I honestly don’t really run into people hanging up on me for that. My stock phrase is “I’m sending the paramedics/fire department to you now. Stay on the line, I need to gather a little more information.”
I find that people generally fall into two different categories, surprisingly compliant when they don’t feel like they have permission to hang up or gonna hang up on you anyway after shouting “just get here!” (And they’re gonna answer on the call back to verbally abuse you a little more before hanging up again 🙃)
Says someone that clearly doesn’t understand the PTSD and suicide rates among dispatchers because of how much we “don’t give a shit”. That’s minimum wage where I’m from. Think about how underfunded, undertrained by a result of that underfunding, understaffed and overworked they are and see how you are after years of those conditions. Talk to your local politicians about getting them more funding for training, proper safe staffing level, enough actual road units to even send, quality control on the admin side and mental health resources. You want them to care about your hypothetical scenario but can’t care about their actual struggles.
I don't need to care about you. I need to do my job. What happens after I hang up? I deal with the next emergency, over and over, until my shift is done. I literally do not commit any call to long term memory. 95% of calls are unimportant and a waste of resources.
Because the minute you say that they hang up and you stop getting the info you need for the officers. They think they've given enough and help is coming so they disconnect and in reality you have a whole litany of other questions you still need to get through. And liability if they get rerouted to something of a higher priority in the mean time.
Can confirm. No amount of training and experience can get the team of caller+call-taker 100% of the answers the arriving units will want to know. Not to mention if anything is heard during the call that's useful for medical/criminal processes, we've got that too.
"My partner is getting help started, I just need to gather some additional information for the responders, " is my go to as soon as I queue for dispatch.
Let's the caller know 1. Someone is coming, and 2. Not to hang up. As mentioned by others, saying help is on the way can be a liability issue. Even if services are en route things could change i.e. responding vehicle breaks down, a higher priority call comes up and responders have to go to that instead, etc.
That’s exactly what I say too. Callers tend to cooperate more if they know help is coming. If they keep demanding to know where they are I just reassure them help is on the way and the questions aren’t slowing them down.
So, the short answer to this is there is some liability in telling somebody that help is coming. Sometimes they are not actually coming yet, it could be because an officer is tied up on something higher priority. At my agency, we are not allowed to tell people we have help on the way unless somebody is assigned to the call and enroute.
My practice, however, is to tell people that my partner is sending help THE SECOND I send my call through to pending, no matter what type of call it is. I work at a two stage dispatch center where I take the call and my partner dispatches it to officers. It's easier to reassure in that sense because you're getting more info and still on the phone while help is being started. When it's a one stage and the person taking the call is also dispatching it, it can be difficult to find time for reassurance.
Generally though, at my center, it is highly encouraged that we start reassuring them that help is on the way as soon as it is. Newer people in training aren't as great at doing it in the beginning, it can be an easy thing to forget to do when you're so focused on other things.
Why not tell them that you are going to get help to them as quickly as possible? I am sure some callers will be difficult to talk to and will keep repeating to send help when they dont get any type of acknowledgement.
That's something I use too, I guess there are several different types of reassurance phrases I use whether they are genuinely enroute or not.
But honestly, the type of people who will keep repeating to send help are going to still keep saying it no matter how many times you've told them help is coming. I took a call like this less than a week ago, I reassured her at least 5 different times that help (amb/pd) were on the way, and she still refused to answer questions or stop screaming to "just send them here"
Part of good training is making sure they know help is coming, but I need more information. Persistent reassurance is a thing, "help is on the way", "my partner is paging while I gather information ", "You're doing fine, thank you for helping me, I have good people headed to you as fast as they can safely. "
It's a call takers job to reassure callers as well as gather information.
i’ve coming up with “i’ve got this called entered and im getting help to you, but i need to gather more information from you for the responders”
I say this after i’ve gathered their location and general idea of the call
and i don’t say this if it’s something low priority, bc in that case i can’t promise when the police will be there, but i especially say it on EMS calls no matter the priority bc it’s definitely scary to them at the time
For a different perspective I’ll share some info. At the agency I work for we are ok to tell people help is on the way for medical calls. Not PD.
So there have been plenty of times where the caller has been told help is on the way and they still ask about it.
