I’ve never had a good experience with a dispatcher. One time I had to call them because a woman was walking the wrong way down the middle of the road in a very hilly section at 3am. My Uber almost hit her. They interrogated me because they thought I must know her because “why else would I care?”
Why else would I care about someone having a psychological break who is about to get themselves and probably another person seriously injured or dead?!? Crazy. When I said that they should send a team that has been trained for mental health crises she said, “why do you think she’s having a mental health crisis?” BECAUSE SHE WAS WALKING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET AT 3AM MAYBE?!
A couple of years ago someone broke into our house and came into our bedroom looking for stuff to steal. It was pitch dark, he was wearing a dark hoodie and I only saw him from the back. I sensed him more than saw him. I made a waking up noise and he legged it. At the time I was really ill with inflammation in my brain so I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, or my brother had come into my room for some reason so I just went back to sleep. They next day we found some very minor things missing and a bottle of vodka was left downstairs. Our neighbours house had been ransacked. I called the non emergency number just to add what I’d seen to my neighbours report and the dispatcher was incredulous that I hadn’t called at the time, like I couldn’t be more of an idiot. When I explained why, her tone immediately changed to one of “ok crazy lady” and she completely dismissed me. Not exactly reassuring. The times I’ve called in a medical emergency have always been positive though - they calmed me down, talked me through what to do, reassured me I was doing everything I could etc.
I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with dispatch, but I’m also from a small low population area. My new phone easily pocket dials emergency numbers and each time they have been pleasant.
