Dispatch priming

[Erick Gelhaus]

The dispatch priming work is quite interesting. I'm waiting to hear the thoughts from a couple of the dispatchers I work with and, more so, from a former dispatcher who is now a street cop.

In/attentional blindness (depending on who you read) is a very L/E area; yes, I understand what John H said & why. I think it was a Boston case - maybe just one from New England - where an officer in foot pursuit ran past another officer or two who in a fight. It was alleged the officer(s) were engaged in excessive force and that the pursuing officer made statements because he denied having seen the others, never mind being able to say what they were doing. The pursuing cop was charged criminally.

[Jeff22]

Officers have to remember that the dispatcher is in the comm center, NOT on scene.

A person or persons is reporting information to the dispatcher, who is attempting to accurately pass that information on to the responding officers. The reporting party may or may not be reporting events accurately. They might be deliberately lying, or they're really excited and can't use their words very well, or (almost always) if they are a witness and not a participant, they are seeing the final activities in a complicated situation.

So, as the responding officer, all you REALLY know is that SOMETHING is happening at a particular address, and you should drive over there and figure it out. And often the location is wrong because the witness is excited or doesn't know the neighborhood very well or the incident has moved or is moving.

And if your comm center is set up so that the reporting party calls in and talks to a call taker who then passes the information on to the dispatcher, there is the increased possibility of something being misunderstood or confused or omitted.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....EP-OUT/page167

See my post #1668 on dispatch vs. chimp.