DCist Breaks Down Catania 911 Call
As you may have heard, the Examiner reported earlier this month that At-Large Councilmember David Catania had woken up to the sounds of a woman being attacked right outside his home. When he called 911, he claimed that the operator was rude.
WTOP offers the play-by-play here.
DCist provides the commentary here. DCist sides with the 911 operator. After reading the abridged transcript, we'd have to agree.
4:23 pm
As much as I applaud some of councilmember Cantania's past pronouncements and insights on certain District issues, this incident is clearly a case of a public official behaving very badly. His actions are genuinely a bad example of how to contact 911 in an emergency. Whether Mr. Catania recognizes it or not, his actions and distractions could have potentially further endangered the victim outside his window. Emergency operators have a small window of time to fully and accurately assess an emergency 911 call, while deciding to dispatch appropriate help. Having listened to the audio transcript several times, and reading the text version, there's no doubt David owes operator 1040 a public and written apology. Councilmember Catania must remember he is also publicly paid government employee who is expected to behave and perform as professionally as operator 1040 did that day.
Dennis Moore
Chairperson,
District of Columbia Independents for Citizen Control (DCICC)
http://www.DCIndependents.org
dennis@DCIndependents.org
9:41 am
But don't you realize that part of being a Yuppie is never admitting that you can possibly make a mistake?
12:16 am
In reply to some of the e-mails I received about my comments presented above: We cannot negate the fact that councilmember Catania is not a novice citizen when it comes to calm and deliberate articulation under verbal adversity at D.C. Council hearings. Additionally, as a experienced public official he is surely aware of the protocal for dispensing calm, clear and concise information in an emergency. If he is not, I would truly worry to have him in a critical leadership position during a citywide crisis where calm and focused decisions need to be made with a sense of urgency and efficiency.
The calm and focus of operator 1040 should not be misconstrued as "indifference" or insensitivity to the gravity of the situation. Her training enabled her to expeditiously deliver help to the actual victim on the street, and incarceration to the victimizer — despite the inarticulate and belligerant distractions of Mr. Catania.
In the profession of emergency and military services, operator 1040's actions are known as threat assessment. With the daily reality of erroneous, fake and sometimes comical 911 calls, calmly and quickly assessing the source of information in real time emergencies is equally critical. Having personally known bad and good experiences with emergency personnel over the last 35 years, I would easily say this can be classified as a good response for the victim. Remember she was helped and her attacker was caught within twelve minutes. We should all hope for a similar or better response.
Apologize, learn, and move-on David.
Dennis Moore
Chairperson,
District of Columbia Independents for Citizen Control (DCICC)
http://www.DCIndependents.org
dennis@DCIndependents.org