A 911 dispatcher from Broward County, Florida is in hot water for neglecting her duties. Frances Francois was reportedly ordering lunch, for herself and some co-workers, while she was supposed to be answering emergency calls from all over the county.
Local media obtained the phone conversation between the 911 operator and local pizza shop. With no sense of urgency in her voice, the dispatcher seems to be taking her sweet time — checking the selections, and waiting for the pizza shop worker to return to the line to complete the order. This goes on for about eight minutes.
While Ms. Francois was placing her long lunch order, a customer fainted at Clearsight Opticians in Ft. Lauderdale, but employees there said they couldn’t get through to 911.
Later, when they found out what had happened , the optometrist office staff said they couldn’t believe that BSO only had one lady who was supposed to be answering the phone. The young man in their office had apparently suffered a seizure– but thankfully was able to recover pretty quickly.
BSO released a statement saying (the operator) failed to respond to incoming calls “despite audible tones and visual alerts, resulting in the 911 calls going unanswered and abandoned.”
The operator was given a written reprimand. BSO says immediate action was taken when they realized the employee had violated agency policy.
Meantime, Ft. Lauderdale city officials tell NBC 6 they may now do some further analysis to determine if they need to go back to their own police and fire 911 system.
Really? a written reprimand. How about a canning which would be more appropriate. It could just as easily been a life and death call. I’d be afraid to live in that city and to rely on 911.
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