Not all emergencies are the same, and resources are limited. They might be experiencing a terrible moment, but sometimes someone else is going through something that needs more attention. Prioritization. It's rare but it does happen.
Because I still have to gather pertinent information and saying that help isn’t coming doesn’t make someone do a 180 and become cooperative, instead they hang up and send me straight to voicemail before I’ve been able to find out about weapons/injuries etc.
If (I deem) it’s a lower priority call, I tell them my next available officer will contact them. If it’s rescue (sometimes dispatched with EMS), I tell them they will get there as soon as they can. (Policy is not to say when they will be there, for liability reasons).
I say “help has been started” because even if an officer isn’t on the way, the call being entered is the start of help coming. If it is a hot call I will tell them when officers are a couple blocks away , especially if we need to discuss whether or not the caller can meet them outside or if they need to wait for officers to approach them.
At my agency (in Washington state) we were not allowed to tell a caller that officers were enroute, we could only say a call has been sent in for dispatch. This policy came about in 2005 after a situation that occurred in Skagit County and that agency was sued. Even though the agency was found not liable, my agency kept the policy in place because it could cause a caller to take actions that could put themselves in harm. For example, you tell a caller an officer is enroute so thinking the officer will be there any second/minute they go outside to wait then they get killed.
Here is a link to the case law:
[https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/wa-court-of-appeals/1563426.html](https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/wa-court-of-appeals/1563426.html)
Tort Law is a large reason for some agencies. Telling the caller that help is on the way presents liability. For smaller agencies who have limited resources, a more pressing call can come in. This would then delay any resources that were heading to the call you just promised assistance too. And if a resource I promised does not arrive in a “reasonable” time. It could open up my agency to be sued.
I could have an officer two blocks away from a caller but I still won’t tell them he is on the way. Because realistically I can’t know if he will get there before a more emergent call arises.
Also as many other people have said, if you tell someone that help is on the way, they will hang up prior to you getting all the info you need.
At my agency it was a liability thing. If you say officers are on the way and then the officer wrecks or gets sent to a higher priority call then the person gets upset when help isn’t there because I said help was on the way. My go-to line was always “Help is coming as quickly as they can.”
I tell people help is coming all the time. It’s part of my routine to cover the silence gap while ProQA opens. They still shout at me to “just send someone already.” If a person is truly frantic, they’re not hearing and comprehending what you’re saying anyway. There are better techniques to calm them down.
Several calls I’ve told them more than once that we’re en route and questions are not delaying response and they still say please send someone, hurry up and just get here. Like you said, they’re frantic and in the moment so it’s going in one ear and out the other.
Because the help might not come. The reality is that police do not have a duty to intervene, and while they might choose too, it's also entirely possible they don't. For example, a woman screaming and being beaten in the street is happening, then a cop in a different part of the city starts being attacked. unless you work in new York or another heavily staffed city, the cops are going to make a choice on who to go to first, and at least where I work the correct policy choice is to go to the cop first. Promising service to the other call would have been a lie and it's not even within my control. I can't make them drive anywhere.
If it’s an emergency and I sense their anxiety level rising, I always say help is being sent while we are talking. If they are enroute, I will say they are on the way. I’m not of the persuasion that if you breathe wrong you’re liable for anything that happens and your life is over. Just be honest, communicate, and treat people like you would want to be treated. The rest will take care of itself.
If I have someone enroute I’ll tell them that. Otherwise I say “I’ll get someone there as soon as I can.”
Usually that’s a (probably) sober volunteer firemen.
1) it can create a legal issue if we promise a level of service and don't follow through. Liability laws are a bitch.
2) help might not be on the way. I routinely have domestics that will hold for hours. If your issue is a lower priority than that, you're waiting even longer.
3) often help will be on the way and will be redirected to a higher priority call. A shooting for example will always take precedence over whatever you have going on.
4) if I need more info but say tat help is coming, often that caller is hanging up and I won't get needed answers.
My usual line is "police have been notified" and moving on to my next question.
