Dear cshl-ga;
You pose a very good question and I?ll do my best to try and answer it
as best I can drawing by my twenty plus years of professional law
enforcement experience (five of which were as a 911 Communications
Center Supervisor).
First and foremost federal and state laws and regulations can impact
the decisions made at a 911 Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) where
response activation is concerned. From there one must also observes
any pertinent local ordnances if and where they are applicable. Moving
down the chain of command a PSAP operates in accordance with local
department policy (which varies widely from city to city, state to
state and region to region.).
There are other factors of course that can determine how responses are
calculated. A 911 PSAP has the capability of answering 911 calls
(literally) as an emergency phone call ? and that?s it. What basically
exists at these PSAP?s is a dedicated telephone switchboard with one
or more dedicated lines and one or more trained E911 operators either
part-time or around the clock.
On the other hand, an enhanced 911 PSAP will have several dedicated
switchboard, several lines, several highly operators working around
the clock 365 days a year. The automatic number identification (ANI)
and automatic location identification (ALI) that typically comes
loaded in an enhanced system gives the operator advanced information
(and insight) into the problem (where the call is coming from, how to
direct personnel to that location, in some cases offering electronic
mapping systems, etc).
The reason I tell you this is because most ENHANCED systems have a
feature that categorizes dozens, if not hundreds, of hypothetical
situations and each situation is assigned a basic response plan. For
example, at the time the system is installed, the research and
planning office (or whoever is in charge of making policy for that
department) goes through the scenarios and painstakingly decides how
their policy will affect each of the responses. Let me show you a
possible short list (I am fictionalizing here merely for explanatory
purposes, so don?t interpret this as anyone?s actual policy):
Fight ? dispute between neighbors
system automatically suggests dispatching 1 officer
Fight ? physical altercation
system automatically suggests dispatching 2 officers
Fight ? weapon involved
system automatically suggests dispatching 2 officer, K-9 unit, supervisor
Fight ? shots fired
system automatically suggests dispatching 3 officers, K-9 unit, supervisor
Fight ? man down
system automatically suggests dispatching 4 officers, K-9 unit, EMS, supervisor
And the list goes on. As you can see (or imagine) the response
recommendations for ?fight? calls alone numbers in the 20?s or 30?s
depending on how large an area is, how many officers the department
employs, how many precincts the city has, and what the population is.
Other factors that impact how the system is programmed would be:
Typical call volume in the area where the problem exists ? some
systems can determine if the area is a ?hot spot? (by comparing recent
?red flag? calls in that area to the current one) and can modify ? or
?upgrade? - the normal response recommendation based on facts such as
this.
The time of day ? some systems can modify response recommendations
because of the time of day, sending more or less personnel during
times of darkness, weekends, holidays or days of the week when things
are statistically slow or more intense.
Progressive severity ? if a situation is automatically presented with
a recommendation of a one-officer response suddenly accelerates in
intensity (or decelerates in stability, however you prefer to view it)
the system might recommend a upgraded response. In the event of a
?Fight ? dispute between neighbors?, for example suddenly accelerates
to ?Fight ? physical confrontation?, the system might recommend an
immediate upgraded response of ?dispatch 1 additional officer, 1
supervisor, 1 EMS?.
These are only a couple of automatic modifications but as you might
imagine E911 operators are highly trained to make ?human? decisions as
well. These ?recommendations? originating from the system are of no
value without a human to interpret them. Operators can intervene at
any time and modify a call response as needed; after all it is the
operators who are operating the system, not a system operating the
operators. Having said that, the response determined by an operator is
largely determined by training, policy and logical recommendations
from the system according to what is known about a given situation.
Clearly a 911 operator?s job is a stressful and complicated one at
best.
To add to this confusion, each area makes it own determination
(through legislation, budget, necessity or cooperative spirit) whether
once central PSAP controls all emergency response, or if each agency
or jurisdiction has their own PSAP to handle it?s own 911 calls.
Believe it or not, just because you make a single, convenient 911,
this is no guarantee that the operator doesn?t literally turn around
and dial the phone to call two more agencies (fire and EMS for
example) and repeat the story to them and get them underway. This is
the typical way of the un-enhanced systems which is why it is so
important to have an enhanced system if you expect your 911 PSAP to
function as rapidly, accurately and efficiently as possible.
So, in answer to your question 0 there are many, many hidden factors
(even some that I did not mention) which have a direct impact on how a
response to a 911 call comes about and the ?triage? as you put it,
that takes place. The types of calls that would trigger a multi-agency
response are as varied as each department wants them to be according
to their own policies, needs and abilities. I know one agency that
sends 2 officers, 2 fire trucks, EMS and a wrecker to every motor
vehicle accident. While this is clearly overkill in most
jurisdictions, this particular agency has these resources at its
disposal so it simply uses them. The bottom line is: How an agency
responds to a given call depends on dozens and dozens of factors.
I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher
OTHER INFORMATION SOURCES
The information presented is derived directly from 20+ years of
professional experience in this field.
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Clarification of Answer by
tutuzdad-ga
on
02 Sep 2005 10:57 PDT
No, honestly I really don't have any way of supporting a claim that
one method is more prevalent than another. The reason is that each
jurisdiction does "their own thing" even in Maryland, while the state
may in fact dispatch everyone they have to a scene, a lalrge
municipality or a rural county on the dark side of the state may do
something totally different simply because they choose to do it that
way.
Initially, it seems complete to say the three emergency response
agencies are POLICE, FIRE and EMS. While this may be true int he very
broad generic sense, the facts are exceedingly more complicated that
that. Not every jurisdiction has a simple police department made up of
officers who exclusively enforce the law. You see, some agencies
double up as Fire AND Ambulance. Stil other agencies (called public
safety departments, in some jurisdicitions) even TRIPLE-UP and wear
THREE hats, acting as police, fire AND ambulance as required. In those
instances you get all three on every call that comes up whether you
ask for it or not (or whether you even "know" it or not).
Finally, virtually every state has addition personnel who frequently
respond to emergencies who fall in the subcategores of police, fire
and EMS. These incluse coroners, medical examiners, animal control
officers, SWAT teams, State park rangers, National Park Rangers, Coast
Guard, DEA, FBI, Border patrol, US Marshals, and Homeland Security
just to name a few.
Yes, it's MUCH more complicated than police, fire and EMS....and NO,
there's no way that I know of to estimate what percentage of calls
typically get a multi-agency response an ANY state and be able to
claim that estimate is even near accurate.
I hope this helps.
Regards;
tutuzdad-ga
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