TexasCHLforum.com

More fun in Houston.

Background:

According to charging documents, managers at the emergency center determined that [former 911 operator Crenshenda] Williams had been involved in thousands of “short calls,” a term used to describe 911 calls that last 20 seconds or less, between October 2015 and March 2016.

Sometimes she just hung up, sometimes she hung up with a flourish:

...Williams remained on the line after terminating the call and can be heard to say, “Ain’t nobody got time for this. For real.”

And then there was this:

In one case, Williams allegedly hung up on Hua Li, an engineer who called to report a robbery in progress on March 12. Li said he had been buying lottery tickets at a RaceWay convenience store on FM 1960 West at Mills Road, when a gunman entered and tried to force his way through the door of a glassed-in security area behind the counter. As two clerks attempted to block the door, Li says he ran from the store and heard several gunshots on his way out. When he got to his car, he called 911 for help.

“They just said, ‘This is 911. How can I help you?’ I was trying to finish my sentence, and we got disconnected,” Li said.

Police said that Williams was the 911 operator, and that she terminated the call within a few seconds.

Li called a second time and got a different operator. By the time police arrived, however, the store manager had been shot and killed.

Now comes the political awakening:

Li told Channel 2 News that if 911 is not there for you, “Nobody, nobody is going to help you. You’re on your own.”

So Mr. Li, recommend you follow that line of thought to its logical conclusion...


http://www.click2houston.com/news/911-o ... on-callers

This is article that seems to be about the incident Mr. Li witnessed. The store owner was armed, but it appears he didn't shoot soon enough. RIP, Mr. Siddiqui.

http://www.khou.com/news/crime/funeral- ... t/93163990

Sounds like the screening process for 9-1-1 operators needs to be scrutinized.

It would be very ironic if Ms. Williams ever needed 9-1-1 and her call was "dropped"

...and yet, she kept her job...

Either such operators are rarely if ever monitored or the powers that be were afraid to train or can her...

This eye-opener put 911 right where you thought it was - no help - carry a gun for self defense unless it's something else entirely that a gun wouldn't help, then kiss yourself good-bye...

Abraham wrote:...and yet, she kept her job...

...

No, she was canned. It took awhile to notice, but they did notice she had an unusually large number of short calls, and when they played the recordings, they discovered she was hanging up on people. She faces two misdemeanor charges of tampering with the 911 system.

ELB wrote:No, she was canned. It took awhile to notice, but they did notice she had an unusually large number of short calls, and when they played the recordings, they discovered she was hanging up on people. She faces two misdemeanor charges of tampering with the 911 system.

I'm no expert in laws but shouldn't she be tried for more than just two misdemeanors? I understand that may be all they can factually prove, but couldn't she be tried for the calls she hung up on that resulted in death or bodily injury?

vjallen75 wrote:

ELB wrote:No, she was canned. It took awhile to notice, but they did notice she had an unusually large number of short calls, and when they played the recordings, they discovered she was hanging up on people. She faces two misdemeanor charges of tampering with the 911 system.

I'm no expert in laws but shouldn't she be tried for more than just two misdemeanors? I understand that may be all they can factually prove, but couldn't she be tried for the calls she hung up on that resulted in death or bodily injury?

I thought that was pretty light too, but maybe there are other charges in the works pending further investigation. Maybe.

I would think a few lawsuits might arise from this. The city can probably deflect them with sovereign immunity in the long run, but might settle just to get it over with. But since she was presumably not following policy or training, she might not be protected -- not a litigation lawyer, so don't know for sure. On the other hand she probably doesn't have enough $$ to be able to sue.

My own comment about lawsuits reminds me:

Some years back I read that a lawyer (on behalf of a client) was suing the City of Chicago for failing the respond properly to a 911 call when his client's house burned down. He obtained 911 call records (number of calls, duration, response times, etc). He was so surprised/shocked at what he found that he posted them (detailed listing) online publicly (I believe he got them through open records requests, not through discovery).

Then thing that shocked him was that 20% of 911 calls were not being answered at all. People didn't even get a chance to get hung up on, they were left to ring until they gave up.

The city went to court to force him to pull the information from his website, claiming it would help terrorist plan attacks. He did pull them off line, I don't know whether because of direct court action or he decided his strategy would be better served by doing so, but it was pretty eye-opening.

vjallen75 wrote:

ELB wrote:No, she was canned. It took awhile to notice, but they did notice she had an unusually large number of short calls, and when they played the recordings, they discovered she was hanging up on people. She faces two misdemeanor charges of tampering with the 911 system.

I'm no expert in laws but shouldn't she be tried for more than just two misdemeanors? I understand that may be all they can factually prove, but couldn't she be tried for the calls she hung up on that resulted in death or bodily injury?

She should be charged as an accessory to every crime where she hung up on a caller.

AND Involuntary Manslaugher on the one where she hung up on Li

Pawpaw wrote:She should be charged as an accessory to every crime where she hung up on a caller.

I agree, while it may be difficult to prove intent in court. I feel like it's negligence at the very least for every call she hung up on. It's on thing for the call not to be answer, due to whatever reason, but it's another entirely to hang up on someone in need. This act makes me very upset, if I ever need to dial 911 I would like to think my call would be answered and I would not be hung up on because "Ain’t nobody got time for this. For real.," as she so eloquently put it.

ELB wrote:I thought that was pretty light too, but maybe there are other charges in the works pending further investigation. Maybe.

I would think a few lawsuits might arise from this. The city can probably deflect them with sovereign immunity in the long run, but might settle just to get it over with. But since she was presumably not following policy or training, she might not be protected -- not a litigation lawyer, so don't know for sure. On the other hand she probably doesn't have enough $$ to be able to sue.

I felt like it was too light, but I hope you are right that there could be other charges coming. I think this is ridiculous and the charges were not more. Involuntary Manslaughter may be a reach but I am sure a DA could find a charge suitable for her situation.