12-01-2014, 01:53 AM
(12-01-2014, 01:15 AM)Cutz Wrote: Why would a 911 dispatcher tell cops "It's probably not real?" Saying they should have is ridiculous. You tell the officers the known facts and let them assess the situation without pre-conceived assumptions about possibilities. 911 dispatchers and random civilians calling 911 certainly aren't qualified to determine whether a gun is real or "probably fake." If it's unknown, it's up to the officers to make that assessment. Their job is to walk into the situation considering all the possibilities, ranging from '100% false reports about innocent kid' to 'Kid on rampage with oozie, 19 dead including both of you if you get it wrong.'
The 911 dispatcher is just a conduit relating case facts communicated to her by the caller to the officers. The eyewitness caller who was lodging a non-shooting complaint provided a description of the scene and the male. He specifically mentioned that the gun was probably fake and he didn't know if it was real, 3 separate times.
IMO, the fact that the caller wasn't sure if the pistol was real would be something the dispatcher should pass on to the responding officers because, as you said, it's the officers' job to assess the situation based on all of the information available. If they'd been given that info in this case, it might have figured into their assessment regarding how to approach the male, which could have affected how the male responded and prevented a boy from being shot to death at the park. For me, that's about as compelling a reason as possible for a 911 dispatcher not to withhold information provided by the caller/witness -- withholding it limits the officers' perspective.
Having said that, I don't know if there is set policy and rationale regarding what 911 dispatchers should omit when passing eyewitness information to responding officers. Maybe the 911 operator was following procedure.
I searched for 911 dispatch protocols, but came up empty. If anyone has first hand experience in the field or a reference link, I'd be interested in learning more about it.