Arlington is close to launching a new call center to divert people in mental health crises from jail (VA)

by | Nov 14, 2023 | Comm Center News

The next year will see some important steps forward as Arlington County looks to uncouple law enforcement from its response to homelessness and behavioral health crises.

In 2024, the county will implement new protocols and a call system to ensure people experiencing behavioral health crises — due to a mental illness, substance use disorder or disability — receive services rather than get arrested and jailed.

Report finds Arizona 911 dispatchers fail to help lost migrants

by | Nov 14, 2023 | Comm Center News

 June 27, 2022, around 1:44 a.m., a man lost in the desert outside Tucson, Arizona called 911. An emergency services dispatcher for Pima County answered. The man, clearly distressed, tried to describe his surroundings and explain that he was lost, wet and freezing. But before he could finish, the dispatcher interrupted him, saying, “I don’t understand, un momento,” and abruptly transferred the call to the U.S. Border Patrol. The agent who picked up shushed the caller as he started to speak —“Cállate!” (“Be quiet!”) — and spoke to the dispatcher instead, in English. Then they hung up, leaving the man to the agent. An incident report suggests that no actions were taken to follow up or locate the lost caller: “No additional calls have come from the subject. … At this time the caller has not been identified and not located.”

Woman hiding in home from armed intruder pleads with 911 for help, Ohio cops say

by | Nov 12, 2023 | Comm Center News

“The text read, ‘this is Akron, we got a 911 call, is everything okay?’ And then she literally responds back with ‘help’ and the address,” Capt. David Laughlin with the Akron Police Department told WJW.

Police told WEWS they were able to locate the woman who called 911 along with a 26-year-old man in the home who had been shot and was in critical condition.