I'd almost forgotten about this. At first, I read it as 10 years and thought great. But it was 10 Days


A former 911 operator who hung up the phone "thousands" of times on people attempting to call in emergencies in Harris County, Texas has been sentenced to jail time.

Crenshanda Williams, 44, was found guilty of interference with emergency telephone calls Wednesday after "systematically" hanging up the phone on residents of Harris County, KTRK reported.

She was sentenced to 10 days in jail and 18 months probation.

Williams reportedly had an unusual number of "short calls," which were no longer than 20 seconds. Prosecutors, according to the Houston Chronicle, determined she hung up on "thousands" of calls.

In one instance, emergency caller Jim Moten told KTRK he called 911 in 2016 after he spotted two vehicles speeding on a highway where people had been killed from speeding weeks earlier and thought his call had dropped after a few seconds.

Court documents, according to the news station, stated that Williams had taken Moten's call and, before he could finish explaining his emergency, she reportedly said: "Ain't nobody got time for this. For real."

The dispatcher also hung up on a caller who tried to report a violent robbery, according to the Chronicle.

Williams reportedly spent a year and a half at the Houston Emergency Center taking 911 calls. She was caught in August 2016 and fired.

"The citizens of Harris County rely on 911 operators to dispatch help in their time of need," Assistant District Attorney Lauren Reeder said in a statement. "When a public servant betrays the community's trust and breaks the law, we have a responsibility to hold them criminally accountable."

Williams' attorney, Franklin Bynum, argued that his client "was going through a hard time in her life" when she hung up on the emergency calls, and said "punishing her doesn't do anything to fix the problems that still exist at the emergency center."

It's unclear what problems at the center Bynum was referring to.


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018...ntenced-to-jail.html

Looks about right.

quote:

Originally posted by Voshterkoff:
Looks about right.

Yup!

EEOC on speed dial.

quote:

Originally posted by olfuzzy:
"punishing her doesn't do anything to fix the problems that still exist at the emergency center."

It fixed at least one big problem.



.

quote:

A former 911 operator who hung up the phone "thousands" of times on people attempting to call in emergencies in Harris County, Texas has been sentenced to jail time.

....

Williams reportedly spent a year and a half at the Houston Emergency Center taking 911 calls.

Sounds like one or two levels of supervision should've been fired too. It's bullshit that it took the Mensa members 18 months considering the volume of hangups.

Crenshanda. O Kay.

Ain't nobody got time for that!

really

10 days?

how many people did she put in jeopardy?

it should be a month for every hang up

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

Yes, she does have a lot of hang-ups.

I worked as a 911 operator for a few months beofre moving on. I gave that job my all and took it extremely seriously so when I knew it wasn't for me, I quit. I decided if it wasn't something I would be committed to, I did not want to jeopardize any citizen or police officer so the best course of action was to resign.

Before my resignation, I met a guy who worked there who was laid back but to an extreme fault. He took the job like it was nothing. He used to eat apples in between calls and even during, the incessent casual chewing used to drive me insane.

His phone manners were appaling, he would listen in on things that didn't concern him beyond the necessary period, and on at least one period he walked away from his phone while it was "hot" (so calls were coming to his empty desk).

Nice guy, but holy shit did that guy scare me.

Everybody else I met were the most professional, wonderful, hardworking people ever.

Good Dispatchers are worth their weight in gold.
Dispatcher war story:
I was walking into the back door of the station late one night and met our only dispatcher coming out of the building. I asked her where she was going and she said that someone had just called in that there was a bomb in the station and she was leaving! She walked away and left the console unattended! Good thing I decided to come into the station.
And ten days is a farce.

How about a pic of the Judge who issued this stupid ruling, instead?

quote:

...emergency caller Jim Moten told KTRK he called 911 in 2016 after he spotted two vehicles speeding on a highway where people had been killed from speeding weeks earlier and thought his call had dropped after a few seconds.

Calling 911 for a motorist going over the speed limit...yeah, I'd have hung up on you too.

But that's why I'm not a 911 dispatcher.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

...emergency caller Jim Moten told KTRK he called 911 in 2016 after he spotted two vehicles speeding on a highway where people had been killed from speeding weeks earlier and thought his call had dropped after a few seconds.

Calling 911 for a motorist going over the speed limit...yeah, I'd have hung up on you too.

Man, are you kidding me? Do yourself a favor and be quiet. Really, do yourself a favor.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

...emergency caller Jim Moten told KTRK he called 911 in 2016 after he spotted two vehicles speeding on a highway where people had been killed from speeding weeks earlier and thought his call had dropped after a few seconds.

Calling 911 for a motorist going over the speed limit...yeah, I'd have hung up on you too.

But that's why I'm not a 911 dispatcher.

I dunno. Several years ago I made a 911 call re speeding. I Had just finished teaching a week-long course in the Jacksonville FL area and was on my way home on Friday afternoon, southbound on I-95. As usual, I was in the rightmost lane, cruise control set at the posted speed limit, 70 mph.

Traffic was absolutely insane. Really fast moving, like many at 90 mph or faster. People coming up behind me in the right lane, flashing their headlights wanting to go faster. A Mustang convertible went whizzing past me on the shoulder at a high rate of velocity.

I figured somebody was going to be killed for sure, I called 911, the dispatcher asked what milepost I was near, and then told me that they did have Highway Patrol enroute due to multiple calls.

Couple miles later there is a traffic jam. Amber lamps crew extracting the injured from the Mustang that had passed on the shoulder, now upside down on the side of the road.

Turned out that this particular Friday afternoon was the start of a "special" weekend in Daytona and the speeding cars were racing to get there and start the festivities. Until then I had never heard of Black College Reunion.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Man, are you kidding me?

No, I'm not kidding. My sister used to be a police dispatcher, and the amount of ridiculous, stupid things people would call 911 for seemed to be unlimited. But she was a professional and would never hang up on a caller. My point was simply that I wouldn't have the patience to deal with a majority of those people. This lady clearly shouldn't be in that job.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I dunno. Several years ago I made a 911 call re speeding.

Sounds like you called about reckless driving and not someone merely speeding.

Moderated Status, Seven Days

It wasn't a suggestion