In CA all cell phone calls used to go directly to the CHP. Ah, those were the days. Now all cell phone calls (are supposed to), go to the agency closest to the location of the tower. Yeah right. We are constantly getting other agencies 911 cells, and other agencies are constantly getting ours, but the worst are when we get CHPs. Why? Because you can be on hold upwards of 5 minutes waiting for a 911 call to be answered. My personal record on hold with CHP was 12 minutes. It is mostly because soooo many callers are calling about the same accident. I digress, a caller reported a pile up on the 101 and then hung up before I could transfer her to CHP. Great, I thought, now I have to wait on hold forever. Maybe someone else had already called it in, but you never know. So after 6 minutes on hold I am imagining the scene of the accident in my head, thinking of how it looks and what is going on, and how there are maybe no units onscene yet, and in my head it is getting bigger and more dramatic by the minute....
And finally:
CHP: Where is the location of your emergency
Me: Hi, this is Rebecca with EPD, and I have to report a 6 car pile up!
CHP: Oh my goodness, where???
Me: Wait, wait, wait, I totally made that up, let me start over.
CHP: Made it up? (Sounding confused) What do you mean?
Me: Actually the caller said it was just two vehicles, but I was on hold so long, my imagination took over, I am sorry.
CHP: (Laughing really hard) Well, that is why we do what we do, because we have great imaginations right?
Oh my gosh, thank goodness she had a sense of humor, but boy was I embarrassed!
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3 comments:
Wow, that sounds eerily similar to the FHP. We really didn't have that problem until FHP consolidated all of its communications into a few regional dispatch centers. The calls were answered locally, and if they were busy, all we had to do was push one button and a dedicated, priority line rang directly to the FHP dispatcher. Man, those were the days! We still have those lines for every other agency we deal with...including the power company...but not FHP. No sir, we have to wait in line with every other Shmuckatelli. As if remaining on hold for an indefinite period of time wasn't bad enough, now when we finally get to speak to a real human, we have to talk to one who knows absolutely nothing of our local geography. Cursing is a common method of dealing with such frustrations. Yeah, I'm sure some bean counter made that consolidation look reeeeeaaaaal good on paper. I'm sure he showed the State beureaucrats all of the money they could save. I'm sure he got a big fat bonus.....I'd like to give him a big fat lip!
That was a good one! I haven't met a dispatcher yet that likes CHP! They drive us freakin' nuts too!! I love it when they transfer 911 cell calls and hang up as soon as we answer. 8 times out of 10 it's not in our jursidiction but we have to deal with it because they jacked it up. Had they taken 5 SECONDS to ask the caller exactly where they were, the call would be routed properly!!
you mean you don't have a way to electronically send a message to another agency for information such as that? We were doing that 15 years ago in Oklahoma (before I got out of the business)
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