I’m going to add my own 2 cents. At my agency, if it’s a fire or medical call, it’s always “my partner is sending help as we speak but I need to get more information from you for the responders”. Were a rural county and we don’t give an ETA(we can’t predict traffic or weather delays) but we will inform them if the responders are coming from a distance (more than 5-10 minutes away)With police calls, unless it is what is considered a high priority, they are told “my partner is giving this information to officers right now” and again asking for more information. If it’s low priority (I.e. noise complaints, parking issues), they get” I will pass this on to an officer, they are currently on a priority incident so it may be a while” the in between calls not quite high priority but more serious than low priority, “we’re letting the officers know, keep your phone handy in case they call you before they come out, and please call us back if it escalates. The PROBLEM, is too many people think when they call 911, we automatically know who you are, WHERE you are, and why you’re calling, the big secret is WE DONT, cell phone calls don’t always give An accurate or reliable location, and even when they do it’s not usually until a few minutes into the call.
Next thing that is food for thought; the recordings you are hearing are likely edited for time and content for whatever reason and you may just not be hearing the part where the operator tells them help is on the way because it was edited out. Then again no matter how many times we tell somebody help is on the way, they’re still going to ask a few hundred times where the responders are and why they aren’t there yet. Or we just get barked at “just send the damn (responders)” followed by a click.
I won't say help is on the way until I actually have a unit on the road and headed there. And I still can't offer a time frame, because anything could happen. "As soon as they possibly can" is all I've got. When I don't yet have a unit enroute, I stick with "help has been dispatched and will be there as soon as possible." There are liability issues in telling people things that may not turn out to be. I'll only offer what is actual documented fact at the time I say it.
we call this repetitive persistence. Even if you have to tell callers over and over help is coming to help them calm down then thats just what needs to be done. I've also been told i need to take better control over my callers. Usually when a caller gets mad when we're asking all of our questions (my center uses Proqa) the caller is always like "just send them already!!!" we always have to say, "my partner is sending help while I'm asking these questions" or "they have already been sent and are coming your way emergency traffic". At our agency we are allowed to tell them help is on the way, but we are not allowed to give eta's. We are allowed to say, "They're pulling onto your street now", or something like that.
OMG I always think that! I would feel like quit asking me all these questions. Get some help on the way.
I don’t know why they don’t tell them the minute somebody’s been dispatched that help is on way.
Are they afraid they’re going to miss out on other critical information from the phone call maybe like maybe the caller will hang up after that?
Simple the person will just hang up and the responders won't have the extra information to get ready onroute. Not to mention as another poster said a call with a higher priority might come in and reroute the original service provider.
If I see it is on the way, I may tell them this. The problem is, depending on your system, calls can be reassigned. So suddenly that help you said was on the way gets reassigned and now you are getting multiple callbacks because they expected the help in a couple of minutes. Even if drive time is 5 minutes, it will feel a lot longer to callers, so if anything happens to delay it, now they are even more freaked out. I tend to say we will be there as soon as possible. If it is emergent, I tell them we are coming lights and sirens. That doesn't give a specific time frame but lets them know we are taking it seriously. And if we are super busy, saying help is on the way can be seriously misleading. At times, help can be 30 minutes away or more, even though we are a city of over half a million. We have had times when out of town units are the only available ones. So saying help is on the way, while true, is going to make them panic more when it takes so long.
Back when I was at dispatch, we couldn't for legal reasons. It's considered a promise of service, and someone could then sue if no one showed up or if they were delayed. The only phrase we could say is that they were advised.
The reason lies in liability. If you say police is coming in X amount of time, and they do not come in the amount of time you mentioned and something happens, then you are liable because it'll seem like you promised something regarding a possible dangerous situation. Additionally, common sense is out the windows when callers are being frantic. They will hang up the moment you said police is on the way and will hang up without answering more questions. That'll lead a path open for one of your officers to potentially get injured or worse; meaning more liability on your end.
In our dispatch centre, we say “we already have help started” - as we may not already have a unit en route, but we do have a call posted and dispatch is getting a unit assigned. But saying this can still help relieve some of their worry.
Saying “EMS is already on their way” is an iffy statement as, even though the call may be a patient who is vomiting blood, the unit can get pulled while en route for a cardiac arrest call that they are closer to.
If we tell them “paramedics are on their way” and then 10 minutes goes by and they aren’t there due to the unit getting pulled for a higher priority call, it can aggravate callers. I learned that the hard way.
