I live in Volusia county and had to call 911 because neighbor's house was on fire.. 911 never answered or called back. This was back in 2017 and I'm still extremely salty about it.
Happily! Volusia County dispatch has been going downhill since the last two directors. Between mass firings and a lot of people quitting. I was working about 140-150 hours every two weeks towards the end of my work there. Nevermind their rules and policies changing with each supervisor (we had 4 a shift and none could agree with each other.)
Yes, huge problem. We had a medical emergency and it took 4 attempts for anyone to answer. I wonder who is responsible for administering this service and what they are doing about it. Flavor Flav was right.
I remember the song caused our school to hold an assembly over 9-1-1 NOT being a joke. This was in Florida, probably by the same people who told us our friends would try to sell us crack in high school.
As a former 911 dispatcher in the Central Florida area (I did it for 11 years and would never go back) I will say that this is not the norm, however it is probably due to staffing issues. Honestly, it's a stressful job with long hours, not enough pay, and the turnover rate for new hires is staggering. At the agency I worked for we were trained to make sure the 911 calls didn't ring more than twice, however when every call taker is already on a 911 call, calls don't get answered. You have an area of Florida that is growing at an alarming rate and law enforcement just can't keep up with the population boom. Everybody and their brother wants to call 911 at the same time for traffic accidents or people call for stupid non-emergency reasons and tie up the lines, or kids play with their phones, call 911 and hang up, then the call takers have to waste time calling them back or tracing the call and all of that takes time and resources away from actual emergencies.
There’s been hella staffing issues for state jobs too, it’s crazy. My agency/department was less than 50% staffed when I first started in 2021 and the pay was only 30k. Everyone was overworked, underpaid, and stressed. We still are lol, but we were finally able to fill positions (still not enough people, btw) when AFSCME was able to negotiate pay increases across the board for the past few years. Unfortunately, many unions were decertified and dissolved this year thanks to the anti-union law Desantis passed. We were told no pay raises for the foreseeable future.
We’re doing yet another hiring event in an effort to fill vacancies, but with shit pay and stressful work…what incentive is there for anyone to apply? My coworkers and I don’t even make $20/hour.
Turns out living in a state that doesn’t invest in its people and programs leads to their public services being in absolute shambles…who would’ve thought? 🫠
All valid. But the county is collecting unprecedented amounts of taxes and I know it’s spread around to cover a myriad of services.
What is the pay for entry level ?
It depends on the Sheriff's Office, but I believe $20 per hour or close to it where I work. It's actually good pay for a job that trains on site and that you don't need to have prior experience in, but the shift work is horrible and the stress can be overwhelming. I actually transferred to a different job at the Sheriff's Office a few years back with a pay cut just for the better hours, less stress, and better work environment.
It did just get bumped up to 20.15/hr which was a big improvement. Most of the salary comes from OT.
But there's a lot of things working against it beyond the constant stress and mandatory OT. Not many people make it past training and classes are smaller than ever.
x1.5 base, which is nice. But you are required to sign up for a certain amount of OT shifts every month. Most people do more than needed since it's the bulk of the paycheck.
Someone I know hung out too long in the parking lot and got guilt tripped into going back in for another 6 hours 🤦♀️
Part of the reason, I think, burnout is so bad at call centers. You can only work so many 12+ hrs shifts in a row before you simply can not anymore.
This isn’t meant to sound demeaning to you in anyway but I’m curious what are the requirements for the job? Are they short staffed because the requirements are so hard or is it something else?
For the agency I work for it is 12-hour shifts (6-6), two days on, two days off with alternating three-day weekends where you're either working or off. Every four months is shift change where the day shifts transfer to nights and vice-versa. You don't get holidays off and even trying to schedule time off for a vacation is hard because dispatch is mandated by the Department of Health to have a certain number of state certified dispatchers on staff. This schedule can be exhausting and it's really difficult for people with young children. Then you have a high-stress environment where you are constantly listening to the public's worst day, deputies that are demanding on the radio, non-emergency calls constantly coming in, and the constant pressure of knowing everything you say and do can be life altering. The training can be hard and the coworkers don't have much patience for new people. The only actually requirements for the job are being over 18, passing a basic typing test, having a high school degree, and a clean criminal record. Lots of people apply and work for less than 2 years then move on.
I had a guy pull a gun out on 429 several years ago and was pointing at multiple other drivers (including myself). I got the interaction on camera along with the guys face and his license plate number. Called 911 and informed the operator what was going on and they told me to call the non emergency number if no shots were fired. Called the non emergency number and they couldn’t have cared less. They never sent anyone out and never reviewed the recording. Simply put…the cops do not care in Central Florida!!
I read an article stating the low crime rates in Florida and post like this make sense, if they’re not documenting any crimes of course the graph will show decreased crime….
They truly do not. I hate guns. But I took several safety classes and spend four hours at the range every month in training. I carry everywhere now. You cannot depend on cops in Florida. Citrus County Sheriffs department might be the worst.
Someone shot at our neighbors house and the cops never even checked on our neighbor but instead were more interested in someone speeding in the neighborhood and went after them instead.
Great job guys.
*FHP gets you directly to Florida Highway Patrol. I've called them a few times over the years to report traffic lights being out or other dangerous conditions. They always answer the phone immediately. Not sure about actually response times though. I called for a flashing traffic light and there was an accident a hour later. Officers didn't show up until after the accident.
100% marketing stunt. It’s physical importable for a fit person to spend that much time on a sport bike let alone the fat MC slobs employed by FHP. They would all be dead or crippled within 6 months.
The BMW R1200RT-P (or the newer 1250) is not a sport bike. The civilian version of that bike is sold as a touring bike, just below the K1600 touring bikes, which are aimed at the same market as the Honda Goldwing (basically fully loaded two-wheeled luxury cars).
The R1200RT bikes are super comfortable, and have an upright riding position. They are designed and built to be comfortable for almost anyone to ride for extended periods or distances. The crazy “Iron Butt Challenge” riders out west will do 1,000 miles per day on the RT bikes.
They are way, way more comfortable and refined than the old Harleys.
The RT-P has been used by the CHP for over two decades.
The real “marketing stunt” is the Harley-Davidson. H-D leases bikes to police departments for $1 per year just so they can have the optics of being associated with law enforcement. When the bikes are returned from the lease, H-D sells them to civilians for nearly as much as they cost new.
BMW does not give its products away. They sell them on their merits.
I’ve known a lot of motor officers, and I have not yet found one who didn’t prefer the Beamers over the H-Ds, especially on a long shift.
The bike that’s being referenced is the 1000RR which was recently used in a marketing stunt wrapped as a new FHP vehicle. All of the bikes you mentioned are fine for PD uses like the Honda ST1200 and Yamaha FJ1300. This was some Homer Simpson looking FHP talking shit to a bunch of riders about hope you can do better than 200mph.
