04-09-2008, 07:52 PM
http://www.theledger.com/article/200804 ... 90414/1374 (http://www.theledger.com/article/20080409/NEWS/804090414/1374)
What do you all think of the proposed mandatory training standards? Our dept. follows APCO standards - and I think we have a pretty good training program.
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Slaying Victim's Family Pushes 911 Bill
Father, widower urge mandatory state standards for dispatcher training.
By CAROL E. LEE
NYT REGIONAL MEDIA GROUP
TALLAHASSEE | Charlotte County sheriff's Sgt. Rick Goff is convinced that a poorly handled 911 call by his own department cost his daughter her life.
Now, he is pushing for a state law that might prevent such a mistake from happening again.
Goff and Nathan Lee, his son-in-law, were in the Capitol on Tuesday to advocate for a bill that would establish state standards for the training and certification of 911 emergency dispatchers. Goff broke down in tears during the House committee meeting Tuesday morning when he introduced himself as "the father of Denise Amber Lee."
"She's my daughter who was kidnapped, raped and murdered from her house in North Port, where her two children were at home," Goff said.
The committee passed the bill unanimously.
"This is an important bill that will save lives," said its sponsor, Rep. Carl Domino, R-Juno Beach. Domino first filed the legislation last year at the urging of emergency first responders.
Nathan Lee and Goff, as well as some lawmakers, want it to go further - to require every 911 dispatcher in Florida's 67 counties to have the same training.
As the bill is now written, the state training standards and certification would not be mandatory. Instead, the Department of Health would create criteria that counties would have the option of using.
Domino pointed out that 28 of the 31 states that have uniform standards for training 911 dispatchers make them mandatory. But the cost of making them mandatory kept his bill from advancing last year. Now the state has even less money.
"Because of our poor budget year, we're not going to make it mandatory," said Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Democrat whose district includes part of Charlotte County. "Hopefully everyone will voluntarily subscribe to these standards."
Goff agreed to testify on behalf of the legislation after learning about it from another lawmaker a few weeks ago.
He and his son-in-law will return to Tallahassee next week when a committee takes up the Senate version of the bill, which Aronberg is sponsoring.
"There were mistakes made, and that's what we're trying to correct," Goff said.
In an e-mail message to Domino supporting the legislation, Goff wrote, "It is the family as well as the whole community's opinion that if this call would have been handled correctly, that my daughter would still be alive and home with her family."
During his testimony Tuesday, Goff told how his 21-year-old daughter, after being abducted on the afternoon of Jan. 17, managed to get the attention of a woman at a stoplight by screaming and banging on the back window of the suspect's Chevrolet Camaro.
The driver called Charlotte County's 911. But that call was never relayed to the squads of police who were just blocks away, looking for Goff's missing daughter.
"She was found later buried in a shallow grave, shot in the head," Goff told the panel of legislators, his voice cracking in the starkly silent room. "We had cars on the road waiting to apprehend the guy right where she was at, but they never dispatched the car. On behalf of my daughter, I'd like this bill passed."
Suspect Michael King, 36, pleaded not guilty last month to charges that he kidnapped, raped and murdered Denise Lee.
Charlotte County currently trains its 911 dispatchers using an "in-house" program based on recommendations from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, said Capt. Sherman Robinson, the logistics commander who handles 911 dispatch.
It takes about six to eight months to complete.
Several lawmakers agreed with Lee's family and voiced support for making statewide standards mandatory.
Goff and Nathan Lee both said Tuesday that they want an apology from Charlotte County Sheriff John Davenport.
They also want stiffer penalties for the two dispatchers who handled the call they think could have saved Denise Lee's life.
What do you all think of the proposed mandatory training standards? Our dept. follows APCO standards - and I think we have a pretty good training program.
---------------------------------------------
Slaying Victim's Family Pushes 911 Bill
Father, widower urge mandatory state standards for dispatcher training.
By CAROL E. LEE
NYT REGIONAL MEDIA GROUP
TALLAHASSEE | Charlotte County sheriff's Sgt. Rick Goff is convinced that a poorly handled 911 call by his own department cost his daughter her life.
Now, he is pushing for a state law that might prevent such a mistake from happening again.
Goff and Nathan Lee, his son-in-law, were in the Capitol on Tuesday to advocate for a bill that would establish state standards for the training and certification of 911 emergency dispatchers. Goff broke down in tears during the House committee meeting Tuesday morning when he introduced himself as "the father of Denise Amber Lee."
"She's my daughter who was kidnapped, raped and murdered from her house in North Port, where her two children were at home," Goff said.
The committee passed the bill unanimously.
"This is an important bill that will save lives," said its sponsor, Rep. Carl Domino, R-Juno Beach. Domino first filed the legislation last year at the urging of emergency first responders.
Nathan Lee and Goff, as well as some lawmakers, want it to go further - to require every 911 dispatcher in Florida's 67 counties to have the same training.
As the bill is now written, the state training standards and certification would not be mandatory. Instead, the Department of Health would create criteria that counties would have the option of using.
Domino pointed out that 28 of the 31 states that have uniform standards for training 911 dispatchers make them mandatory. But the cost of making them mandatory kept his bill from advancing last year. Now the state has even less money.
"Because of our poor budget year, we're not going to make it mandatory," said Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Democrat whose district includes part of Charlotte County. "Hopefully everyone will voluntarily subscribe to these standards."
Goff agreed to testify on behalf of the legislation after learning about it from another lawmaker a few weeks ago.
He and his son-in-law will return to Tallahassee next week when a committee takes up the Senate version of the bill, which Aronberg is sponsoring.
"There were mistakes made, and that's what we're trying to correct," Goff said.
In an e-mail message to Domino supporting the legislation, Goff wrote, "It is the family as well as the whole community's opinion that if this call would have been handled correctly, that my daughter would still be alive and home with her family."
During his testimony Tuesday, Goff told how his 21-year-old daughter, after being abducted on the afternoon of Jan. 17, managed to get the attention of a woman at a stoplight by screaming and banging on the back window of the suspect's Chevrolet Camaro.
The driver called Charlotte County's 911. But that call was never relayed to the squads of police who were just blocks away, looking for Goff's missing daughter.
"She was found later buried in a shallow grave, shot in the head," Goff told the panel of legislators, his voice cracking in the starkly silent room. "We had cars on the road waiting to apprehend the guy right where she was at, but they never dispatched the car. On behalf of my daughter, I'd like this bill passed."
Suspect Michael King, 36, pleaded not guilty last month to charges that he kidnapped, raped and murdered Denise Lee.
Charlotte County currently trains its 911 dispatchers using an "in-house" program based on recommendations from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, said Capt. Sherman Robinson, the logistics commander who handles 911 dispatch.
It takes about six to eight months to complete.
Several lawmakers agreed with Lee's family and voiced support for making statewide standards mandatory.
Goff and Nathan Lee both said Tuesday that they want an apology from Charlotte County Sheriff John Davenport.
They also want stiffer penalties for the two dispatchers who handled the call they think could have saved Denise Lee's life.