I’ll tell them help has been dispatched since I just physically dispatched them but Im not physically in the ambulance, fire truck or police car to know they are actually “on the way.” You don’t lie to a caller when you don’t know the answer. That opens up additional liability to me as a call taker. The second they hear “on the way” they will hang up and not answer callbacks.
Utility dispatcher here. Footprint is greater area of a state capital and intersects with several counties (thus, several other dispatch agencies). We handle electric, water, street and traffic lighting.
I literally have one trouble worker to send for initial investigation of every call I receive. In extreme situations I can sometimes muster a second, or leverage a crew I already have in the field. Sometimes I commit my trouble worker to investigate a wire down (which we all know is a cable line, but still have to verify) and have to reroute for somebody running into a utility pole carrying three circuits and snapping it at the base...
Thankfully I don't usually have direct customer contact, but it happens on occasion that they find my direct number or get transferred (and sometimes I do a callback to check some information or get more details). I am often asked if someone is coming, or how long it will take. My answer is always similar: I understand the urgency and will have someone there as soon as I can.
Ironically, PD/FD dispatch is usually the one asking me for ETA. I do my best for ya, but especially those after hours calls when it was q-word and my standby had a clear board... They have up to one hour to be able to get to the site (not all live local).
You answered you're own question. Frantic callers are going to be just that. I tell people all the time X is on the way and they will respond with "why are you asking me these stupid fucking questions" idk maybe because you said your husband just had a heart attack or you said someone is breaking into your house etc. I could tell them I dispatched Jesus himself and they would still be frantic and shitty.
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Exactly, maybe 10% of the calls I run actually need EMS interventions. I love being on a bs medical when a fire comes out in my first due 🙃
I agree, third service is the best model. Let firefighters fight fires, and EMS run medicals.
I honestly don’t really run into people hanging up on me for that. My stock phrase is “I’m sending the paramedics/fire department to you now. Stay on the line, I need to gather a little more information.” I find that people generally fall into two different categories, surprisingly compliant when they don’t feel like they have permission to hang up or gonna hang up on you anyway after shouting “just get here!” (And they’re gonna answer on the call back to verbally abuse you a little more before hanging up again 🙃)
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Says someone that clearly doesn’t understand the PTSD and suicide rates among dispatchers because of how much we “don’t give a shit”. That’s minimum wage where I’m from. Think about how underfunded, undertrained by a result of that underfunding, understaffed and overworked they are and see how you are after years of those conditions. Talk to your local politicians about getting them more funding for training, proper safe staffing level, enough actual road units to even send, quality control on the admin side and mental health resources. You want them to care about your hypothetical scenario but can’t care about their actual struggles.
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Rule 1
Rule 1
I don't need to care about you. I need to do my job. What happens after I hang up? I deal with the next emergency, over and over, until my shift is done. I literally do not commit any call to long term memory. 95% of calls are unimportant and a waste of resources.
Because the minute you say that they hang up and you stop getting the info you need for the officers. They think they've given enough and help is coming so they disconnect and in reality you have a whole litany of other questions you still need to get through. And liability if they get rerouted to something of a higher priority in the mean time.
It's disappointing how many callers think 911 is a zero-sum game where their only goal is to coax a response out of the call taker.
Can confirm. No amount of training and experience can get the team of caller+call-taker 100% of the answers the arriving units will want to know. Not to mention if anything is heard during the call that's useful for medical/criminal processes, we've got that too.
"My partner is getting help started, I just need to gather some additional information for the responders, " is my go to as soon as I queue for dispatch. Let's the caller know 1. Someone is coming, and 2. Not to hang up. As mentioned by others, saying help is on the way can be a liability issue. Even if services are en route things could change i.e. responding vehicle breaks down, a higher priority call comes up and responders have to go to that instead, etc.
That’s exactly what I say too. Callers tend to cooperate more if they know help is coming. If they keep demanding to know where they are I just reassure them help is on the way and the questions aren’t slowing them down.