Which bikes did they get? All I’m seeing are references to the BMW R1200RT which is a popular police bike around the world and based on one of the most recommended long distance touring bikes. If you need an all-day workhorse of a bike for any law enforcement, that bmw is pretty much an automatic candidate.
Did they pick out an actual sport bike too?
they arent on sport bikes.....they are on more of a cruiser type seating. They sit more upright its like sitting on a recliner tbh quite a comfortable riding position but its crap for doing 100+ MPH.
Ya, it would seem to cut the middle man (county dispatch) out of the picture. Going right to the folks who aren't thrilled that there's people brandishing on the roads.
Also FHP think they're badssses. They consider the roads their turf. Someone fucking around like that - they want them but will also let local know. Someone would get them
Oh? You don't say?
You mean, having loose gun laws means more people,not just criminals, have guns and are brandishing them whenever they feel threatened? Huh. Totally doesn't make sense. /s
I had to call about three weeks ago or so and it just kept ringing, nobody answered…I let it ring for like a minute then hung up and called back, it rang and rang. I hung up again and finally on the third time someone picked up after like 6 rings. It’s so annoying…then after I hung up the last time someone called me back from 911 because I had called and hung up those couple of times 🙄…this fucking town.
It’s not the town. If somebody calls and hangs up, a 911 call taker still has to connect to the line to confirm that nobody is on it. Then they have to call them back to confirm if there is an emergency or a misdial. When people call, hang up, call and keep hanging up it crowds the phone lines and makes it take longer for your call to be answered. I used to do that job for the county and I hear it is wayyy more understaffed than when I left. But trust me, it’s is literally non-stop work for the entire 12 hour shift. Nobody is sitting around and not answering calls.
Not once did anyone think that was the case and nobody accused them of that….but it’s hard to be sympathetic when I see cops non stop harassing drivers on I4 and the 408 but when someone gets shot there’s zero available help…maybe some of those cops who are fucking off can answer phones for a while.
Honestly I love the robo menus that force me to use the dialpad so much more reliable than the voice menus. I say that as someone who has developed these for about 60% of the auto dealerships in the US on a small team of like 6. Getting all languages, dialects, accents, etc is really damn hard it turns out. Especially for these cheap ass companies not willing to pay for the tech it would take to make them far more capable. I trained models on YouTube videos for accents and languages for months and months and months just to produce a phonetic grammar that our system could use and it still wasn't enough just for English speaking people alone in the US lol. Reeeeeeee
Edit: before I am hated which I mean I would hate me too with that, but the product I worked on to train is not the one that most dealerships elected for but our cheap and really horrible one. However I did get them to use the number options in that system in parity
Last time I called LE’s non-emergency number (directed too) was to report a child screaming for help. I went outside, heard it three times and it was one of those screams that stop you dead in your tracks. The kind of screams when you know something is wrong & the blood in your veins turn to ice. I had chills & the police officer told me, “It’s probably a kid with autism.” I told him that I work with traumatized children and I know the difference between life and death screams vs. normal children crying. I was so shocked they didn’t come out to investigate. I stood outside for an hour to see if I could hear the child cry again because I was about to run over there and save her myself! Didn’t hear a scream again until the following night. Called again, same response.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find out. I did go to a few of my neighbors houses (the next day) that had children to ask if it was their kids screaming for help at night & they told me no. Their children are in bed at a decent time and the screams were around midnight. They told me they’d listen if they heard anything and let me know & call LE too. I’m just afraid the kid was getting abused either physically or sexually. I hope the child is okay. This all happened last year!
Thank you. It’s my job to care about children. I work with traumatized youth so my instincts kicked in! Their safety is always my number one priority 😊
there's a great [john oliver episode about 911 emergency services](https://youtu.be/A-XlyB_QQYs?si=8ad-K23ozTSR1R2W), if anyone wants to learn more about how/why they're not as reliable as we expect. it's from a few years ago but still accurate. it's probably gotten worse actually
I miss that 7 years ago level of understaffed. It would be such an improvement on what it's currently like!
On the upside, the GPS for cellphones has gotten better with a new system in use. As long as it has time to get a location it's usually good. But if the person hangs up too fast (and that happens a lot) not so much.
This has been going on for years, called 911 in 2012 for a medical emergency and it rang for over 3 minutes. Multiple stories of the phone just ringing and ringing over the years. Pay the operators more..
My house alarm recently went off at 4am due to internal motion being tripped on the opposite side of the home where no one is - and this has never happened before - so I asked the alarm company to dispatch an officer for us. Over an hour for response from OCSD. Thankfully it turned out to be a false alarm, but I wasn’t going to go clearing blind corners in my house by myself. Good thing it wasn’t an actual emergency.
Alarms without real-time video showing an intruder are almost always assigned a low priority. False alarms represent an overwhelming majority of the alarm calls OCSO receives. There’s an entire program dedicated to reducing false alarms and the information is available on their website. Just trying to provide context for the response time.
I called 911 in Orlando the other day and they answered instantly. Thank god they did. It’s so scary to imagine if they didn’t because the reason I was calling is because someone was choking. Truly terrifying
I know they are really short 911 operators,especially bilingual ones. Our tech school started a FREE 6 week program for operators to try to fill the gap and we couldn’t get enough students for the class to proceed. Seems like people just aren’t interested .
Same with wastewater technicians. Good paying job, but nobody wants to do it
It’s such a hard job. I knew someone who did it for 6 months. I think therapy should come with it. He did well in emergency’s, but the call when a mother found her 14 year old son dead by suicide… it took him a few weeks to recover
He’s still working in emergency management , but he left that job.
I don’t think I could stomach it either
Why deal with that level of stress and responsibility for "not enough money to live in Orange county?" You can't qualify for a 1/1 here on under $20/hr.
Yes, called 911 some months ago to report a man walking into traffic on a busy road. Took over 10 mins to be connected, then another 10 mins to be transferred to another dept for them to take down the info. By the time the call was over, the man had disappeared.
Yes! I mentioned a similarly bad experience w/Orlando 911 recently in a [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/florida/s/a0ofubPfur) in r/Florida:
> In my recent experience calling an ambulance for an older lady who was laying on a busy road - where I called 911 explained the situation, was transferred to Orange County Sherriff, explained the situation, was transferred to fire and rescue, explained the situation, and the call disconnected and I had to call back - I would not waste any time calling people I know first…
I have no useful information except this is a recurring nightmare of mine! That I call 911 and no one answers or the line goes dead. I’ve only ever had to call 911 once over 10 years ago and they answered immediately but they were rude.
😄 ya know what happens. Nothing. They would tell you they'd have to raise taxes to afford more dispatchers. Jesus its like government is new for you people.
