Falk Apologizes to Zimmermann’s Family

This was the right thing to do.  Good for Falk. 

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk has written letters of apology to be sent to the family of murder victim Brittany Zimmermann and her fiance, in response to a disclosure last week that a call to the 911 center was made from her phone around the time she was killed, but was not returned as is normal protocol.

Falk aide Joshua Wescott said Monday that the family and Zimmermann’s fiance, Jordan Gonnering, should receive the letters of apology shortly.

This is a bit worrisome. 

Disciplinary action will not be taken against anyone until an internal investigation into the matter by the 911 center is completed, Wescott said.

How much investigation is needed?  Find out who was responsible and fire them.  Now. 

1. I think it’s incredibly weak that they’re just writing letters of apology.  In my opinion, they should write the letters but then personally deliver them to the family and the fiance.

   Posted by on May 06, 2008 at 0855 hrs




2. until an internal investigation into the matter by the 911 center is completed,

   This is the government - The Rules call for an investigation before drastic measures are taken.

   What I suspect - but don’t know - is really going on is that this is a f-up on many levels and a simple ‘fire employee x’ is not going to actually get at the problem.

   Posted by Brian on May 06, 2008 at 1322 hrs




3. I agree Ms.Falk showed some class in apologizing. However I am POSITIVE it was over the objections of Dane counties Legal council.

   I say Kudos to Falk. It was the right thing to do.

   Find some balls and start firing people.NOW!

   Posted by on May 06, 2008 at 1926 hrs




4. And she just may want to start with her obviously incompetent police chief, and end with the “Homicide” detectives, Who couldn’t clear a homicide if the suspect came in and confessed!

   Posted by on May 06, 2008 at 1929 hrs




5. I would guess that none of us have ever worked in a 911 call center and cannot say what happened with that call. To jump to conclusions before the tape of the call is made public, who are we to judge?

   I am not making excuses, just saying that I am sure they didn’t intentionally dismiss a call where they knew something was happening. 911 hangups happen and probably alot in Madison.

   Why is it we humans have to see the worst in each other?

   Posted by on May 07, 2008 at 0101 hrs




6. In regards to Kathleen Falk’s apology, it’s all a bunch of bull. From the channel 3000 website, this was posted in the news 2 days before the “Apology”

   But a month into the internal Dane County investigation into the handling of the emergency call, Falk wouldn’t concede any wrongdoing on the part of the county’s 911 Center or the dispatcher.

   On Thursday, Madison Police Chief Noble Wray told reporters that the 911 call contained evidence that should have prompted the dispatcher to immediately send police to Zimmermann’s home the day she was killed.

   But Falk said she doesn’t agree with Wray’s statement and denied any obvious human error. Falk said that new information, hopefully early next week, will explain why.

   Joseph Norwick, director of the county’s 911 Center, held a news conference Thursday to respond to media questions about how the 911 call was handled.

   Norwick on Thursday that that his dispatcher heard nothing in response to his or her inquiries during the call, so the dispatcher hung up. But Norwick did say that protocol was violated when the dispatcher failed to call back to Zimmermann’s phone.

   However, even on the call-back failure issue, Falk Friday admitted no wrongdoing. She did not concede a mistake was made on that or anything else at the 911 Center.

   Why the sudden change?

   Posted by on May 07, 2008 at 0551 hrs




7. It gets better, Owen.

   The dispatcher in question did not follow procedure by failing to return the call and not sending cops to the guestimated location; the employee requested and received a transfer out of the call center, and is now being paid for work they weren’t hired for.

   Posted by tee bee on May 07, 2008 at 0942 hrs




8. Oopie, here’s the link to that: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=747883

   Posted by tee bee on May 07, 2008 at 1010 hrs




9. On Thursday, Madison Police Chief Noble Wray told reporters that the 911 call contained evidence that should have prompted the dispatcher to immediately send police to Zimmermann’s home the day she was killed.

   Can’t wait til this tape gets released.  I was cutting the dispatcher some slack before for not calling back.  But if there are things ON the call that indicate something was up… That’s more negligent in my mind.

   Posted by on May 07, 2008 at 1402 hrs




10. the employee requested and received a transfer out of the call center, and is now being paid for work they weren’t hired for.

    http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.php?article=22570

    As for the dispatcher who took the Zimmermann call, the three former dispatchers describe her as conscientious, hardworking and caring. They say she had been seeking a transfer out of the center long before the Zimmermann call.

    Good dispatchers “are leaving in droves,” says Kathy “Gus” Geske, who quit in December 2006 after 10 years. “The experienced people are trying to get out as fast as they can.”

    Another former dispatcher, Patrick Sweet, tells Isthmus that high turnover owes not just to the stress of the job, but the bad environment.

    “The 911 Center is short-staffed almost always, leaving dispatchers to have mandatory overtime almost always, which makes tired and less alert folks,” says Sweet, a dispatcher for three years.

    They’ve known for a long time that there are huge problems,” adds Maggie Freespirit, who quit two years ago after a decade on the job. “There were never enough call takers, even when they claimed to be fully staffed.”

    The dispatchers’ complaints are corroborated by a consultant’s report in 2004 that blasted the 911 Center for “insufficient staffing” and “lack of ongoing training.” The report also said procedures are not regularly updated, assessed or even followed. It warned that Dane County faces “possible liability and the potential for a catastrophic event” if changes aren’t made.

    County officials say improvements are ongoing; the former dispatchers dispute this. They say the lack of progress on these fronts is a main reason many experienced staffers have bailed for better work environments.

    So yeah, fire them all!

    Posted by on May 08, 2008 at 1907 hrs