First line of defense

There are many civil servants that help to save the lives of citizens. Police, firemen and emergency medical technicians all come to mind when one thinks about those who help people in danger. In front of all these people, the first in line of defense is the emergency operator.

Emergency operators take the calls that help get EMT’s and firemen where they need to be; this responsibility is not to be taken lightly.

Recently, stories have come out involving a few operators who apparently did not understand the responsibility that their position requires. Last month near Detroit, a teenage girl called 911 because her father was having a stroke and accidentally dropped an f-bomb. The offending word had been uttered before the call was even answered and was not at all directed toward the operator.

The operator taking her call, Sgt. Robert McFarland, decided that this would be a most opportune moment to lecture the girl on proper language, instead of rushing an EMT to her location. When the understandably upset teenager continued to use foul language, McFarland hung up on her.

Just to make this crystal clear, this is a trained civil servant who is the connection between citizens and life saving assistance. This same man, solely because of personal views on foul language, hung up three times on an obviously distressed caller asking for an ambulance. His punishment for this behavior was a two-week suspension. This is too little, too late, and an insult to the girl who tried to make a call that she thought would save her father’s life.

If one were to make a list of appropriate times to swear, calling 911 because a loved one may be dying would be rather close to the top.

Situations involving bad apple operators are more common than one may think. In 2006 in Australia, a teenage hiker died from exposure in the outback because he could not give a street address to the operator who made no effort to send out a search and rescue party until it was too late. Last year in Milwaukee a woman who was being beaten by her boyfriend was hung up on because she wasn’t being clear enough for a certain operator. The dispatcher did not even try to transfer the call to the police.

This is not to say that all dispatchers are bad apples. In fact, the vast majority of operators go through their career without incident. This does not mean, however, that measures should not be taken to keep people like McFarland off of the phones.

The acts of Sgt. McFarland are an extreme example of unacceptable behavior that should never occur in emergency situations. These things do happen and policies should be put into place to ensure that these situations do not happen. One should not have to worry about being hung up on by the very people they trust to help them in an emergency, regardless of how the person on the receiving end feels about phone etiquette or exact coordinates.

Emergency operators should be psychologically tested, at least yearly, to make sure that they are still fit for their positions. Perhaps dispatchers should even be tested with sample calls that mimic disturbing situations or combative callers.

Whatever the solution may be, it is clear that emergency operators need to be able to show empathy and understanding—this seems like common sense for anyone in their position. Punishment for behavior like that of Sgt. McFarland, should not just be a slap on the wrist, for this does not instill confidence in citizens who rely on 911 services in an emergency, and makes the impression that this bad behavior is acceptable as long as the offender promises that it will never happen again.

Most of all, emergency operators need to be constantly aware that they are often the first line of defense when it comes to saving lives.