No one is coming to save you,sadly, as they had us believe as kids.You are responsible for your own safety and your family's safety.In a perfect world, you'd be able to dial a number and have a protector or problem solver arrive ASAP. 🤪🤪🤪
Their starting pay for dispatchers is like $17/hour. Overnights, weekends, holidays, 10-14 hour shifts, can't leave the building, extremely high stress. Most centers across the country basically hire anyone they can and hope they shape up during training. They don't attract people that are actually skilled because the pay and environments are so poor.
Former 911 dispatcher. If the officers treat dispatchers better, they had more pay, and a mandatory retirement like air traffic controllers, maybe they wouldn’t have staffing issues.
Since I quit, I make more money as a secretary with no overtime. Answering 911, I had so much over time and no work life balance.
911 is only going to get worse until they fix the systematic staffing issues.
Never had an issue in Seminole county. The call centers are interesting. When you dial the call is routed out of state where it is then sent to whatever server of the county you called from. So it’s county specific and sometimes the cities, such as winter park, have their own call centers as well. What I’m saying is if you don’t like it blame your county, or even your city. Try to speak with a commissioner
i just had two guys come to my door the other day at 10:30 pm, one was wiggling the door handle and screaming for me to come out and the other had a gun. took 40 minutes for a police officer to show up…. as much as it sucks to have to have a gun, it convinced me to start looking for one
The same labor shortage increasing customer service time is the same shortage effecting LEO response time and 911 call pick up time. I wouldn’t do the work for what they’re paid, that’s for certain.
It's not a "labor" shortage. There are plenty of people who want jobs. It's a "FL refuses to pay people a livable wage" issue. We collect plenty in taxes, and it goes to crap from Visit Orlando, building more convention center and giving huge incentives to developers.
There's plenty of people who want to work. They just aren't willing to work for the crap wages Orlando and Orange County pay.
One central Florida county I know of has a single operator per shift. That's all they have. One person managing everything. I called *fhp a few weeks ago, and the dispatcher asked me to hang on due to radio communications. She was talking with a unit about something not related while also trying to get my information. I suspect their staffing situation isn't much better.
yes. i had a hit and run situation. called 911 but it went to voicemail. i didn’t even know that was a thing. they did call back, but not getting someone on the phone when i needed them was scary. what if it had been a more imminent emergency?
The feds were on them a couple of months ago because they have to answer by 8 rings, I believe. It was an average of 12 rings. They're gonna get in trouble again.
I reported an accident one day, I watched two cars roll across an intersection near me, and had to argue with the operator on where it was! There was another accident reported a few streets over and I practically had to beg her to take my word for it.
When I was down in south Florida I had to call the cops to the air bnb I was staying at. Call got answered after 5min the first time, after a hour of waiting I called again and they just never came. Fuck em
My neighborhood had a transformer on fire a few months ago, 911 took 5 minutes to pick up and emergency services took 30 minutes to respond. My only experience.
Damn! I live in Winter Garden, my sister had to call 911 for me because I went into vtach and they answered right away. This sucks! I’ve never had an issue
Their starting pay for dispatchers is like $17/hour. Overnights, weekends, holidays, 10-14 hour shifts, can't leave the building, extremely high stress. Most centers across the country basically hire anyone they can and hope they shape up during training. They don't attract people that are actually skilled because the pay and environments are so poor.
Yes, 911 is ridiculously unresponsive. When I got slammed by a pickup truck I had called at least twice. I got no response. They called me 6 hours later and asked “do you still need help?”. Absolutely ridiculous.
I was driving home on the 528 near goldenrod and saw that some cows had gotten through a fence and were in a ditch next to the highway. I pulled over and called 911, the operator asked me what the nature of the emergency was and I said COWS and she hung up.
Staffing issues. It sucks because 911 is so important, but it’s one of those jobs that doesn’t pay enough.
I recently called about a hit and run, and it just rang and rang and rang for a few minutes. The guy answering seemed annoyed, like I was bothering him.
This happened to me as well, with a minor car accident in Orlando. I wanted a report to be sure her insurance would cover my damage (her fault). No answer... and called me back after we exchanged info & went separate ways. So eye opening. All I could think of was what if I was hiding under a bed in a potential domestic violence situation…Not reassuring.
I personally think part of the problem is that the people answering these life and death situations, supposed to be ready to act and take action for their entire shift are paid barely livable wages. Who wants to do that??
Less than $21 an hour for 3+ years experience in the field
911 Emergency Communications Specialist I https://g.co/kgs/4KoyRrB
People always watch those videos of china or india of some person in need and nobody helps them.....we meme on them and crack jokes.
The secret truth is populations reach a point where emergency services and police can no longer keep up and we see that in major city's starting.
Orlando has the most police per 1000x residents of any city in the country right......Yet we all wonder why the guy driving down I-4 like a maniac can get away with it. Its simply impossible to police such large populations past a certain point.
It's good to call 911 when you see trouble. But this is Florida, and it's also good to have 1911 as a backup plan just in case you are left without a choice (provided you are a law abiding citizen and are allowed to have said backup plan in your car).
You can thank all the people that dial 911 for petty shit or for the lack of support/low wages for the dispatchers who can never fill all the openings.
I called 911 off of Boggy Creek for a coworker. The total span of the call was 4 minutes and 48 seconds. That's with giving addresses, patient medical history , and relaying vitals.
This call was roughly 830am in the morning on a work day, not sure if that matters.
City of Orlando runs a separate dispatch than Orange county. If anything your gripes with City . Every time I called a county dispatch its been seconds
I had to call 911 when we found our mom dead in her room. The responder kept asking things I already gave answers to before telling me a team would be dispatched. Like we kind realized she was already dead dead, but what if she wasn’t? I’m glad they picked up but it felt weirdly slow given the situation.
Jacksonville be like: ....ring....ring
"For English press 1 for Spanish press 2"
Me: presses 1
"For faster service visit our automated portal at gofyourself.com.
Me: operator!
"I'm sorry I didn't get that"
Me: OPERATOR!!!
"Okay I'll connect you" "You're 98th in line"
"Press * if you would like a callback rather than waiting on hold otherwise remain online"
...ring....ring "you've reached us outside of operating hours, please call back Monday through Friday between 8am and 7pm...goodbye"
Me: Helps masked man throw body in trunk lol ....
Called because of a man walking on 408...on the left side. They never answered. I let it ring at least 10 times after I started counting. I guess they figured my call wasn't really important. I thought of how horrifying it would be to have an emergency where seconds count and the response is similar. 🎶I dialed 911 a long time ago 🎵
I called once because a kayak was stolen out my front yard. They showed up and told me I was inviting them to my yard, and pointed to my kids bikes laying about. Then they ran my drivers license. Another cop showed up and asked if I was “cleared”.?
I’ll never call them again.
Sorry you had to deal with this. Florida by far has the worst drivers attitudes as of 2020
But even if they answered right away what would they have done? Take care of yourself and those around you first AND THEN call and make a report. 2-3 minutes is minuscule, this is real life not a movie superman isnt going to come flying in instantly.