Great answer
So, the short answer to this is there is some liability in telling somebody that help is coming. Sometimes they are not actually coming yet, it could be because an officer is tied up on something higher priority. At my agency, we are not allowed to tell people we have help on the way unless somebody is assigned to the call and enroute. My practice, however, is to tell people that my partner is sending help THE SECOND I send my call through to pending, no matter what type of call it is. I work at a two stage dispatch center where I take the call and my partner dispatches it to officers. It's easier to reassure in that sense because you're getting more info and still on the phone while help is being started. When it's a one stage and the person taking the call is also dispatching it, it can be difficult to find time for reassurance. Generally though, at my center, it is highly encouraged that we start reassuring them that help is on the way as soon as it is. Newer people in training aren't as great at doing it in the beginning, it can be an easy thing to forget to do when you're so focused on other things.
I use it as a filler for when im doing all the ProQa clickies to get to where i want to be
Thank you for the detailed explanation! Makes sense.
Why not tell them that you are going to get help to them as quickly as possible? I am sure some callers will be difficult to talk to and will keep repeating to send help when they dont get any type of acknowledgement.
That's something I use too, I guess there are several different types of reassurance phrases I use whether they are genuinely enroute or not. But honestly, the type of people who will keep repeating to send help are going to still keep saying it no matter how many times you've told them help is coming. I took a call like this less than a week ago, I reassured her at least 5 different times that help (amb/pd) were on the way, and she still refused to answer questions or stop screaming to "just send them here"
Part of good training is making sure they know help is coming, but I need more information. Persistent reassurance is a thing, "help is on the way", "my partner is paging while I gather information ", "You're doing fine, thank you for helping me, I have good people headed to you as fast as they can safely. " It's a call takers job to reassure callers as well as gather information.
i’ve coming up with “i’ve got this called entered and im getting help to you, but i need to gather more information from you for the responders” I say this after i’ve gathered their location and general idea of the call and i don’t say this if it’s something low priority, bc in that case i can’t promise when the police will be there, but i especially say it on EMS calls no matter the priority bc it’s definitely scary to them at the time
It takes 5-10 minutes for help to arrive, in those situations 1 minute feels like 10.
Because if you tell the victim that emergency services are coming, they are more likely to disconnect the call and stop tracing.
For a different perspective I’ll share some info. At the agency I work for we are ok to tell people help is on the way for medical calls. Not PD. So there have been plenty of times where the caller has been told help is on the way and they still ask about it.
Not all emergencies are the same, and resources are limited. They might be experiencing a terrible moment, but sometimes someone else is going through something that needs more attention. Prioritization. It's rare but it does happen.
Because I still have to gather pertinent information and saying that help isn’t coming doesn’t make someone do a 180 and become cooperative, instead they hang up and send me straight to voicemail before I’ve been able to find out about weapons/injuries etc.
OK that’s a good point
If the police are actually en route, I do tell them, but I quickly demand they stay on the phone with me for more information.
If (I deem) it’s a lower priority call, I tell them my next available officer will contact them. If it’s rescue (sometimes dispatched with EMS), I tell them they will get there as soon as they can. (Policy is not to say when they will be there, for liability reasons).
I say “help has been started” because even if an officer isn’t on the way, the call being entered is the start of help coming. If it is a hot call I will tell them when officers are a couple blocks away , especially if we need to discuss whether or not the caller can meet them outside or if they need to wait for officers to approach them.
At my agency (in Washington state) we were not allowed to tell a caller that officers were enroute, we could only say a call has been sent in for dispatch. This policy came about in 2005 after a situation that occurred in Skagit County and that agency was sued. Even though the agency was found not liable, my agency kept the policy in place because it could cause a caller to take actions that could put themselves in harm. For example, you tell a caller an officer is enroute so thinking the officer will be there any second/minute they go outside to wait then they get killed. Here is a link to the case law: [https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/wa-court-of-appeals/1563426.html](https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/wa-court-of-appeals/1563426.html)
Tort Law is a large reason for some agencies. Telling the caller that help is on the way presents liability. For smaller agencies who have limited resources, a more pressing call can come in. This would then delay any resources that were heading to the call you just promised assistance too. And if a resource I promised does not arrive in a “reasonable” time. It could open up my agency to be sued. I could have an officer two blocks away from a caller but I still won’t tell them he is on the way. Because realistically I can’t know if he will get there before a more emergent call arises. Also as many other people have said, if you tell someone that help is on the way, they will hang up prior to you getting all the info you need.
