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Emergency Police Dispatch (EPD)

Personalizing the Police Protocol with Cait Welch

AEDR Editorial Team

Nov 14, 2023|Dispatch in Depth

Cait Welch, a Quality Assurance Officer and Coordinator at Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, discusses the flexibility of the Police Priority Dispatch System (PPDS). After all, your center’s needs are as unique as the area and people you serve. She talks about Jurisdictionally Approved Questions and Instructions, the Admin Utility, local definitions, how to interrupt professionally, and obvious questions.

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In The Drink with Jaci Fox

AEDR Editorial Team

Dec 20, 2022|Dispatch in Depth

Jaci Fox, quality assurance specialist and the Police Lead with QPR, discusses the best way to handle calls about impaired driving, including why it occurs, whether it includes driving while high, and the importance of updating the location in cases of moving violations.

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Evaluating the Effect of Proper Use of "Tell Me Exactly What Happened" on Chief Complaint Selection and Information Gathering at Emergency Police Dispatch

Steve Zenes, ENP, CMCP, Nancy Roller, Christopher Olola, PhD, Greg Scott, MBA, EMD-QI, Isabel Gardett, PhD, Paul Stiegler, MD, Richard E. Lindfors, NRP, EMD-Q

May 29, 2020|AEDR 2020 Vol. 8 Issue 1|Original Research

When evaluating the information provided by 911 callers, Emergency Police Dispatchers (EPDs) use scripted protocols to ensure that important details are not missed and that questions are not omitted. Specifically, at the beginning of the call, EPDs ask callers to "Tell me exactly what happened" (TMEWH). Since EPDs must select the correct Chief Complaint (CC) Protocol based on the caller's response, getting a complete response to TMEWH—and interpreting it correctly—is one of the most significant elements of an EPD's job. However, no studies have yet evaluated the use of TMEWH in gathering...

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Evaluating the Effect of Proper Use of "Tell Me Exactly What Happened" Case Entry Questions on Chief Complaint Selection and Information Gathering at Emergency Police Dispatch

Steve Zenes, ENP, CMCP, Nancy Roller

May 08, 2019|Original Research, Poster Abstracts, Research Posters, Research Workshop

The most critical and difficult part of the Emergency Police Dispatcher's (EPD) job may be the gathering of the initial problem description, which uses a scripted Protocol Case Entry Question (CEQ) but also requires interpretation on the part of the EPD. Specifically, at the beginning of the call, the EPD asks the caller the CEQ "Ok, tell me exactly what happened" (TMEWH). Based on the caller's response, the EPD selects a Chief Complaint (CC) Protocol—a specific protocol that provides the prompts to drill down into the caller's situation—the primary reason for calling 911. Selecting the wrong...

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Persons Descriptions Reported to Emergency Police Dispatch

Meghan Broadbent, MS, Isabel Gardett, PhD, Chris Knight, Greg Scott, MBA, EMD-QI, Jeff J. Clawson, MD, Christopher Olola, PhD

Dec 04, 2018|AEDR 2018 Vol. 6 Issue 3|Original Research

Identification of persons based on verbal descriptions is one of the key skills of police work. Gathering as much description information as possible immediately following the event—for example, at the point of emergency police dispatch—could substantially improve the accuracy of suspect descriptions, the ability to locate missing persons quickly, and other key outcomes of effective police work. The primary objective of this study was to determine what amount and type of persons description information is collected by...

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