Never Eat Soggy... What's that last one?

10/21/2014

Not many people are naturally great with direction. Most people need to put a little effort into knowing whether they are facing north or southeast.

But 911 callers? They have zero grasp of a compass.

DispatcherDame: "What direction on the freeway are you going?"
Caller: "Uh, forward?"

And this happens not every once in a while, but nearly every day. Then it becomes a game of twenty questions. Are you going towards the beach, or away from it? Towards the mountain? Towards Mexico or towards Canada? Did you pass third grade where reading a compass and map was taught?

2 Comments

Officer Cynical link

10/21/2014 06:41:55 am

My city has Avenues that run north/south, Streets that run east/west, and the occasional Circle, Blvd,Crescent, etc. thrown in. PLUS - almost all are numbered rather than named (5th St, 5th Ave), AND - the city is divided into East and West. So,within the city there are two 5th Sts (5th St East and 5th St West) and 2 5th Avenues (5th Ave East and 5th Ave West). Guess how many times I get sent to the wrong address?

DispatcherDame

10/21/2014 06:52:37 am

Oh yeah - all the time I'm sure. There are a lot of times where we can be smarter than the callers, and sometimes we just can't be.

And all those city planners must have been high when laying out and naming these streets. Just saying.

Author

A twenty-something dispatcher taking 911 calls, yapping on the radio, and dealing with the general public - with a mad case of headset hair. Not quite so jaded yet, but not naive as I once was. Losing my soul one call at a time.

This reflects my views and not the view of my employer, etc. If you have a problem with this, I suggest using the back button.

Never Eat Soggy... What's that last one?

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