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Montana Dispatcher Suspended for April Fool's Joke
MISSOULA, Mont. - A 911 dispatcher in Missoula who broadcast a false report of an explosion as an April Fool's Day prank will be suspended for one week but will not be prosecuted.
Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg said Thursday it would be "extremely difficult" to establish criminal intent in the case.
The request for an emergency response came over the airwaves shortly after 8:30 a.m. on April 1, and the dispatcher told local fire and medical emergency services to respond to the Conoco bulk plant in Missoula for a large fire or explosion. The radio call was immediately followed by a request for cancellation, and there was little response from emergency crews.
Van Valkenburg says "the matter is better resolved through internal disciplinary proceedings rather than a criminal prosecution."
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Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg said Thursday it would be "extremely difficult" to establish criminal intent in the case.
The request for an emergency response came over the airwaves shortly after 8:30 a.m. on April 1, and the dispatcher told local fire and medical emergency services to respond to the Conoco bulk plant in Missoula for a large fire or explosion. The radio call was immediately followed by a request for cancellation, and there was little response from emergency crews.
Van Valkenburg says "the matter is better resolved through internal disciplinary proceedings rather than a criminal prosecution."
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Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul Dudan on
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There are practical jokes, but this is too far. I'm suprized this hasn't costed the dispatched their job.
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Permalink Reply by BillySFCVFD on
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Wonder what faith the responders will now have in the dispatcher when they hear his/her voice requesting a response.
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Permalink Reply by Roy Walker on
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I DON'T THINK MANY OF US JUDGE ALL DISPATCHERS BY ONE IMMATURE ACTION BY ONE . ALL OF THE DISPATCHERS I HAVE DELT WITH ARE PROFFESIONAL AND CURTEOUS . I DON'T KNOW WHY SUPERVISION IN THIS CASE HASN'T REACTED STRONGER.
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Permalink Reply by rescueortruck on
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good joke but the person should have known better
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Permalink Reply by David on
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"This is a good one" Really?? Not in the least funny, April 1 or not. What on earth were they thinking? Just glad the authorities didn't think along the lines of possible terrorism. They are lucky they weren't prosecuted.
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Permalink Reply by Raymond T Berger Sr. on
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The April, and all the rest of the year fool ,is him!!!!! Any false alarm,no matter how short, has the potential to put people at risk.
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Permalink Reply by Julia Miller on
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I think a joke is a joke but this did go too far. One thing to pull a practical joke on someone that is harmless but there is really nothing harmless about responding to an emergency call. I think termination should be in order. The prosecution end of it I can understand because if the general public did that, the person calling would be prosecuted. So the same laws should apply.
Stupid is as stupid does.
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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Meyer on
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Definitely too light on the suspension, at the very least. I'd go as far as to say that if he didn't have a bunch of years on the job AND a spotless record, he should be terminated.
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Permalink Reply by Clayton J. Schermerhorn on
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This isn't even funny. If it had been something made it seem totally obvious that is was a joke that would of been one thing, but even then it's not good. Although this does remind me of a call we had over the summer. It came in as smoke and flames showing at our departments favorite beer distributor, realizing it was 100% real we had 3 engines and 3 trucks there within minutes!
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Permalink Reply by Steven Johnson on
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I am a Firefighter from Manhattan Mt, and responded too the natural gas explosion on March 5th 2009 that took out several buildings in Bozeman Mt. I am appalled and disgusted by this. We have great dispatchers in the Gallatin Valley and I have the utmost respect for them, but this person should be ashamed to call them self a Montanan.
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Permalink Reply by John Rulli Jr. on
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What a idiot!
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