News

Indiana Community Wrestles With 9-1-1 Misuse

Dann Denny

06/23/2014

June 23--Mary Pietsch, a former IU visiting research associate, feels she's getting a raw deal from Monroe County Central Dispatch.

She acknowledges she's bipolar, and that she's called the dispatch center more than two dozen times in recent months for such things as falls, anxiety attacks and a home break-in. But she feels she's no longer being taken seriously.

"I recently called 9-1-1 about a dispute with a neighbor, and the dispatcher said she would not send an officer to my house because I've been calling too many times," she said. "She told me to call my minister."

The next day, after Pietsch called 9-1-1 to report that someone had broken into her home, she said a female police officer arrived at her home, called her a name, and told her she was having a manic episode and needed to go to the stress care unit at IU Health Bloomington Hospital.

"Being bipolar is a biological problem, not a moral problem," she said. "I'm a good person and a good citizen. I should not be treated like that."

Jeff Schemmer, communications manager for central dispatch -- whose 25 dispatchers handle 180,000 calls a year, nearly 65,000 of which are 9-1-1 calls -- said all dispatchers are trained how to handle "frequent flyers," the moniker used to describe persons who call 9-1-1 on numerous occasions.

"We try to determine the reason behind the frequent calling," he said. "Even if it's a call from someone we know on a first-name basis, we evaluate every call individually."

Schemmer said one woman called 9-1-1 almost nightly for more than 20 years. She phoned for a variety of reasons, but her major concern was that her friends' bodies were being infiltrated by aliens.

"But even when you're talking with someone like her who you know very well, sometimes the story you've heard many times before will suddenly change," he said. "And the new story could be valid."

Schemmer said many frequent flyers have some kind of mental illness or dementia. He said one man called 9-1-1 repeatedly to confirm the time and date because he thought the government was trying to play mind games with him. Another man called more than 45 times during a 24-hour period, using profane language to vent about a number of people.

"One lady called and said her husband wouldn't wake up," Schemmer said. "When we arrived there was no one but her in the house. It turned out her husband had passed away two years ago, and she was suffering from early onset dementia."

Schemmer said families can register loved ones who have physical or mental disabilities into the city's special-needs data base. When dealing with a troubled caller, dispatchers can call those families to help with intervention efforts.

Capt. Joe Qualters from the Bloomington Police Department said dispatchers familiar with a mentally ill caller can frequently find ways to appease the person. He said a man who often called 9-1-1 to pontificate about a bevy of bizarre topics would send his favorite dispatchers flowers, cards and chocolates as tokens of his appreciation.

Schemmer said some strange calls come from people who are not suffering from a mental disorder, but from loneliness. He said not long ago an elderly woman who lived alone called 9-1-1 asking for a police officer, and when the officer arrived, she greeted him with fresh-baked cookies.

Others simply use poor judgment. Qualters said young people often call to report "theft" because their false IDs were confiscated at a local bar.

"We would not respond to that type of call," he said. "But if a bar owner called us saying someone was causing a problem at the front door because of an ID issue, we would absolutely respond."

Schemmer said some parents unwittingly give their deactivated cell phone to a small child, who repeatedly dials 9-1-1, then hangs up when a dispatcher picks up. He said others inadvertently "butt dial."

"When we get hang-up calls, we spend a lot of time calling the number back to see if there really is a problem," Schemmer said.

Qualters said whenever someone calls 9-1-1 to report a fire or request an ambulance -- even if the dispatcher knows the caller is mentally ill or likely mistaken -- the dispatcher will send an ambulance or firetruck to the scene.

"We have to err on the side of caution," he said. "We are public safety agencies, so there is an expectation that we will respond to an identified problem. It's the determination of those who arrive on the scene to determine if there is, in fact, a problem."

That's not to say a fire truck will be sent to rescue a kitty from a tree.

"We'd ask them to call animal control for that," said Bloomington fire chief Roger Kerr, adding that an average fire run costs $2,400 when salaries, fuel and other operational costs are factored in. "We don't want to tie up a million-dollar piece of equipment for a nonemergency situation, because that would prevent us from using it for a true emergency."

Amanda Roach, spokeswoman for IU Health Bloomington Hospital, said she didn't have an average ambulance run cost, but said the real cost to the community, when it comes to false or frivolous 9-1-1 calls, is the availability of ambulances for true emergencies.

"If an ambulance is out on a false call and a true emergency call comes in, it may take longer for an ambulance to respond due to it already being dispatched," she said. "In some cases, this could be just a minor delay that doesn't harm the patient. In other cases, especially in a life-threatening situation, a delay of even just a minute or two can mean the difference between life and death."

Qualters said there are calls -- such as those asking police to remove aliens from an apartment or those from folks complaining that they got the wrong size french fries order at McDonald's -- dispatchers will not send police to resolve.

"We can draw the line in those instances, because it would hinder our ability to respond to a real emergency," he said.

Qualters said when police officers do respond to an odd 9-1-1 call, they often can "solve" the problem at the scene. He remembers one elderly woman who called the emergency number to complain about a person who refused to leave her house.

"When we got there, we found a 4-foot-tall Sylvester blow-up toy alongside her TV that her grandchildren had given her, but because of dementia, she thought it was a person," Qualters said. "We took it out to the front porch, and that made her happy."

Qualters said if police officers arrive at the scene and find a person clearly in need of psychological help, they likely will take the person to the stress care unit at IU Health Bloomington Hospital. Schemmer said all Bloomington Police Department officers -- and dispatchers -- have received "crisis intervention training" designed to help them more effectively recognize and respond to people with mental illness.