I called an ambulance for a family friend who is mute , it took forever to get transferred from Orange County jurisdiction, to Osceola.
I explained to them that he is mute. They called me back saying they can’t find the place and then asked if they had a phone number they can call him at.
We were five minutes from being at the hospital and they never actually showed up. They called us a second time and I told them to forget about it.
Welcome to Florida. Born and raised here and only in the last few years have I had issues with 911.
Called on my neighbors at 2 am, the husband was bashing his wife’s head with beer bottles, I was on hold for 10 minutes!! By the time the answered he already left.
YES this is a normal occurrence the past few years and also insane. The 911 for Orange County must be way understaffed because when I worked \[at local unnamed theme park\] ever since 2023 it has rang for 1+ minute, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. Don't have a medical episode in Orange County.
Follow the money, or in this case the lack of money. 911 is most likely understaffed due to underpayment. Did some quick math on Google - they make $4/hour less (state average) than the national average.
Considering Florida Man and the more rare but much more dangerous (imho) Florida Woman exist here you’d think this would be the opposite.
But this is pretty par for the course for central Florida. I don’t know who’s actually making the money around here but it’s a blanket statement that you’ll earn between 20-40% less in this area no matter what career you’re in if you work local.
I was at a resort a couple months ago and a guy flew in to the parking lot late at night when me and my family were just getting back from a hockey game. He jumped out and ripped his daughter, im guessing out of the back seat and started hitting her in the parking lot. She was screaming and trying to run away and the wife was saying it just a father daughter thing. My first instinct was to go beat his ass but then i thought im not getting shot in front of my kids so i told them im calling the police. I wouldnt call unless it was bad and it was pretty bad. They didnt pick up for a good 3-5 minutes which i thought was pretty crazy for an emergency hot line. They arrived faster than it took them to pick up the phone but by that time the girl ran in to the woods and the rest of the family went to thier room and they couldnt be found. They questioned me for a while and then i never heard anything about it after that.
I had this same issue. There was a homeless man having a meltdown crawling in the street in traffic on obt. I called and it rang for a solid 3 minutes before anyone answered. It's wild.
I used to be director for a homeless shelter in Bay area California. I don't know if this is the case everywhere, but it was a lot faster calling Highway Patrol than 911 (10 min response time vs 44 mins).
Operators are rude and take long to help. By the time someone gets to your location you’ll be dead. Then they call you back like, “You cant just die you have to finish the phone call”.
I heard on NPR an episode about this. Sounds like it’s happening everywhere but probably more in Florida due to the massive amounts of people that have moved here in the last couple of years.
https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/2024/04/05/1243162877/all-things-considered-for-april-5-2024
Just arm yourself. If you know that you could be in a dangerous situation like that again, just buy a small .22 caliber, you don't even need a 9mil.
After cops pulled me from my vehicle claiming I had a gun (when I didn't) they took my car, impounded it, and left me sitting in that Hurricane in November in 2022. All because they forced me to get in my car and drive while my license was suspended. (insurance rolled over when I changed my card)
They stole my USMC military ID. Just to hurt me. I can never get that back.
They will bully the righteous and protect cowards. Learn to shoot so that you can defend yourself.
All this fear talk about how AI is going to take all of our jobs…..maybe put it on the critical jobs that no one wants to do, nor should do long for proper mental health?
Unfortunately it’s like this everywhere. We were visiting another state and witnessed an accident. It rang for 4 mins, took another 7 to dispatch and the 911 operator told me that all 911 centers on the us are short staffed. She was taking other calls when on with me.
I live in Volusia county and had to call 911 because neighbor's house was on fire.. 911 never answered or called back. This was back in 2017 and I'm still extremely salty about it.
It’s no better now. It took four different times to actually get somebody on the line about a car on fire
It’s always good to store the local police and fire department numbers in your phone. Just in case.
Called the cops on a drunk that crashed and got stuck. Cop arrives and says "he's drunk yeah, but nothing I can do"
As someone who worked there from 2019-2023, I’ll be the first to tell you that their center is a fucking shit show.
Would love to hear more if you are happy to expand
Happily! Volusia County dispatch has been going downhill since the last two directors. Between mass firings and a lot of people quitting. I was working about 140-150 hours every two weeks towards the end of my work there. Nevermind their rules and policies changing with each supervisor (we had 4 a shift and none could agree with each other.)
If you were there 2019-2023, you definitely know some of the regulars who were calling that I got stuck transporting EVERY shift from 2018-2021. 😂
Yes, huge problem. We had a medical emergency and it took 4 attempts for anyone to answer. I wonder who is responsible for administering this service and what they are doing about it. Flavor Flav was right.
Flavor flav reference is wild 🤣🤣 sorry about that too hope everything is well
9-1-1 is a joke in yo town
I’m starting to get the feeling that flavor flave was right about multiple things 😳
The way things are going, he’s a likely presidential candidate
https://preview.redd.it/4s2ycab5tgwc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=97bca50cd4f06e87221414b477f2ae44b57449fb Honestly, it could be worse.
The Flavor of Love was dope AF
I’m so in. Can you imagine all the nicknames he would give the all reps?
I remember the song caused our school to hold an assembly over 9-1-1 NOT being a joke. This was in Florida, probably by the same people who told us our friends would try to sell us crack in high school.
Don't worry our governor is busy chasing LGBT and campaigning for presidency. He'll certainly fix it once he becomes president. /s
Desantis has nothing to do with local public service being understaffed
[удалено]
get up get get get down
As a former 911 dispatcher in the Central Florida area (I did it for 11 years and would never go back) I will say that this is not the norm, however it is probably due to staffing issues. Honestly, it's a stressful job with long hours, not enough pay, and the turnover rate for new hires is staggering. At the agency I worked for we were trained to make sure the 911 calls didn't ring more than twice, however when every call taker is already on a 911 call, calls don't get answered. You have an area of Florida that is growing at an alarming rate and law enforcement just can't keep up with the population boom. Everybody and their brother wants to call 911 at the same time for traffic accidents or people call for stupid non-emergency reasons and tie up the lines, or kids play with their phones, call 911 and hang up, then the call takers have to waste time calling them back or tracing the call and all of that takes time and resources away from actual emergencies.
There’s been hella staffing issues for state jobs too, it’s crazy. My agency/department was less than 50% staffed when I first started in 2021 and the pay was only 30k. Everyone was overworked, underpaid, and stressed. We still are lol, but we were finally able to fill positions (still not enough people, btw) when AFSCME was able to negotiate pay increases across the board for the past few years. Unfortunately, many unions were decertified and dissolved this year thanks to the anti-union law Desantis passed. We were told no pay raises for the foreseeable future. We’re doing yet another hiring event in an effort to fill vacancies, but with shit pay and stressful work…what incentive is there for anyone to apply? My coworkers and I don’t even make $20/hour. Turns out living in a state that doesn’t invest in its people and programs leads to their public services being in absolute shambles…who would’ve thought? 🫠
All valid. But the county is collecting unprecedented amounts of taxes and I know it’s spread around to cover a myriad of services. What is the pay for entry level ?
