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Friday, 19 October 2007 |
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Even children know to
call 9-1-1 in an emergency. The expected result is immediate help in dealing
with whatever the emergency is. According to Marj Stuart, chair of the Amador
County Commission on Aging, that didn’t happen when Thelma Clancy dialed 9-1-1
last January. Her friend Terry Casebeer had failed to meet her as planned, and
Thelma got no response from repeated phone calls and banging on Terry’s door,
so she called 9-1-1. It took four hours
for emergency personnel to decide to break into the house and
discover that Terry had died during the night. According to Amador
County Sheriff Martin Ryan, there are constitutional rights and other legal
issues that prevent law enforcement from intervening immediately in situations
like Casebeer’s.
And sometimes people
use the emergency system to report incidents that don’t need an emergency
response. Many times, more than one person calls to report the same
incident. As a result, dispatchers must screen out inappropriate calls and determine
legitimate emergencies. The Amador County
Commission on Aging is sponsoring a forum
with the Sheriff’s office on this important topic Monday, October 29, from 1:30
to 3:30 P.M. at the Senior Center in Jackson.
Sheriff Ryan says he and his staff are looking forward to helping the public
gain a better understanding of how the 9-1-1 system works, and how to best use
the system when an emergency arises. The presentation will include an
explanation of how 9-1-1 calls are handled and necessary information to give
the dispatcher. The public is encouraged to express their concerns and ask for
specific information in the question-and-answer session that follows.
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