This guy deserves a promotion.
Posted on 04/13/2005 11:12:46 AM PDT by tuffydoodle
Mom not laughing at 911 dispatcher's 'joke'
By Leila Fadel
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
WATAUGA - Lori came home to find her daughters fighting that Monday evening. Her 12-year-old had kicked a hole in the door, and the girls were hitting and throwing things at each other. She feared one or both would be seriously hurt.
She called 911 and asked for help. Her 12-year-old daughter was out of control, she told the call-taker.
"OK. Do you want us to come over to shoot her?" the dispatcher asked, according to a recording released this week. For five seconds, the line went dead.
"Are you there?" the call-taker asked.
"Excuse me?" Lori said.
Mike Forbess, a dispatcher of five years for the Watauga Department of Public Safety, then told her he was joking and apologized. But Lori cannot get his comment out of her head.
"This is a slap in the face that my child was not important enough, my call for help, my 911 call was not important enough that he had to make a joke about it," Lori said Monday. She asked that her last name not be used to avoid identifying her daughters, one of whom has emotional problems.
Forbess immediately told his supervisor about the call. He received a letter of reprimand two days later. Forbess received a second letter of reprimand from Chief David Van Laar on Monday, the same day the Star-Telegram obtained a copy of the 911 call recording, and of Forbess' disciplinary records.
The mother, however, said her faith in the 911 system remains shaken. She said she plans to file a formal complaint.
"I do not have words to tell you how shocked I am that someone is allowed to do this," she said. "You don't do people like this, and then get a slap on the wrist."
In his letter to Forbess, Van Laar wrote: "This type of response cannot be tolerated, and this letter shall serve as notice that any future unprofessional responses while answering the 911 line will be cause for termination."
But the reprimand is not enough, the mother said.
The next time she has an emergency, she said, she won't feel safe calling 911.
"This man does need to be disciplined," Lori said. "How can a person in this line of work be so unfeeling that he asked a person who needed help, 'Would you like us to come over and shoot your child?'
"That's an interoffice disciplinary action," she said of the reprimands. "That doesn't do anything.
Van Laar made no excuses for the dispatcher.
"The reason I didn't take tougher action is, he immediately owned up to his supervisor and said he made a mistake," Van Laar said. "He's a good employee. He just made a severe mistake which is inexcusable. ... This is not something you should hear on the other end of a 911 call."
In an interview Monday, Forbess said he is sorry for his comment to the woman. In five years with the department, the dispatcher has never been disciplined for his handling of 911 calls.
Forbess has received two commendations from community members for his work. He was disciplined once with a written warning for working an unauthorized shift for a co-worker.
"I am so sorry for what I said to that lady, and I can never make it up to her," Forbess said. "I'm ashamed of my actions, what I said and what I did. I would take it back if I could, but I can't. I'm just very sorry that I did it. It was a poor choice of things to say."
Forbess said that he sometimes tells jokes or changes his tone of voice to ease the stress of a caller. In this case, he said, his words made the situation worse.
"I admit what I did. It was stupid, it was inexcusable and I'm sorry," Forbess said. "I know it's not enough for her or for the papers or for the rest of the world. I've taken the punishment that they gave."
911 is for life-threatening emergencies.
Unless you want to invite a SWAT team into your house, you should not call 911 for domestic disputes.
Thats funny. At least he took resposibility. Probably a boring job.
I wish this guy would have taken the "9-11 cheeseburger" call.
The mom's making too big a deal out of it.
This guy deserves a promotion.
I guess she can't raise her kids on her own, so she calls the local government.
I don't care how mad I ever was at my sisters, we never kicked holes in walls and we would have never gotten in a fight my mom couldn't have broken up just by walking in the room.
lol, you beat me to it
My opinion, this guy is not equipped to be a dispatcher.
Most likely, he will resign on his own soon enough, and find other, more suitable, employment.
This 'mother' needs to exercise some parental control. She calls 911 because her delinquent brats are fighting?
The dispatcher's quick wit might not have been appropriate, but he owned up to it, took his medicine, now this 'mother' wants to be a victim and will no doubt be looking around for a lawyer to file suit in order to obtain a windfall.
Let the faux indignant expressions of outrage (directed at the dispatcher of course) begin.
Should have called Super Nanny-not 911.
"The mom's making too big a deal out of it"
Probably nothing that a great big lawsuit won't fix. I think she's looking for some easy money.
Yet the mother has no comment about the inexcusable behavior of her daughters, which was so bad that she had to call the police.
Gee I wonder which political party this woman is affiliated with?
The dispatcher's joke was in poor taste, no doubt.
But...
Why do people feel that every single matter needs to be settled by law enforcement? 911 is not a babysitting service. It is not to settle petty neighbor disputes. It is for life threatening emergencies. If a mother has two out of control daughters whom she cannot handle, why is she calling the police? To arrest them?
Why would someone call 911 over an irate child?
hahahahaha!
Why is the mother calling 911? These girls need to have their heads knocked together, and be told to take it outside. "You're not gonna wreck my house fighting."
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