The Cellar - To Protect and To Serve It Your Way; or, Cheese Done Me Wrong

Quote:

We're leaving this entry's status as "undetermined" for now because we plan to talk to the OCSD again to obtain some additional background information (such as why the dispatcher stayed on the phone so long over something that was clearly not a police matter),

Even dispatchers have slow nights.

It's also nice to get a call that isn't the result of someone dying, maimed, robbed, or beaten.

Every now and again we get misdirected calls at the suicide hotline. Most folks get extremely apologetic once they find out that they've called the wrong place, particularly given what we actually do.

One of my favorites, though, happened during the flooding in Willow Grove, PA a couple of years back.

Wolf: Emergency Service.

Caller: Hi, this is underpaid, harried intern from ABC News.

Wolf: ABC News? What can we do for you?

Caller: I need to speak to the County Emergency Manager.

Wolf: Oh. You called the wrong place.

Caller: Isn't this the County Emergency Service?

Wolf: Yes, it is, but you don't want us.

Caller: Yes I do!! This is ABC News. If I don't get the Emergency Manager I'm going to get fired.

Wolf: That's just it. The is The County Emergency Service. We are a suicide hotline and crisis center. You want County Emergency Management.

Caller: County Emergency Management? That's what I asked the operator for.

Wolf: Yeah. This happens a lot. There are 50 or so agencies that start "County Emergency something or another." Ours is at the top of the list. You sure you don't need the psychiatric hospital?

Caller: I will if I can't get the Emergency Manager.

Wolf: Here's the right number.

I also spent time discussing the psychological distress people were experiencing watching their basements fill with water during the same flood.

It was a hell of a flood. They lost two firetrucks in what turned out not to be a large puddle across the road. You know how they always tell you not to drive into standing water because you don't know how deep it is? That applies to firetrucks too. And the second truck should not follow the first truck into the "puddle".