911 Operator: 'I Don't Give a S***t'

First of all, thi is a shame and there is no two ways around that. The fact thet the employee is no longer with MNPD is a credit to the department because they, from this incident, are ensuring the safety of the citizens of Nashville. My only fear from this is that the actions of this one dispatcher will lead the public to think that all dispatchers are like this. I am not a dispatcher and I don't live in Nashville...but, I know enough to know that the fact the department took imemdiate action and let the employee go says they do care. Most that do that job are compassionate folks that genuinely care about one another.

My comment on this case: I am sorry to the woman that had to enure this for the true light of this dispatcher to come to fruition. I am glad to see the MNPD taking action to be sure it never happens again.

This is so atrocious! This has to stop! I was attacked by my ex & I asked the police to pick him up that he was at home (when the paramedics were rushing me to the hospital) & they said there was not enough manpower to pick him up. But if he happened to be stopped for a traffic violation, then they would pick him up!

Nashville's 911 center isn't a part of their police department, they are a seperate entity and there are no "sworn" employee's up there... I'm guessing the last dispatcher would have never had that call 2 1/2 hour later if the MNPD had enough officers to cover the calls... but no one's asking why officers keep leaving nashville...

I beleive patrol officers have been complaining on deaf ears for about 5 years now. The public calls them lazy and dead wood, for these complaints. These are the results of those complaints going unchecked. Officers are pulled out of Patrol to fill Flex jobs. Flex jobs focus on proactive enforcement, traffic stops. Know one cares how long calls hold and patrol cars can only answer one call at a time. This is not the officer on the streets fault, as it may first appear. It is a culture created by a stat oriented department (COMSTAT)which rewards proactivity and treats answering calls as a nusaince. Next, it is easy to blame the dispatcher for his comments and rightfully so as that comment was uncalled for. However, that comment was a coping mechanism to releive stress as they are forced to work overtime, due to them being under staffed and overworked. Anyone that knows a dispatcher knows that it is a high stress, low reward career as their is little closure once the caller hangs up. Roxanne Brown another one of Purcell's mishaps, came in and caused complete disorder that has yet to be fixed.

Ithink whoever that dispatcher was that made that rude comment about Ms.Jones he dont deserve a job with the metro police dept but how would he feel if someone did his family member like that,sometimes its good if someone can walk in your shoes and see how it feels for your life to be in danger,its not a good feeling thjnk about it.

we as tax payer should not have 2 put up with this is this was a caller in greenhills or a upper class area metro police would have been in full force helping

First, I think it's sad that this story would not have aired if not for the one call taker's comments. The real story is how backed up Metro PD gets in regard to answering calls. Phil should also look at response times for all calls. Don't take the numbers from Serpas, though. He throws out calls that take more than four hours to answer or emergency calls that take more than thirty minutes to answer when he calculates "average" response time. Ask any Officer willing to risk his career to tell the truth and you will get an ear full. Patrol, the division responsible for responding to emergency calls, is working their butts off trying to keep up with everything asked of them. Patrol officers are supposed to be proactive first, keeping up numbers of traffic stops, business checks, and arrests or they get punished by changing their days off or losing an assigned car. No one cares how many calls an Officer answers. That is one stat no one talks about.

"I'm like looking out the window for him -- and I don't see him," Sheila Jones recalls.

"Get the police here now. My life is threatened. Please God. Please God. Please God. Get me police over now. He's got a knife on me. My life threatened."

"I felt danger, I felt threatened, and I felt fear. It was like I was seeing myself being dead that day," Sheila recalls

"They just keep on saying they enroute, they enroute, but they ain't came. It's been a long time. And he keeps calling me, threatening me."

911 ordeal drags on for almost three hours and she is till alive? imho, if the "boyfriend" was there with a knife and he was that angry, why did he allow her to live for the three hours she spent making those calls? Something sounds like BS.

"They just keep on saying they enroute, they enroute, but they ain't came. It's been a long time. And he keeps calling me, threatening me."
Now he is supposedly calling her?

"I'm saying a knife, my life. I'm wondering what kind of call they got. Was somebody actually dead then or something?"

So where was the officer? Our investigation discovered he was out helping another officer on a traffic stop.

"That's so ugly," Sheila says, bursting into tears, when Phil Williams tells her what happened.

"Just sitting here, it feels like it just happened. That's how I feel right now, like it just happened just now. And to know that they put a traffic stop over that."
She seems to have forgotten to mention the "boyfriend" calling her.

"Nobody's coming out here?"
911: "Yes, ma'am. As soon as the sergeant gets an officer available, he's gonna send somebody out there."
Sheila: "What, do y'all want him to kill me -- so you can put yellow tape around me and say we got there just for the death? Is that it? I don't understand." I think this is the point I would have gotten a little ticked off, as I am sure the 911 operator did. All they can do is report to the police what the caller is telling them, they can not go out and make the police go to where the call is made. If this woman's life was in that much danger, she should have called family or friends, as well as, keep calm and continue to check and see if the police were on their way.

"It felt like I was a test subject -- we're going to see how long it takes before he goes back and actually kills her. That's what I felt like." Who is "her"? Is it normal for anyone to refer themselves as "her" or "him"?

Sheila: "I'm scared to even leave out my f***ing house."
911: "OK, ma'am, I updated the call. We'll get somebody there as soon as possible."
Sheila:[Hangs up.]
911: "I really just don't give a s**t what happens to you."

Ok, the woman resorts to using profanity. I have no doubt she was not screaming in the 911 operators ear. If I recieved a call like this, I would not care what happened to the caller either. Nobody gets paid enough to put up with that level of abuse, nobody.

Was there a woman involved in the traffic accident? There must have been, or there must have been a wealthy prominent man involved for the police to stay there, otherwise the police would have broken their necks to come to the aid of the "damsel in distress".This woman recieved just a little taste of what I have had to endure the few times I had called 911. The police could have shown up and told her the same thing they have told me in the past, "there's nothing we can do about it". This is why I say, if I am ever killed in this city, my blood is on their hands

My tax dollars at work

that was just wrong of that dispature of what he did to this poor lady when she was crying for help. and as far as the police that where involved they should have responded faster. where are the hard working tax payers money really going too these days. it makes ya wonder. ya she could have tryed to deffend herself but sometimes ya cant because of the way most people would screw around the laws these days just to get what they want. most people are crucide. a she said he said thing. she tryed to do the right thing. get the law involved thats what they are there for to protect and serive. even if us ordionary citizens where to take the law into are own hands to protect areselves most of the time it comes back and bites us in the butt. so i see why she got mad at the 911 oprator and the oprator should have taken there job more seriously then what they did and got this woman the help that she needed. shout there are more people out there that would love to have that job. that actually care.