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From: optilink!cramer@uunet.uu.net (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: San Francisco P.D. and 911 Priorities
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Date: 6 Oct 90 17:26:24 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 714, Message 7 of 12


A local news story yesterday gave a disturbing example of how San
Francisco Police Department sets the priorities on 911 calls.  A young
man leaving a night baseball game at Candlestick Park had car trouble,
and found himself stranded in Hunter's Point.  (This is a high crime
part of San Francisco, for those of you at a safe distance from the
madness of S.F.)  He arranged a tow to a gas station, and started
making arrangements to have someone come and get him.  He was
unsuccessful.  

At 1:30 AM, someone called 911 from the gas station payphone to report
that his car was being broken into.  In the middle of the phone call,
the 911 operator heard a scuffle of some sort, and then the phone was
hung up.  Deciding that this was just a car burglary, the report was
not considered an "A" priority call, and so it was one and a half
hours before the police responded to it -- by which time the man and
the car were gone.

The father of the young man found the remains of his son, and the
remains of the car, about four days later, while searching the area
himself.

Is there any sort of model for how 911 calls are to be prioritized?
Wouldn't a scuffle in the middle of a call be reason to suspect that
someone was being hurt?  Or am I just dense?


Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer
You must be kidding!  No company would hold opinions like mine!