The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "911 dispatch centers" ...
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Addressing 911
It all started with a tip from people on the front lines, and quickly unraveled into a story that has sparked much needed oversight of Ingham County's new consolidated 911 center. The center merged two 911 dispatch centers into one back in June of 2012. In October, a group of first responders approached Reporter Ann Emmerich with alarming concerns about problems within the system. They believed at least two deaths could be connected to delayed response times because emergency crews were sent to the wrong address. They also believed county officials were trying to "cover up" the problems. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Ann Emmerich began digging into records from the 911 Dispatch Center. She obtained documented complaints from the Lansing Fire Department, call logs from the dispatch center, and time stamped recordings of 911 calls. Just days after Emmerich made those FOIA requests, Lansing's Mayor announced he would form a task force to investigate concerns with the County's 911 Center. At the time, there was no advisory board in place to oversee the center. Once officials went public with the formation of a task force, the original board that worked to establish the 911 center was brought back together to begin oversight.
Tags: broadcast; 911; FOIA; 911 center
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Von Maur Shootings
In December 2007, a young man killed eight people then himself with an assault rifle at the Von Maur department store in Omaha. It was the largest mass murder in state history, a story that made national news. But when other media moved onto other stories, a team of World-Herald reporters spent much of 2008 digging into the issues surrounding such an astonishing act of violence. Some of their findings include: emergency responders were delayed getting to victims due to miscommunications by 911 dispatchers, a troubling suicide spike, and the depth of the gunman's psychological problems.
Tags: Von Maur murders; teen suicide; massacre; gunman; suicide rate; mental health problems; psychiatric records; treatment centers; shooter
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EMS Taxi: Health Care Dysfunction on Wheels
An analysis of the public records database found that Cleveland residents were calling 911 to be picked up by Emergency Medical Service ambulances for minor ailments. This is because dispatchers can't say no. The result is that response times are slow and the transportation is a high cost for the city.
Tags: transportation; emergency medical services; Medicaid; Medicare; Metrohealth Medical Center; Cleveland; ambulance; 911; database; health; medicine;
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Response times can vary widely
This series by the Poughkeepsie Journal investigates the varying response times for ambulances to arrive at the scene of a medical emergency. By performing a data analysis of each county's 911 calls, the story identified other factors of slow response time, including location and availability of volunteers. Farmer recommends that other journalists interested in performing a similar investigation to "visit dispatch call centers in order to become familiar with how these calls are handled and dispatched."
Tags: response times; Department of Health; 911 dispatch calls
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Six Minutes To Live or Die
This USA Today investigation finds that emergency medical systems in most of the nation's 50 largest cities are fragmented, inconsistent, and slow. The found three major reasons that emergency services in most U.S. cities are saving so few people in life-or-death situations. Many cities' emergency services are undermined by their culture...disagreements and turf wars between fire departments and ambulance services cause deadly delays. Most cities don't measure their performance effectively..if at all. So they can't determine how many lives they're losing, and therefore can't find ways to increase survival rates. Finally, many cities lack the strong leadership needed to improve emergency medical services.
Tags: Medical emergency; paramedic; emergency services industry; statistics; false statistics; response times; 911 dispatch centers; fire trucks; ambulances; EMS; Mayo Clinic; performance; survival rates; delays
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Asleep at the Switch: 911 Emergency
WMAQ-TV's investigative team aired a series centered around Chicago police officers who were assigned to work at the city's 911 emergency dispatch center. It found that officers assigned to respond to emergency calls were routinely asleep at their consoles. In direct response to the investigation, the chief of the 911 emergency division was forced out and after Chicago City Council hearings reforms were taken to punish sleeping officers, May 19 - 20, 1994.
Tags: IL Savini Chicago Police Department Better Government Association
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No title (id: 9245)
San Francisco Examiner reports that San Francisco's emergency telephone system is courting disaster because of understaffing; sometimes only one or two people are available to answer 911 and the police non-emergency number; some dispatchers work 16 - 20 hours a day; the department averages 800 hours of overtime every two weeks to staff the communications center, Nov. 22 - 30, 1992.
Tags: CA Goldberg