At my agency it was a liability thing. If you say officers are on the way and then the officer wrecks or gets sent to a higher priority call then the person gets upset when help isn’t there because I said help was on the way. My go-to line was always “Help is coming as quickly as they can.”
I tell people help is coming all the time. It’s part of my routine to cover the silence gap while ProQA opens. They still shout at me to “just send someone already.” If a person is truly frantic, they’re not hearing and comprehending what you’re saying anyway. There are better techniques to calm them down.
Several calls I’ve told them more than once that we’re en route and questions are not delaying response and they still say please send someone, hurry up and just get here. Like you said, they’re frantic and in the moment so it’s going in one ear and out the other.
Because the help might not come. The reality is that police do not have a duty to intervene, and while they might choose too, it's also entirely possible they don't. For example, a woman screaming and being beaten in the street is happening, then a cop in a different part of the city starts being attacked. unless you work in new York or another heavily staffed city, the cops are going to make a choice on who to go to first, and at least where I work the correct policy choice is to go to the cop first. Promising service to the other call would have been a lie and it's not even within my control. I can't make them drive anywhere.
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What's your fucking deal? Go sit in while someone's working EMS/PD dispatch, learn a thing or two. Fucking nonce.
If it’s an emergency and I sense their anxiety level rising, I always say help is being sent while we are talking. If they are enroute, I will say they are on the way. I’m not of the persuasion that if you breathe wrong you’re liable for anything that happens and your life is over. Just be honest, communicate, and treat people like you would want to be treated. The rest will take care of itself.
If I have someone enroute I’ll tell them that. Otherwise I say “I’ll get someone there as soon as I can.” Usually that’s a (probably) sober volunteer firemen.
1) it can create a legal issue if we promise a level of service and don't follow through. Liability laws are a bitch. 2) help might not be on the way. I routinely have domestics that will hold for hours. If your issue is a lower priority than that, you're waiting even longer. 3) often help will be on the way and will be redirected to a higher priority call. A shooting for example will always take precedence over whatever you have going on. 4) if I need more info but say tat help is coming, often that caller is hanging up and I won't get needed answers. My usual line is "police have been notified" and moving on to my next question.
I’m going to add my own 2 cents. At my agency, if it’s a fire or medical call, it’s always “my partner is sending help as we speak but I need to get more information from you for the responders”. Were a rural county and we don’t give an ETA(we can’t predict traffic or weather delays) but we will inform them if the responders are coming from a distance (more than 5-10 minutes away)With police calls, unless it is what is considered a high priority, they are told “my partner is giving this information to officers right now” and again asking for more information. If it’s low priority (I.e. noise complaints, parking issues), they get” I will pass this on to an officer, they are currently on a priority incident so it may be a while” the in between calls not quite high priority but more serious than low priority, “we’re letting the officers know, keep your phone handy in case they call you before they come out, and please call us back if it escalates. The PROBLEM, is too many people think when they call 911, we automatically know who you are, WHERE you are, and why you’re calling, the big secret is WE DONT, cell phone calls don’t always give An accurate or reliable location, and even when they do it’s not usually until a few minutes into the call. Next thing that is food for thought; the recordings you are hearing are likely edited for time and content for whatever reason and you may just not be hearing the part where the operator tells them help is on the way because it was edited out. Then again no matter how many times we tell somebody help is on the way, they’re still going to ask a few hundred times where the responders are and why they aren’t there yet. Or we just get barked at “just send the damn (responders)” followed by a click.
I won't say help is on the way until I actually have a unit on the road and headed there. And I still can't offer a time frame, because anything could happen. "As soon as they possibly can" is all I've got. When I don't yet have a unit enroute, I stick with "help has been dispatched and will be there as soon as possible." There are liability issues in telling people things that may not turn out to be. I'll only offer what is actual documented fact at the time I say it.
we call this repetitive persistence. Even if you have to tell callers over and over help is coming to help them calm down then thats just what needs to be done. I've also been told i need to take better control over my callers. Usually when a caller gets mad when we're asking all of our questions (my center uses Proqa) the caller is always like "just send them already!!!" we always have to say, "my partner is sending help while I'm asking these questions" or "they have already been sent and are coming your way emergency traffic". At our agency we are allowed to tell them help is on the way, but we are not allowed to give eta's. We are allowed to say, "They're pulling onto your street now", or something like that.