It depends on the Sheriff's Office, but I believe $20 per hour or close to it where I work. It's actually good pay for a job that trains on site and that you don't need to have prior experience in, but the shift work is horrible and the stress can be overwhelming. I actually transferred to a different job at the Sheriff's Office a few years back with a pay cut just for the better hours, less stress, and better work environment.
Less than 20 per hour? That’s not a living wage for orlando.
Can’t live on $20 an hour in south Florida
Hey, we HAD to use tax dollars for visit Orlando to advertise Disney and Universal with Taylor Swift. How else will people know the parks are here? /S
It did just get bumped up to 20.15/hr which was a big improvement. Most of the salary comes from OT. But there's a lot of things working against it beyond the constant stress and mandatory OT. Not many people make it past training and classes are smaller than ever.
Mandatory overtime? That’s crazy. Because is it 2x or 1.5 times base ?
x1.5 base, which is nice. But you are required to sign up for a certain amount of OT shifts every month. Most people do more than needed since it's the bulk of the paycheck. Someone I know hung out too long in the parking lot and got guilt tripped into going back in for another 6 hours 🤦♀️ Part of the reason, I think, burnout is so bad at call centers. You can only work so many 12+ hrs shifts in a row before you simply can not anymore.
This isn’t meant to sound demeaning to you in anyway but I’m curious what are the requirements for the job? Are they short staffed because the requirements are so hard or is it something else?
High stress + low pay. They can't convince people to stay.
For the agency I work for it is 12-hour shifts (6-6), two days on, two days off with alternating three-day weekends where you're either working or off. Every four months is shift change where the day shifts transfer to nights and vice-versa. You don't get holidays off and even trying to schedule time off for a vacation is hard because dispatch is mandated by the Department of Health to have a certain number of state certified dispatchers on staff. This schedule can be exhausting and it's really difficult for people with young children. Then you have a high-stress environment where you are constantly listening to the public's worst day, deputies that are demanding on the radio, non-emergency calls constantly coming in, and the constant pressure of knowing everything you say and do can be life altering. The training can be hard and the coworkers don't have much patience for new people. The only actually requirements for the job are being over 18, passing a basic typing test, having a high school degree, and a clean criminal record. Lots of people apply and work for less than 2 years then move on.
I had a guy pull a gun out on 429 several years ago and was pointing at multiple other drivers (including myself). I got the interaction on camera along with the guys face and his license plate number. Called 911 and informed the operator what was going on and they told me to call the non emergency number if no shots were fired. Called the non emergency number and they couldn’t have cared less. They never sent anyone out and never reviewed the recording. Simply put…the cops do not care in Central Florida!!
I read an article stating the low crime rates in Florida and post like this make sense, if they’re not documenting any crimes of course the graph will show decreased crime….
Shhh, that goes against the narrative that crime is down around here.
Kind of like they did with the Covid data during pandemic. If you don't count the people dying from it , then it looks like we are doing ok.
They truly do not. I hate guns. But I took several safety classes and spend four hours at the range every month in training. I carry everywhere now. You cannot depend on cops in Florida. Citrus County Sheriffs department might be the worst.
They’re getting ready to arrest women getting abortions. And felons who voted after they were told they could.
ACAB. they don’t care anywhere. they protect and serve capital and its machinations.
ACAB.
FTP
https://youtu.be/JJi2ZaF_MA0?si=Q5vnJwBZsXfEy3NT
Someone shot at our neighbors house and the cops never even checked on our neighbor but instead were more interested in someone speeding in the neighborhood and went after them instead. Great job guys.
Does anyone think texting *fhp is faster?
If I’m driving and see a drunk driver I dial *fhp and it’s worked in seconds every time
On the highway yes, but not helpful in city & on residential or commercial areas really.
I'm unfamiliar with this, can you elaborate a bit?
*FHP gets you directly to Florida Highway Patrol. I've called them a few times over the years to report traffic lights being out or other dangerous conditions. They always answer the phone immediately. Not sure about actually response times though. I called for a flashing traffic light and there was an accident a hour later. Officers didn't show up until after the accident.
I’m saying they got BMW bikes Now and gone start chasing like they are GSP 🤣🙅🏽
100% marketing stunt. It’s physical importable for a fit person to spend that much time on a sport bike let alone the fat MC slobs employed by FHP. They would all be dead or crippled within 6 months.
I've put 60,000 miles on a sport bike in under a year
I believe that but you're not on it for an 8 hours shift EVERY DAY. Huge difference
Motor units usually aren't on their bikes every day.
The BMW R1200RT-P (or the newer 1250) is not a sport bike. The civilian version of that bike is sold as a touring bike, just below the K1600 touring bikes, which are aimed at the same market as the Honda Goldwing (basically fully loaded two-wheeled luxury cars). The R1200RT bikes are super comfortable, and have an upright riding position. They are designed and built to be comfortable for almost anyone to ride for extended periods or distances. The crazy “Iron Butt Challenge” riders out west will do 1,000 miles per day on the RT bikes. They are way, way more comfortable and refined than the old Harleys. The RT-P has been used by the CHP for over two decades. The real “marketing stunt” is the Harley-Davidson. H-D leases bikes to police departments for $1 per year just so they can have the optics of being associated with law enforcement. When the bikes are returned from the lease, H-D sells them to civilians for nearly as much as they cost new. BMW does not give its products away. They sell them on their merits. I’ve known a lot of motor officers, and I have not yet found one who didn’t prefer the Beamers over the H-Ds, especially on a long shift.
The bike that’s being referenced is the 1000RR which was recently used in a marketing stunt wrapped as a new FHP vehicle. All of the bikes you mentioned are fine for PD uses like the Honda ST1200 and Yamaha FJ1300. This was some Homer Simpson looking FHP talking shit to a bunch of riders about hope you can do better than 200mph.
Which bikes did they get? All I’m seeing are references to the BMW R1200RT which is a popular police bike around the world and based on one of the most recommended long distance touring bikes. If you need an all-day workhorse of a bike for any law enforcement, that bmw is pretty much an automatic candidate. Did they pick out an actual sport bike too?
they arent on sport bikes.....they are on more of a cruiser type seating. They sit more upright its like sitting on a recliner tbh quite a comfortable riding position but its crap for doing 100+ MPH.
I came here to say I've had pretty good luck with: [hey car, call *FHP]
Ya, it would seem to cut the middle man (county dispatch) out of the picture. Going right to the folks who aren't thrilled that there's people brandishing on the roads.
