negative has been turned into a positive impact throughout our community and our country.
"It will be sad in a way, but it's a celebration about how much has risen from the ashes. Our boys are doing great. We are doing our best to make Denise happy, and we are not going to be miserable our whole lives."
If you go
Speakers for the Denise Amber Lee remembrance at 11 a.m. Saturday in front of North Port City Hall include state Reps. Paige Kreegel and Ken Roberson; the Rev. Dave Baldridge, pastor of Englewood United Methodist Church; Dave Dignam of Key Agency in Englewood; North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis; North Port City Commissioner David Garofalo; and Nathan Lee, Denise's widower.
E-mail: eallen@sun-herald.com
By ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH
North Port Community News Editor
The Herald
Memorial to honor life of a mother
By John Davis
Published: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.Last Modified: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 12:16 a.m.
NORTH PORT - The city that a year ago watched the unfolding tragedy of the abduction and murder of 21-year-old North Port mother Denise Lee will pause Saturday at City Hall to remember her.
Click to enlargeDenise Lee
A memorial ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. in front of City Hall, 4970 City Hall Blvd. State and local leaders and Nathan Lee, Denise's husband, are scheduled to speak.
Lee was taken from her home Jan. 17, 2008, touching off a massive, multi-agency search that ultimately failed to save her. Michael King, 37, of North Port, is awaiting trial on kidnapping, rape and murder charges.
The Lee abduction became a symbol for flaws in the 911 system when investigators found later that a witness, Jane Kowalski, reported seeing a passenger struggling in a dark colored Chevrolet Camaro on U.S. 41 that night. Kowalski's information never made it to deputies patrolling nearby after Charlotte County's 911 center mishandled her call. At the time, authorities had a description of King's car, a green Camaro, and were looking for the vehicle.
Nathan Lee has started a nonprofit foundation, the Denise Amber Lee Foundation, with a goal of improving the emergency call system in Florida and across the nation. He lauded Kowalski for her 911 call.
"She has been amazing towards my family," Lee told city leaders this week. "What she did that night is something everybody should do. It doesn't matter who you are."
North Port will award Kowalski a key to the city Saturday in recognition of her attempts to save Denise.
Kowalski's mishandled call has garnered national media attention and led to a state law on voluntary statewide training standards for people who work in emergency communications centers.
But Nathan Lee, who indicated he plans to sue Charlotte County over its response to Kowalski's call, said more improvements are needed.
This story appeared in print on page BN1
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