Timestamps:

0:00

All right, we're back again for another mini sewed.

And as you guys know, what we like to do, you've seen it a couple times before, is we surprise each other with a little bit of radio traffic or phone calls, you know, dealer's choice.

And basically we're just going to kind of debrief again.

0:18

We're not here to criticize anyone's work.

We just are finding some educational points for those of you that already are behind the headset or thinking about getting into it.

So, ready to dive in for today's Ashley.

I am ready.

OK, so before we jump into the call, Ashley, normally we prime these up pretty good.

0:37

I'm not going to prime this one up too much.

We'll we'll kind of work through all of that.

But what I will tell you is so basically the call starts as a transfer.

So the dispatcher gets a transfer from like their City Hall or parish or wherever 'cause this is in Kansas, I don't know how it works out in Kansas, but basically like their kiosk, their front desk desk gets a call and they're trying to transfer it go like, oh, you need 911, let's get you over there.

1:09

So they do, they transfer it over.

And as you'll see, the caller gets lost in the transfer, disconnected, right.

So then there's a little bit of you'll, you'll see how the dispatcher has to call back.

So just 'cause you can kind of see it's, it's a little confusing at the beginning how it comes in, but you know, we'll go from there.

1:25

But that's how it kind of starts off there. 911 What is the location of your emergency?

Dispatch this 582 standby.

Are you still on the line and are you still on the line?

OK, I just had a a person call down to the security desk at City Hall and he said his mother had just like hit his dad over the head with a handgun.

1:51

OK, I have his phone number but for some reason either he is hanging up or I can't transfer it so I'm going to give you the phone number.

OK, go ahead.

OK, I'll go ahead.

Call him back.

All right, bye, bye.

Hello this.

2:08

Is 911 what's going on?

Hello.

Yeah, this.

Is 911 what's going on?

I recently got disconnected.

I had told you guys everything that happened, but the argument with my mom and dad, OK.

2:25

What's your address?

Hello.

Yeah, it's 1033 W McCormick St.

OK, tell me exactly what happened.

They were arguing and I shot him in the head and he's not breathing anymore.

2:46

OK, so what's going on right now?

Are you there?

Yeah.

OK.

Do you have any weapons on you?

Yeah, I do.

What kind of weapons do you have?

A handgun.

3:03

What kind of handgun is it?

I don't know, it's my dad.

What color is it?

It's black.

Where exactly are you at in the house?

By the closet.

3:19

OK, what closet?

My mom's.

Where's that at in the house?

In her room, which is where she's at and my little brother do.

You have a little brother.

Yeah, I was on the phone with you guys earlier telling you guys about it.

3:41

I just got disconnected.

OK, well we're going to try to get you some help.

We're exactly in the house.

Like is this a one story or two-story house?

It's one story.

Is it towards the front of the house?

The back of the house.

Well, like it's, it's like towards the back.

4:03

I guess I'm just pointing the gun at them, making sure they stay in the closet.

My mom and my little brother.

OK.

Is there any way you can put the gun up?

No.

Are you guys sending someone over here?

4:19

Because then I'm definitely not going to put.

It away.

OK.

I'm just going to go ahead and stay on the phone with you, OK?

That's fine until they get here or.

As long as you need me to, OK.

Yeah, I'm thinking about because I already poured gasoline all over the house.

4:36

I might just set it on fire.

OK.

Well, we don't need to do that, OK.

In a little bit I might.

Why would you do that?

Do you have my address correct?

Can you verify it for me again?

It's 1033 W McCormick St.

4:57

My zip code is 67213 OK.

So which way does your house face?

Like does your front door face?

North-south, East West I.

Don't know, it's just facing the street, my dad isn't breathing.

5:17

Kind of giving me anxiety, making me like paranoid.

Hello.

I'm still here.

I'm still here, OK?

Yeah, me too.

OK.

Are you white, black, Asian, Hispanic?

5:39

Are you there?

Yeah.

Are you white, Black.

Asian.

Hispanic.

Is is it was an accident so.

OK, that's fine.

So let's stop there and I'm gonna get your thoughts thus far, my friend.

5:56

Weird call.

Weird call.

It's giving me some kind of red flags.

A You called City Hall?

Mm.

Hmm.

So are you local?

You know what I mean?

You call this direct city number.

Yeah, for the security desk.

6:12

You don't really like, it's kind of random that you called that number.

Not that people don't call random numbers all the time in this line of work, but yeah, you called the city number.

So where where'd you get that phone number?

You know, and then I'm calling you back and you're kind of being evasive.

6:28

You're not really answering my questions.

And then you're like hard left, hard right.

They were in an argument.

Oh, I shot them.

Well, I'm pointing the gun.