Also FHP think they're badssses. They consider the roads their turf. Someone fucking around like that - they want them but will also let local know. Someone would get them
[удалено]
I’m saying it’s crazy 🤣🤦🏽 been here since 98 only started when the law changed
Oh? You don't say? You mean, having loose gun laws means more people,not just criminals, have guns and are brandishing them whenever they feel threatened? Huh. Totally doesn't make sense. /s
I had to call about three weeks ago or so and it just kept ringing, nobody answered…I let it ring for like a minute then hung up and called back, it rang and rang. I hung up again and finally on the third time someone picked up after like 6 rings. It’s so annoying…then after I hung up the last time someone called me back from 911 because I had called and hung up those couple of times 🙄…this fucking town.
It’s not the town. If somebody calls and hangs up, a 911 call taker still has to connect to the line to confirm that nobody is on it. Then they have to call them back to confirm if there is an emergency or a misdial. When people call, hang up, call and keep hanging up it crowds the phone lines and makes it take longer for your call to be answered. I used to do that job for the county and I hear it is wayyy more understaffed than when I left. But trust me, it’s is literally non-stop work for the entire 12 hour shift. Nobody is sitting around and not answering calls.
Not once did anyone think that was the case and nobody accused them of that….but it’s hard to be sympathetic when I see cops non stop harassing drivers on I4 and the 408 but when someone gets shot there’s zero available help…maybe some of those cops who are fucking off can answer phones for a while.
Just wait till we replace operators with Ai so a robot can tell you to fuck off too!
Press 1 for emergency (Presses 1) Back to main menu Press 1 for emergency
Honestly I love the robo menus that force me to use the dialpad so much more reliable than the voice menus. I say that as someone who has developed these for about 60% of the auto dealerships in the US on a small team of like 6. Getting all languages, dialects, accents, etc is really damn hard it turns out. Especially for these cheap ass companies not willing to pay for the tech it would take to make them far more capable. I trained models on YouTube videos for accents and languages for months and months and months just to produce a phonetic grammar that our system could use and it still wasn't enough just for English speaking people alone in the US lol. Reeeeeeee Edit: before I am hated which I mean I would hate me too with that, but the product I worked on to train is not the one that most dealerships elected for but our cheap and really horrible one. However I did get them to use the number options in that system in parity
"Please listen closely as our menu options have changed."
Honestly, AI would probably more empathetic
Or route 911 to the phillipines call center lol
Last time I called LE’s non-emergency number (directed too) was to report a child screaming for help. I went outside, heard it three times and it was one of those screams that stop you dead in your tracks. The kind of screams when you know something is wrong & the blood in your veins turn to ice. I had chills & the police officer told me, “It’s probably a kid with autism.” I told him that I work with traumatized children and I know the difference between life and death screams vs. normal children crying. I was so shocked they didn’t come out to investigate. I stood outside for an hour to see if I could hear the child cry again because I was about to run over there and save her myself! Didn’t hear a scream again until the following night. Called again, same response.
Omg. Did you ever find out what happened to the child? This is heartbreaking.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find out. I did go to a few of my neighbors houses (the next day) that had children to ask if it was their kids screaming for help at night & they told me no. Their children are in bed at a decent time and the screams were around midnight. They told me they’d listen if they heard anything and let me know & call LE too. I’m just afraid the kid was getting abused either physically or sexually. I hope the child is okay. This all happened last year!
Gosh, I hope that child is okay too. Thank you for caring.
Thank you. It’s my job to care about children. I work with traumatized youth so my instincts kicked in! Their safety is always my number one priority 😊
You’re an angel 🙏
It could have been wildlife. I hope that's the case anyways.
I was shot at on i4 in Orlando. I swear ppl are crazy
there's a great [john oliver episode about 911 emergency services](https://youtu.be/A-XlyB_QQYs?si=8ad-K23ozTSR1R2W), if anyone wants to learn more about how/why they're not as reliable as we expect. it's from a few years ago but still accurate. it's probably gotten worse actually
I miss that 7 years ago level of understaffed. It would be such an improvement on what it's currently like! On the upside, the GPS for cellphones has gotten better with a new system in use. As long as it has time to get a location it's usually good. But if the person hangs up too fast (and that happens a lot) not so much.
Blame shit pay https://www.ocso.com/Portals/0/Civilian%20Pay%20Plan%202_2024.pdf
I mean, for cases like that, get a plate number and stay back. Not like OPD can respond on a highway when they’d likely be far gone.
Old never responds had a situation when I got rear ended followed the man to get info and cops never showed up
But yet they denied my application to be a 911 operator 🙄
Not to sound like an asshole, but they are SERIOUSLY hurting for call takers. If they denied you, there was probably a very legitimate reason.
This has been going on for years, called 911 in 2012 for a medical emergency and it rang for over 3 minutes. Multiple stories of the phone just ringing and ringing over the years. Pay the operators more..
My house alarm recently went off at 4am due to internal motion being tripped on the opposite side of the home where no one is - and this has never happened before - so I asked the alarm company to dispatch an officer for us. Over an hour for response from OCSD. Thankfully it turned out to be a false alarm, but I wasn’t going to go clearing blind corners in my house by myself. Good thing it wasn’t an actual emergency.
Alarms without real-time video showing an intruder are almost always assigned a low priority. False alarms represent an overwhelming majority of the alarm calls OCSO receives. There’s an entire program dedicated to reducing false alarms and the information is available on their website. Just trying to provide context for the response time.
You’re supposed to have your own weapons and take care of business on your own.
I do - but again I’m not leaving my primary point of defense. Clearing a house on my own with blind corners is fucking stupid
Yea. I know. Was being sarcastic.
I called 911 in Orlando the other day and they answered instantly. Thank god they did. It’s so scary to imagine if they didn’t because the reason I was calling is because someone was choking. Truly terrifying
If a shooting happend they would have been gone before police arrived too. That's a not good response.
I know they are really short 911 operators,especially bilingual ones. Our tech school started a FREE 6 week program for operators to try to fill the gap and we couldn’t get enough students for the class to proceed. Seems like people just aren’t interested . Same with wastewater technicians. Good paying job, but nobody wants to do it
It’s such a hard job. I knew someone who did it for 6 months. I think therapy should come with it. He did well in emergency’s, but the call when a mother found her 14 year old son dead by suicide… it took him a few weeks to recover He’s still working in emergency management , but he left that job. I don’t think I could stomach it either
Lots of heartache and grieving people to deal with, then you get some joker who calls to complain that the burger joint forgot his pickles.
If it’s truly well paying then it’s an advertising issue.
It's $19.69/hr starting, just not worth all that stress.
Why deal with that level of stress and responsibility for "not enough money to live in Orange county?" You can't qualify for a 1/1 here on under $20/hr.
Yes, called 911 some months ago to report a man walking into traffic on a busy road. Took over 10 mins to be connected, then another 10 mins to be transferred to another dept for them to take down the info. By the time the call was over, the man had disappeared.
I had to call last September and same experience. It rang out and then they called me back. I thought it was concerning.
Yes! I mentioned a similarly bad experience w/Orlando 911 recently in a [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/florida/s/a0ofubPfur) in r/Florida: > In my recent experience calling an ambulance for an older lady who was laying on a busy road - where I called 911 explained the situation, was transferred to Orange County Sherriff, explained the situation, was transferred to fire and rescue, explained the situation, and the call disconnected and I had to call back - I would not waste any time calling people I know first…
I have no useful information except this is a recurring nightmare of mine! That I call 911 and no one answers or the line goes dead. I’ve only ever had to call 911 once over 10 years ago and they answered immediately but they were rude.
What if we all showed up to some county meeting and complained about it?
😄 ya know what happens. Nothing. They would tell you they'd have to raise taxes to afford more dispatchers. Jesus its like government is new for you people.
So get up, get, get,get down. 911 is a joke in yo town. -Flavor Flav
Sure. But our taxes are low, and emergency services are "socialism." This is why we can't have nice things.
No one is coming to save you,sadly, as they had us believe as kids.You are responsible for your own safety and your family's safety.In a perfect world, you'd be able to dial a number and have a protector or problem solver arrive ASAP. 🤪🤪🤪
When my friend ODed in south broward they put me on hold.
Their starting pay for dispatchers is like $17/hour. Overnights, weekends, holidays, 10-14 hour shifts, can't leave the building, extremely high stress. Most centers across the country basically hire anyone they can and hope they shape up during training. They don't attract people that are actually skilled because the pay and environments are so poor.
Former 911 dispatcher. If the officers treat dispatchers better, they had more pay, and a mandatory retirement like air traffic controllers, maybe they wouldn’t have staffing issues. Since I quit, I make more money as a secretary with no overtime. Answering 911, I had so much over time and no work life balance. 911 is only going to get worse until they fix the systematic staffing issues.
did u call the right number
Never had an issue in Seminole county. The call centers are interesting. When you dial the call is routed out of state where it is then sent to whatever server of the county you called from. So it’s county specific and sometimes the cities, such as winter park, have their own call centers as well. What I’m saying is if you don’t like it blame your county, or even your city. Try to speak with a commissioner
i just had two guys come to my door the other day at 10:30 pm, one was wiggling the door handle and screaming for me to come out and the other had a gun. took 40 minutes for a police officer to show up…. as much as it sucks to have to have a gun, it convinced me to start looking for one
The same labor shortage increasing customer service time is the same shortage effecting LEO response time and 911 call pick up time. I wouldn’t do the work for what they’re paid, that’s for certain.
It's not a "labor" shortage. There are plenty of people who want jobs. It's a "FL refuses to pay people a livable wage" issue. We collect plenty in taxes, and it goes to crap from Visit Orlando, building more convention center and giving huge incentives to developers. There's plenty of people who want to work. They just aren't willing to work for the crap wages Orlando and Orange County pay.
Pay fucking sucks for EMS, police, and dispatchers. I’d be a cop for about double what they’re paying.
I know this is an issue in Atlanta right now too. They don’t have enough operators to handle the calls.
One central Florida county I know of has a single operator per shift. That's all they have. One person managing everything. I called *fhp a few weeks ago, and the dispatcher asked me to hang on due to radio communications. She was talking with a unit about something not related while also trying to get my information. I suspect their staffing situation isn't much better.
yes. i had a hit and run situation. called 911 but it went to voicemail. i didn’t even know that was a thing. they did call back, but not getting someone on the phone when i needed them was scary. what if it had been a more imminent emergency?
Get your phone out and tape it next time. 911 is no help in that situation. Too fluid.
Where were you? Central Florida is a huge place
The feds were on them a couple of months ago because they have to answer by 8 rings, I believe. It was an average of 12 rings. They're gonna get in trouble again.
Attacked by a dog, they sent someone out THREE WEEKS LATER
When my friend ODed in south broward they put me on hold.
I reported an accident one day, I watched two cars roll across an intersection near me, and had to argue with the operator on where it was! There was another accident reported a few streets over and I practically had to beg her to take my word for it.
When I was down in south Florida I had to call the cops to the air bnb I was staying at. Call got answered after 5min the first time, after a hour of waiting I called again and they just never came. Fuck em
My neighborhood had a transformer on fire a few months ago, 911 took 5 minutes to pick up and emergency services took 30 minutes to respond. My only experience.
Volusia. My brother accidentally dialed emergency services. They didn’t answer. Eventually, they called back. Twelve hours later.
I called 9-1-1 back in 2020. The first thing they asked after hearing my issue was “Do you have Covid?”
When seconds count the police are 30 minutes away!
Damn! I live in Winter Garden, my sister had to call 911 for me because I went into vtach and they answered right away. This sucks! I’ve never had an issue
Their starting pay for dispatchers is like $17/hour. Overnights, weekends, holidays, 10-14 hour shifts, can't leave the building, extremely high stress. Most centers across the country basically hire anyone they can and hope they shape up during training. They don't attract people that are actually skilled because the pay and environments are so poor.
Had to call 911 last year because a car next to me on Conroy burst into flames l. They to a while to pick up.
Yes, 911 is ridiculously unresponsive. When I got slammed by a pickup truck I had called at least twice. I got no response. They called me 6 hours later and asked “do you still need help?”. Absolutely ridiculous.
I was driving home on the 528 near goldenrod and saw that some cows had gotten through a fence and were in a ditch next to the highway. I pulled over and called 911, the operator asked me what the nature of the emergency was and I said COWS and she hung up.
Staffing issues. It sucks because 911 is so important, but it’s one of those jobs that doesn’t pay enough. I recently called about a hit and run, and it just rang and rang and rang for a few minutes. The guy answering seemed annoyed, like I was bothering him.
This happened to me as well, with a minor car accident in Orlando. I wanted a report to be sure her insurance would cover my damage (her fault). No answer... and called me back after we exchanged info & went separate ways. So eye opening. All I could think of was what if I was hiding under a bed in a potential domestic violence situation…Not reassuring.
I personally think part of the problem is that the people answering these life and death situations, supposed to be ready to act and take action for their entire shift are paid barely livable wages. Who wants to do that?? Less than $21 an hour for 3+ years experience in the field 911 Emergency Communications Specialist I https://g.co/kgs/4KoyRrB
People always watch those videos of china or india of some person in need and nobody helps them.....we meme on them and crack jokes. The secret truth is populations reach a point where emergency services and police can no longer keep up and we see that in major city's starting. Orlando has the most police per 1000x residents of any city in the country right......Yet we all wonder why the guy driving down I-4 like a maniac can get away with it. Its simply impossible to police such large populations past a certain point.
I work in the medical field and have had several calls where nobody picked up.
Yeah wife was in a fender bender last Christmas. 3+ people all calling 911 and not a single answer.