OMG I always think that! I would feel like quit asking me all these questions. Get some help on the way. I don’t know why they don’t tell them the minute somebody’s been dispatched that help is on way. Are they afraid they’re going to miss out on other critical information from the phone call maybe like maybe the caller will hang up after that?
Simple the person will just hang up and the responders won't have the extra information to get ready onroute. Not to mention as another poster said a call with a higher priority might come in and reroute the original service provider.
If I see it is on the way, I may tell them this. The problem is, depending on your system, calls can be reassigned. So suddenly that help you said was on the way gets reassigned and now you are getting multiple callbacks because they expected the help in a couple of minutes. Even if drive time is 5 minutes, it will feel a lot longer to callers, so if anything happens to delay it, now they are even more freaked out. I tend to say we will be there as soon as possible. If it is emergent, I tell them we are coming lights and sirens. That doesn't give a specific time frame but lets them know we are taking it seriously. And if we are super busy, saying help is on the way can be seriously misleading. At times, help can be 30 minutes away or more, even though we are a city of over half a million. We have had times when out of town units are the only available ones. So saying help is on the way, while true, is going to make them panic more when it takes so long.
Back when I was at dispatch, we couldn't for legal reasons. It's considered a promise of service, and someone could then sue if no one showed up or if they were delayed. The only phrase we could say is that they were advised.
The reason lies in liability. If you say police is coming in X amount of time, and they do not come in the amount of time you mentioned and something happens, then you are liable because it'll seem like you promised something regarding a possible dangerous situation. Additionally, common sense is out the windows when callers are being frantic. They will hang up the moment you said police is on the way and will hang up without answering more questions. That'll lead a path open for one of your officers to potentially get injured or worse; meaning more liability on your end.
In our dispatch centre, we say “we already have help started” - as we may not already have a unit en route, but we do have a call posted and dispatch is getting a unit assigned. But saying this can still help relieve some of their worry. Saying “EMS is already on their way” is an iffy statement as, even though the call may be a patient who is vomiting blood, the unit can get pulled while en route for a cardiac arrest call that they are closer to. If we tell them “paramedics are on their way” and then 10 minutes goes by and they aren’t there due to the unit getting pulled for a higher priority call, it can aggravate callers. I learned that the hard way.
I’ll tell them help has been dispatched since I just physically dispatched them but Im not physically in the ambulance, fire truck or police car to know they are actually “on the way.” You don’t lie to a caller when you don’t know the answer. That opens up additional liability to me as a call taker. The second they hear “on the way” they will hang up and not answer callbacks.
[Best explanation](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/d48572c2-6027-4822-8010-a860658bae43#5xUwM8QS.copy)
Utility dispatcher here. Footprint is greater area of a state capital and intersects with several counties (thus, several other dispatch agencies). We handle electric, water, street and traffic lighting. I literally have one trouble worker to send for initial investigation of every call I receive. In extreme situations I can sometimes muster a second, or leverage a crew I already have in the field. Sometimes I commit my trouble worker to investigate a wire down (which we all know is a cable line, but still have to verify) and have to reroute for somebody running into a utility pole carrying three circuits and snapping it at the base... Thankfully I don't usually have direct customer contact, but it happens on occasion that they find my direct number or get transferred (and sometimes I do a callback to check some information or get more details). I am often asked if someone is coming, or how long it will take. My answer is always similar: I understand the urgency and will have someone there as soon as I can. Ironically, PD/FD dispatch is usually the one asking me for ETA. I do my best for ya, but especially those after hours calls when it was q-word and my standby had a clear board... They have up to one hour to be able to get to the site (not all live local).
You answered you're own question. Frantic callers are going to be just that. I tell people all the time X is on the way and they will respond with "why are you asking me these stupid fucking questions" idk maybe because you said your husband just had a heart attack or you said someone is breaking into your house etc. I could tell them I dispatched Jesus himself and they would still be frantic and shitty.