OEC "Upgrade" Debacle

Remember when the 9-1-1 Center used to be "state-of-the-art"?

• The operations floor at Chicago’s 911 center is getting a $31 million upgrade stalled by contract irregularities, but it’s turning into a nightmare that threatens to slow response times to 911 calls, employees contend.
  
  Dispatchers and call takers describe a host of problems, ranging from dropped 911 calls and a new answering system that demands more manpower to computers that no longer allow call takers to monitor radio communications at fire scenes.
  
  They also complain about a new floor plan that moved fire and EMS dispatchers assigned to handle 911 calls from Chicago’s North Side away from call takers who do the same, preventing the two groups from communicating in a way that could speed response times.

Gee, what could possibly go wrong?  Nothing involving a high-rise fire or plane crash or building collapse we're sure. Or on the police side, during a pursuit where a call-taker might be on the phone with someone who isn't on-duty or isn't the police attempting to assist in the apprehension of a fleeing suspect. 

The single bright spot in the article is it says that the contract to revamp everything is a "single source contract" to Motorola.  That might bring about an end the incompatibility problems that endanger all first responders, every single day, since that $300 million monstrosity opened.

Dispatcher Layoffs

Anyone else think the backlogs will get worse when they can't man the consoles at OEMC?

• INFORMATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN FRONT OF CHICAGO’S 911 CENTER (OEMC) on Tuesday Dec. 20 at 3 p.m. REGARDING LAYOFFS AT CHICAGO’S 911 CENTER
  
  Police, Fire and EMS Operators, Dispatchers and Supervisors being demoted and laid off from Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management
  
  CHICAGO, Illinois — The City of Chicago has agreed on its 2012 budget, which contains layoffs to 911 Operators.
  
  Cuts have been made to the front line of defense in Chicago. 911 Operators answer and dispatch equipment to any Police, Fire and EMS emergency and these cuts will effect the normal daily functions for emergency responses. Manpower shortages will lead to longer wait times for someone to answer an emergency call, which may lead to increased response times. Without these trained personnel available to answer the phones, the citizens of Chicago should be prepared for severe changes in the 911 experience.
  
  The Supervisors, Dispatchers and Call Takers take their jobs seriously and are greatly concerned about these cuts. In a statement, organizers of the protest said: “We do our job with pride and professionalism and fear that these cuts will make it that Emergency Services in Chicago will be inadequate, therefore endangering the health and well being of the Citizens and their property.”
  
  For more information on Occupy OEMC, visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-OEMC/148123851961646, on Facebook, or send an email to www.occupyoemc@gmail.com
  
  About Occupy OEMC
  
  This group is comprised of 911 Operators and Citizens that are concerned about the dangerous situations these cuts to the Operations floor can mean to Chicago

Pretty soon, we'll only be handling hand-wavers because there won't be anyone to answer the phones or dispatch the jobs.

A Fucking Honor Student?

Correct us if we're wrong, but didn't it used to be difficult to be an honor student? We recall the honor students from our youth and, deservedly or not, they tended to be bookworms, a bit on the geeky side and quiet to a fault. In other words, they were dedicated students. They may have belonged to the brainy clubs (chess, yearbook, Latin, whatever), some may have been lettered in sports, but they definitely weren't stoners. And they most definitely didn't have arrest records like this jagoff:

• A 16-year-old boy drank vodka, smoked marijuana and took ecstasy before he stole a car and crashed into a 911 police dispatcher, killing her as he tried to elude officers, Cook County prosecutors said Monday.

  Preliminary tests showed that Marquis Harrison’s blood-alcohol level was .186 — more than twice the .08 legal limit to drive — following his arrest Sunday morning,

• Minutes before Adkins was hit, Harrison stole the Range Rover while the 45-year-old owner of the SUV fed a parking meter box on North Michigan Avenue, Costello said.

  The motorist had left the Range Rover running when Harrison, who told police he drank and took drugs at a party, jumped in, Costello said.

• Harrison was previously sentenced to probation as a juvenile for two counts of possession of a stolen motor vehicle in Kane County, Costello said.

  He is an honors student at Urban Prep Charter Academy and plays football and basketball, assistant public defender Preston Collins said.

A complete waste of a human being destroying countless lives and depriving society of a contributing member who by all accounts was a credit to her profession, community and family. And the media feeds it by reporting he's an "honors student"? Maybe someone ought to be asking how low the bar has been set that a twice convicted car thief and habitual drug and alcohol abuser can make the honor roll.

Outrage is only one of the emotions we're feeling right about now.

Dispatcher Killed Headed Home

A tragedy of immense proportions:

• On any given shift, police dispatcher Marciea Adkins could have monitored a police pursuit, her voice providing a key link between the officers in the chase and other units on the street.
  
  Adkins died early Sunday driving home from her overnight shift after her car was struck by a teenager fleeing from police in stolen SUV, police said. The 16-year-old had touched off a nearly 2-mile pursuit after he backed into a police vehicle during a traffic stop for failing to stop at a red light, police said.
  
  Adkins, 42, was married to a dispatcher for the Chicago Fire Department, and the couple had a young daughter.
  
  The city flag at Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications was lowered to half-staff on Sunday, and Adkins’ body was escorted by police and fire vehicles from Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

From everything we've heard from friends at work, Adkins was highly thought of and a good, capable dispatcher - something very valuable nowadays in these uncertain times. The radio is our lifeline and the person on the other end is often the angel looking over our shoulders.

Sun Times coverage here.

Thoughts and prayers for the Dispatcher and her family only here.