Originally posted by earthacademy:
Unfortunately not all calls end in happy endings.
Denise Amber Lee
a 21-year-old married mother of two young sons, Noah and Adam. On January 17, 2008, Denise was kidnapped from her North Port, Florida home, raped, and murdered by a local man, Michael King. A random act of evil. There is no connection between the two. On the night of her abduction, there were at least four calls placed to 911, one made by Denise herself. A woman, Jane Kowalski, who saw Denise struggling in the backseat of her abductor's car, also called 911. She was able to give exact information as to the whereabouts of Michael King's car. This call was routed through to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office (Denise's abduction took place in neighboring Sarasota County). Through a series of errors on the part of the dispatchers at the CCSO office, no one was ever dispatched to check on this call. Because they did not send anyone out to check on the call, Denise lost her last chance at being saved.
Our mission now is to change the way that 911 calls are handled. Currently, most states have no kind of standards set for the training of 911 dispatchers. Although Florida is making an effort (a bill for 911 reform was recently passed in Denise's name), it is still considered a voluntary measure to participate in the training standards. We would like to see proper training become mandatory, not voluntary. We'd like to learn from the mistakes made, move forward and fix the inadequacies. 911 is here to save lives, and when it doesn't because of confusion and procedural breakdowns, that is unacceptable. We need to restore confidence in the 911 system. That is the most important thing. 911 operators and dispatchers should be praised for doing their job correctly, not everyone can handle the high stress conditions of the job. God bless all the 911 operators out there who care and are working so hard to do their job and keep us all safe. May God give them the strength and guidance needed to do their job to the best of their ability.
Let's unite and make our country a safer place by improving our 911 system.
For more info please visit
www.deniseamberlee.org 
