By Daniel Malloy
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PITTSBURGH — When a 911 call comes in and the urgency grows with each passing second, questions are crucial.
A call-taker must ask the right questions in the right manner and in the right sequence to pass the best information along to a dispatcher, who sends police or emergency personnel.
Yesterday, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. met with Chief of Emergency Services Robert A. Full, along with representatives from city and county police departments and victims’ advocates, to address responses to domestic disturbance calls.
The initiative comes in the wake of the April 4 deaths of three Pittsburgh police officers who weren’t properly informed of the weapons inside the Stanton Heights home of Richard A. Poplawski, who has been charged with the slayings.
County officials have said that the part-time operator, who remains on leave, asked Mr. Poplawski’s mother -- who called in the “mother and son domestic” that morning -- if there were weapons in the home, and she said they were “legal.” But she did not inquire further about the guns, and responding officers were not informed that there were weapons in the house.
“The [operator] asked the appropriate question with the training she’d been given,” Mr. Zappala said. “Maybe, obviously, other questions should have been asked.”
There were no policy changes announced after yesterday’s meeting, which participants said was just a first step toward drafting new protocols.
Call-takers at the Allegheny County 911 center already have been given checklists about weapons to make sure those bases are covered, and this group plans to focus more on how best to respond to domestic violence victims.
Lorraine Bittner, legal director for the Women’s Center Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, said call-takers have to immediately identify whether it’s safe for the victim to talk and have to ask questions in the right way to get an honest and direct response.
Mr. Zappala said victims’ advocates will help train operators and police officers on dealing with victims.
“That’s an area where we need to interact better,” he said.
Mr. Zappala also said technological advances will aid in dispatching. The Pittsburgh police department, he said, is close to being able to upload dispatch information on computer screens in responding officers’ cars and at supervisors’ desks. Officers also will be able to talk back to dispatchers, Mr. Zappala said, if they need clarification.
In addition, Mr. Zappala said he would like to see better weapons available in each police car.
“The first three guys there [responding to the Stanton Heights call], the most substantial firepower they had was a shotgun,” Mr. Zappala said. “That could not match up with the defendant’s weapons.”
Mr. Poplawski is reported to have had an AK-47 assault rifle, among other weapons, during the standoff.
The 911 meetings, scheduled to continue next week, are part of a complete review of every aspect of the April 4 shootings. Pittsburgh police Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson emphasized that the inquiry is not designed to assign blame to operators.
“We’re not going to criticize them,” Chief Donaldson said after yesterday’s meeting.
“There may have been an error on the part of one of the employees, but ... there is one person to blame for this incident, and he’s sitting in the county jail.”
Copyright 2009 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette