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Comment by gregd | Hacker News Reader

Have you ever been in a 911 call center? Many, many, many things are computer driven, not the least of which is interfacing with the various agencies one may have to deal with on a per call basis. Then there's "whose jurisdiction is this"? Kind of hard to determine with pen and paper. Who's dispatched to what? Who's covering which stations now? How many calls are in the queue? The list goes on and on.

Having to record things on pen and paper is hardly sensationalism. It's more or less a worse case scenario in the 911 dispatching arena...

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And handwriting can be (a) drastically slower and (b) less legible (therefore more prone to mistakes or lost information). In a 911 environment, either of these alone can cost lives. Throw in all of gregd's additional variables, and it would be a nightmare of the sort described in the article.

I'm just saying that 20 years ago handwriting was the only option, and police still managed to get the job done.

Oh boy. In 1993 handwriting wasn't the only option. And we're talking about 911 dispatching, not just police. Fire, medics, police, dog catchers, tow trucks etc., are all involved now.

Successful management of any endeavor requires prioritization. If dog catchers and tow trucks are in the same bullet list as ambulances, they're doing something wrong.

If a car crash needs an ambulance it also needs a tow truck.

In most cases an ambulance is required much more urgently than a tow truck. The cops can call the towing company they prefer, once they're at the scene. There's no need to complicate the 911 system with towing, unless it's important that kickbacks from towing companies be paid at a high level rather than directly to individual cops.

Cops at the scene should not be looking up phone numbers for this week's roster of towing companies. That is handled by the central police dispatcher. Who also dispatches SWAT, bomb disposal, fire, hazmat, linemen for downed electric wires, animal control for welfare checks of sick people who have pets, etc. 911 is just one part of an integrated emergency response system.

Even out here in the rural hinterlands, 911 operators and police dispatchers are different groups. The cops can call the tow truck however the hell they want. The 911 operators still shouldn't care about the dogcatcher.

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