Quote:
Originally Posted by Pointman
Your post makes perfect sense except for the bolded part. Once police is on the scene and says there's no one around, why would she blindly lash out with the knife?
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I'm sorry, I thought I had been clear in my post. At no point in my post did she know or was she aware that police were there.
-Mom hears what she believes is someone around her house. Calls boyfriend
-Boyfriend calls police.
-Police go to scene
-Police walk around yard to see if someone's there. Mom, who doesn't know they are there, hears the noises that scared her in the first place. She's too scared to look out the window
-Police, having determined that there is no one around, go to door to talk to mom and tell her no one's around they can see.
-Mom, hearing someone knocking on her door after hearing someone walking around her house again, decides to defend herself and her child.
-"Grabs a kitchen knife, throws open the door and blindly lashes out with the knife." (as worded in my OP)
Quote:
Originally Posted by SebC
Shouldn't this be part of training and procedure, then? It sounds as if you do this on your own initiative.
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It can't be. It's a judgement call. If I have the ability, I have no problem staying on the phone with someone until police arrive. But this kind of call may have a response time of 5-20 minutes and...the mom is currently safe in the house. If the 911 call queue is 3-10 deep say, I've got a judgement call to make. I'll try to hold the line...but sometimes I have to leave someone who's currently as safe as can be, to help someone else. The RCMP have it even worse, as their call centers are chronically understaffed at the best of times.
It also really only works if the person calls themselves. In the NB case, there was no operator to stay on the phone with her, available or not, as she didn't call, the boyfriend did.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wwkayaker
Thanks for doing this. My sister had someone break into her house and she hid in a basement closet after calling 911. While hiding, the 911 operator worked to calm her, told her to be silent, and talked her through the noises she was hearing. The operator told her the police had the suspect in custody. Then she was advised that the noises she was hearing were police officers going into the basement to find her. The operator told her the name of the officer in the basement and then an officer identified himself with the corresponding name and she came out of hiding.
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I'm glad to hear that one of my colleagues was able to help your sister in that trying time.