The Cardinal

Yesterday, for a short time at about 11:11 a.m., if you called 9-1-1 in Arlington Heights and surrounding communities, you wouldn’t get an answer until a backup plan was immediately put in place. Northwest Central Dispatch System (NWCDS) quickly established their backup plan that diverts calls to the Cook County Sheriff dispatch center. Cook County [...]

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A Des Plaines committee recently agreed to recommend to the city council a new Des Plaines dispatch center and emergency telephone system board for handling 9-1-1 calls for Des Plaines and Park Ridge. The change would involve the dissolution of the North Suburban Emergency Dispatch Center (NSEDC) and the managing board Joint Emergency Telephone System [...]

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Executive board member Rick Tracy of the Metropolitan Alliance of Police — the telecommunicators’ union presented a “no-confidence” vote at the Northwest Central Dispatch System’s board of directors meeting about 10:45 a.m. Thursday morning. Tracy explained that in no way did the union instigate the action by the union members. Village managers, police chiefs, or [...]

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New CAD System Is a Disaster Waiting to Happen? A new computer-aided dispatch program or CAD program has had numerous problems with delays, failed messages and poor design with computer screens at the Northwest Central Dispatch System (NWCDS) dispatch center and at the computer terminals in the police cars and fire, rescue, and paramedic rigs. [...]

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TMZ has obtained the 911 call placed moments after Whitney Houston’s body was discovered in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel last month. 911 TRANSCRIPT of Whitney Houston Medical Emergency at Beverly Hilton Operator: 911 emergency. Caller: Hi, how you doing? This is security from the Beverly Hilton. Operator: Hi, what’s going on? Caller: [...]

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Emergency dispatchers received desperate calls for help after a man opened fire at a Northern California quarry, with victims breathlessly urging police and ambulances to come quickly. “Please, please,” one caller begs. “They’re going to die.”

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The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International thanks all telecommunications personnel in the public safety community this week for continued efforts to preserve the public’s safety. National Public Safety Telecommunications Week (April 10-16, 2011) is designated to recognize the hard work and dedication, which provide a vital link to the public safety services. Citizens [...]

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A Valentine’s Day emergency for Paula Abdul … the former American Idol judge called 911 and is heard sobbing to the operator. Abdul later said that she was just having an argument. Paula Abdul apparently asked to be let out of a car on the northbound U.S. 101 near Santa Barbara. On follow-up she said [...]

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Heard from around the northwest suburbs this week. Police responded to a home where the teenaged son was on a rampage looking for his cell phone — and apparently destroying parts of the house in the process. Later the same night a man walked into a convenience store and asked if there was any pot [...]

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9-1-1 Audio for Veteran Sea World trainer Dawn Brancheau, who died last week after rubbing a 22-foot, 12,000-pound killer whale named Tilikum. The animal grabbed her ponytail and pulled her into the water in front of about 20 spectators. After the first 9-1-1 call, the original caller dials a second time to update the 9-1-1 [...]

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9-1-1 Call Audio prior to arrest of Henry Louis Gates. The 9-1-1 Audio reveals a woman calling Cambridge Police Department, on behalf of an elderly woman that asked her to call police, for a possible break-in. 9-1-1 Audio The tapes of the 911 call and radio dispatches affiliated with the incident of the arrest of [...]

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Following is one of the most professionally-handled 9-1-1 calls among calls that are released by 9-1-1 officials nationwide. Keep in mind that 9-1-1 call takers are responsible not only for getting help to the scene, but that they are responsible for gathering helpful information about any danger to first responders that might still exist at the scene. The call taker is calm, non-judgmental, reassuring and asks the necessary questions that are needed by responding police and paramedics. Keep in mind that at least one other 9-1-1 telecommunications operator/dispatcher is receiving the call takers information and alerting responding units by radio and/or text messages to a mobile data terminal or computer in emergency vehicles. Listen to the 9-1-1 audio (aka “9-1-1 tape”)

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