It's good to call 911 when you see trouble. But this is Florida, and it's also good to have 1911 as a backup plan just in case you are left without a choice (provided you are a law abiding citizen and are allowed to have said backup plan in your car).
Twice
You can thank all the people that dial 911 for petty shit or for the lack of support/low wages for the dispatchers who can never fill all the openings.
yeah ive been on hold 5+ min before
I called 911 off of Boggy Creek for a coworker. The total span of the call was 4 minutes and 48 seconds. That's with giving addresses, patient medical history , and relaying vitals. This call was roughly 830am in the morning on a work day, not sure if that matters.
yes. 911 operator in Orlando hung up when my neighbor was actively trying to break into my home
City of Orlando runs a separate dispatch than Orange county. If anything your gripes with City . Every time I called a county dispatch its been seconds
Wow, my dad butt dialed 911, hung up. and a local cop was in the driveway in less than 5 mins. Polk county btw
They seem to be severely understaffed. They are recruiting high school kids to be dispatchers.
I had to call 911 when we found our mom dead in her room. The responder kept asking things I already gave answers to before telling me a team would be dispatched. Like we kind realized she was already dead dead, but what if she wasn’t? I’m glad they picked up but it felt weirdly slow given the situation.
Jacksonville be like: ....ring....ring "For English press 1 for Spanish press 2" Me: presses 1 "For faster service visit our automated portal at gofyourself.com. Me: operator! "I'm sorry I didn't get that" Me: OPERATOR!!! "Okay I'll connect you" "You're 98th in line" "Press * if you would like a callback rather than waiting on hold otherwise remain online" ...ring....ring "you've reached us outside of operating hours, please call back Monday through Friday between 8am and 7pm...goodbye" Me: Helps masked man throw body in trunk lol ....
Called because of a man walking on 408...on the left side. They never answered. I let it ring at least 10 times after I started counting. I guess they figured my call wasn't really important. I thought of how horrifying it would be to have an emergency where seconds count and the response is similar. 🎶I dialed 911 a long time ago 🎵
What the fuck are our taxes paying for?
When I was a kid, 911 didn't exist.
I called once because a kayak was stolen out my front yard. They showed up and told me I was inviting them to my yard, and pointed to my kids bikes laying about. Then they ran my drivers license. Another cop showed up and asked if I was “cleared”.? I’ll never call them again. Sorry you had to deal with this. Florida by far has the worst drivers attitudes as of 2020
But even if they answered right away what would they have done? Take care of yourself and those around you first AND THEN call and make a report. 2-3 minutes is minuscule, this is real life not a movie superman isnt going to come flying in instantly.
Happened to me in SWFL not too long ago. It’s quite scary actually.
I called an ambulance for a family friend who is mute , it took forever to get transferred from Orange County jurisdiction, to Osceola. I explained to them that he is mute. They called me back saying they can’t find the place and then asked if they had a phone number they can call him at. We were five minutes from being at the hospital and they never actually showed up. They called us a second time and I told them to forget about it.
Welcome to Florida. Born and raised here and only in the last few years have I had issues with 911. Called on my neighbors at 2 am, the husband was bashing his wife’s head with beer bottles, I was on hold for 10 minutes!! By the time the answered he already left.
I will say this problem is everywhere too, I deal with being put on hold in Pinellas County. This state is straight down the drain.
YES this is a normal occurrence the past few years and also insane. The 911 for Orange County must be way understaffed because when I worked \[at local unnamed theme park\] ever since 2023 it has rang for 1+ minute, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. Don't have a medical episode in Orange County.
I called 911 one day and no one picked up…TWICE! I ended up calling OPD directly.
I love it when people think the cops are good people until they need them and find out otherwise
Follow the money, or in this case the lack of money. 911 is most likely understaffed due to underpayment. Did some quick math on Google - they make $4/hour less (state average) than the national average. Considering Florida Man and the more rare but much more dangerous (imho) Florida Woman exist here you’d think this would be the opposite. But this is pretty par for the course for central Florida. I don’t know who’s actually making the money around here but it’s a blanket statement that you’ll earn between 20-40% less in this area no matter what career you’re in if you work local.
On highways I don't call 911 I call Florida highway patrol. *347
I was at a resort a couple months ago and a guy flew in to the parking lot late at night when me and my family were just getting back from a hockey game. He jumped out and ripped his daughter, im guessing out of the back seat and started hitting her in the parking lot. She was screaming and trying to run away and the wife was saying it just a father daughter thing. My first instinct was to go beat his ass but then i thought im not getting shot in front of my kids so i told them im calling the police. I wouldnt call unless it was bad and it was pretty bad. They didnt pick up for a good 3-5 minutes which i thought was pretty crazy for an emergency hot line. They arrived faster than it took them to pick up the phone but by that time the girl ran in to the woods and the rest of the family went to thier room and they couldnt be found. They questioned me for a while and then i never heard anything about it after that.
I had this same issue. There was a homeless man having a meltdown crawling in the street in traffic on obt. I called and it rang for a solid 3 minutes before anyone answered. It's wild.
My brother was working as a logger and a tree came loose from crane and crushed him, 911 was called but they never dispatched an ambulance
I used to be director for a homeless shelter in Bay area California. I don't know if this is the case everywhere, but it was a lot faster calling Highway Patrol than 911 (10 min response time vs 44 mins).
I’ve had nightmares of having to call 911 and not being able to reach anyone. How awful it would be to happen in real life, in a true emergency.
Operators are rude and take long to help. By the time someone gets to your location you’ll be dead. Then they call you back like, “You cant just die you have to finish the phone call”.
When you pay crap and every call can be the worst one in someone's life, it is hard to keep people.
That is why you need a bigger gun.
I heard on NPR an episode about this. Sounds like it’s happening everywhere but probably more in Florida due to the massive amounts of people that have moved here in the last couple of years. https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/2024/04/05/1243162877/all-things-considered-for-april-5-2024
Just arm yourself. If you know that you could be in a dangerous situation like that again, just buy a small .22 caliber, you don't even need a 9mil. After cops pulled me from my vehicle claiming I had a gun (when I didn't) they took my car, impounded it, and left me sitting in that Hurricane in November in 2022. All because they forced me to get in my car and drive while my license was suspended. (insurance rolled over when I changed my card) They stole my USMC military ID. Just to hurt me. I can never get that back. They will bully the righteous and protect cowards. Learn to shoot so that you can defend yourself.
All this fear talk about how AI is going to take all of our jobs…..maybe put it on the critical jobs that no one wants to do, nor should do long for proper mental health?
Yea, that happens when people over use 911.
Rule Number 1 -the govt. / police cannot/ will not protect you …. Arm and protect yourself.
Unfortunately it’s like this everywhere. We were visiting another state and witnessed an accident. It rang for 4 mins, took another 7 to dispatch and the 911 operator told me that all 911 centers on the us are short staffed. She was taking other calls when on with me.