When the researchers [in San Francisco] sat by the call handlers and noted down what was happening – they found 30% of calls coming in from mobiles were accidental butt-dials, also known as pocket-dials.
As well as being time-consuming taking the call, the impact of butt-dials doesn’t stop there.
Each one requires further attention – after all, the 911 handler doesn’t know if it was a mistake, or someone trying to call for help but unable to talk at that point.
And so, all butt-dials are followed up. In the sample period, it took an average of one minute and 14 seconds to get back to people and determine the call was a mistake.
In a survey of handlers at the San Francisco 911 centre, 80% said chasing these calls back was a time-consuming part of their already overstretched day.
About 39% said it was the single biggest “pain point” they had in the job.
Tag: dispatch
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Butt dials 30% of mobile calls to 911 in S.F.
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“Suspect is down,” says the dispatcher
Here’s video of the initial Walter Scott car stop. (Yes, his brake light was out.)
But what I love, which I suppose is kind minor in the grand scheme of thing, is how fucking amazing this drawling dispatcher is. She is bad-ass and calm.
“Shots fired. He grabbed your taser. Suspect is down,” she drawls, almost yawning, like it happens ever day. But it doesn’t. And that’s how you want dispatchers to act. The last thing you want, and sometimes it happens, is a dispatcher losing control. She (sometimes he) holds the entire police department in her voice.
Somebody still needs to write the great book or make the great movie about dispatchers. They really are unsung underpaid heroes. So many lives depend on them.