Oh, well, now I'm, you know, poured gasoline.

So it's just very.

All over the place, right, left to.

6:43

Turn the place.

It's giving me a lot of red flags, but the the the kicker of our line of work is my little tum tums and my little feelings aren't fact.

And what's fact is what they're saying until we prove it's not fact.

7:00

So I have AI have feelings about this, but I can't let my feelings dictate how we respond right?

I can't.

I can't go.

This guy's full of shit.

Like we're not no, we're not going.

You were not responding with all of our units because this guy's lying.

7:18

Obviously he's lying, right?

You know that that's not what we can do.

So we're responding as if the guy just shot his dad is holding his sister and you know, mom or brother and mom in the closet and has poured gasoline all over the house.

7:34

Even though my initial was like I don't believe.

This I'm not following this.

Yeah, you know, but I still have to act as if I do.

That's a good point because you're acting with information given, but I mean it at least I feel it's OK to say that the reporting part of sounds off or the report does not sound like you know and you're kind of priming like priming it there.

7:57

You know, one of the things we talk about all the time at First Call Ready is that our profession deserves better.

Better training, better support, better tools, better leadership.

That is exactly why we're excited to partner with this Gen. 911.

They're helping emergency communication centers hire better, train faster and support their people.

8:17

Through realistic call simulations, immediate coaching, and tools designed for everyone from trainees to supervisors and directors, they're helping build stronger teams behind the headset.

Because when?

Dispatchers have the opportunity to practice, learn, make mistakes and grow in a safe environment.

8:35

They show up more confident when the real call comes in.

They're investing in the future of emergency communications and helping create the kind of profession we all want to be a part of.

Now let's get back to the show.

So what's your hunch telling you, 'cause I think you're there, you're going to say it?

Swatting call.

8:50

Yeah, absolutely.

Swatting call And for the folks who don't know what a swatting call is.

That is why I picked this one is if you don't know what a swatting call is, it's a hoax.

And basically it's usually a, a, a high risk response.

That's what they're doing.

It's not a hoax.

9:06

Like my car got broken into.

Ha ha, it didn't.

That's not what we're looking at here.

Swatting is usually trying to solicit a high risk, a high level response from.

Yeah, I think more most folks in the civilian world are from if they're gamers like people game online, like they'll swat the person while they're live streaming.

9:29

Sometimes scammers swat their victims to convince them that they're telling the truth.

I've had scammers calling swatting calls before for someone they're trying to make pay.

Like, you know, we'll send the police to your house and then they call in a, a fake call to us and we respond.

9:47

I think if you spend any time in dispatching your everyone gets or is working when a swatting call receives at some point, they're a lot more common than what a lot of people think.

Because at the end of the day, to your point, we have to go, it's the what level of response are we going?

10:03

Frustrating swatting calls because it just ties up our resources.

Like we because we have to respond and it's fact.

Until it is proven fiction, we have to respond.

And then so speeding up in this case, exactly what it was, was a swatting case.

10:20

The unfortunate part of this one was the house that they went to the an officer ended up shooting and killing one of the residents.

So the high risk was very high risk.

So basically in short, officers responded to this address and the victim, the gentleman was there with his two children and he comes to the door, he starts to see commotion outside of the house cuz they were called to his house.

10:47

So he's kind of looking out.

What's the commotion?

Peeks out, ends up stepping out cuz he's like going to ask them like, hey, is everything OK?

I got my two kids in here, you know, one would assume and they immediately show me your hands, show me your hands, which he does, but kind of pauses at one point or through it 'cause I, I would assume you're probably pretty startled, right?

11:09

And his pausing caused a gesture.

One officer shot fired, one single shot and hit him right in the chest.

And so he died instantly.

The kicker here is coarse.

I mean, unfortunate that anybody was injured, let alone this person was killed in this incident is this was exactly what you said it was a gaming incident but the victim was not involved. 2 gamers were beefing over $1.50 bet on Call of Duty and one said I'm going to basically I'm gonna Swatch you like basically even called it out.

11:48

And the other guy who goes like, yeah, go ahead and gives this address 'cause he used to live there a couple years ago.

So the victim in this is completely, completely innocent.

So I would just it's such an unfortunate outcome, but I really wanted to raise awareness to I don't know if the community understands how often this happens and if you're dispatched as you as dispatchers, they are it's we see it trending more classes on swatting.

12:16

If you can't take a class, do some research online.

There's a lot of information out there of the telltale signs of swatting.

This one happens to have an example of quite a few that you know, kind of like doesn't call on 911, you know, doesn't want you can't have my Auntie alley.

12:31

So you know, they don't call on 911.

They usually call in a business line or, you know, like something not, or in this case, City Hall.

Less trace not.

They're.

Not opting in to give us their info, you know, 'cause that's what you do when you dial and I want to give a little consent for us to have some information.

12:56

This one was interesting too.

She does a good job about the kind of getting him to explain the layout of the house, which is usually a a telltale sign 'cause they usually don't know the in layout of the house.

So where he starts to stutter, stutter and like I don't know which direction, which most people may not know their directionals on that, but just really like faces the street and kind of gets into it those when they start being really evasive on those questions.

13:21

Like these are simple questions I'm asking you.

Even when you're frustrated, even in your when you know the answers to these questions, you know that's definitely a a sign.

Yes, and the tone, right, the the tone of the caller as well is really like like.

Yeah, it was an accident.

13:37

Yeah, knows.

And again, people, victims and suspects, everyone acts differently to the trauma, right.

So let's not.

They should have acted this way, but he was acting real, real funny for being for being involved in the chef, you know?

13:55

Supposedly another thing in like kind of researching this, what I found interesting and or to bring for a good reminder to educating 'cause like you said, hopefully not not everyone watch this is already a dispatcher, but it really brought to light that it is prevalent in the gaming community, like you said, and how important is to really not put your info out there.

14:18

You know what I mean?

Like these like kids don't understand, you know, so you know, they're that's where that.

Don't get into.

I exactly, but I'm saying I feel like they might have a little more.

Oh, you want my Social Security number?

I'm not giving you that where a kid might be like, let me go find it.

14:36

I don't know.

But yes, I agree.

Like it's just interesting that this is trending and it's like an it's a, it's newer, but like not new, you know?

No, it's definitely, you know, concerning.

14:52

I mean from a, from a dispatch standpoint, we're tying up resources.

Those folks could have gone to someone who who's, you know, actually in danger, in need.

And then of course in this instance where, you know, someone was harmed and we should have never crossed paths with that individual that day.

15:10

We being the department, not we being, we weren't involved.

But, you know, it's just so unfortunate that those those involved get.

Yes, that's where I was actually going with it.

As we see this trending more, we have more resources as meaning we in law enforcement, policing, you know, all of that, more resources to track down.

15:31

And in this case, actually both the kid who gave the wrong address, even that he didn't commit the swatting, but it's like, ha, ha, here, sure, here's the other address.

He was tracked down and got a short term jail sentence, but two years probation.

15:48

And the person who set up the whole swatting incident ended up, it ended up being a federal case 'cause he was across state lines and got two years in federal prison for this.

Yeah.

So it's definitely not worth it.

16:04

And as it's trended more, we've come with more resources to be able to handle this.

So any other thoughts before we?

No, I mean trust.

Trust your dispatch.

Get dispatchers out there or something.

Seems funky, Seems weird.

16:20

Isn't really passing the vibe check if you will put that out there to your unit.

Let that let them know like this.

This feels very off to me.

People do do things like this and and like crimes like this do happen where they kill their parents, where they're holding their family hostage.

16:36

Like that isn't the weird part.

And you know, it's kind of weird, you know, probably for an everyday human to but when I hear that happening, it's scary.

It's all these things, but it's like, all right, like, wow, we got a good little situation going here.

You know, that's that's my everyday, you know, but when it's funky like that, you know, then it's when I feel like I'm not working through this incident, then I kind of know those red flags are happening, you know what I mean?

17:03

So trust your gut, dispatchers communicate with your people and something feels feels off.

And keep asking questions.

Yeah, keep them talking.

Keep.

Talking like we're still on the phone, we're asking questions.

What made you mad day?

Let's talk about how'd we get here, Billy, You know, like let's let's talk about it.

17:20

So you know, overall, I think the dispatcher did a really good job working through a weird yes start.

And I mean that that security guard gave out is like batched out.

I don't know if they talked about security all the time, but I've been like, I'm sorry, who are you?

Yeah, what's going on like?

Batch number, what, what, where, who, what?

17:37

So it was definitely like a little weird in the beginning and then you finally get them on the line and then it's just more weird.

So buckets are weird and still.

And trying to process all of that and then like how do I ask another question to this weird respond?

Yeah, so definitely good dispatching through a weird, weird situation for sure.

17:55

And to your point, they're not always I mean it.

It could have been, if it were a real one, someone could act that way in shock.

You never know.

Like it's that whole benefit of the doubt.

But then it's also like, you gotta follow your dispatch, gut it.

Never.

It's never gonna steer you wrong.

Never.

18:13

Well, that's all I got for us today on that one.

Yeah.

Thank you.

It was great.

Yep.

All right, everyone.

Thanks for joining us again.

Stay raspy.

Stay ready, I'll.

See you next time.