South Korean 911 call gets local woman fast response
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South Korean 911 call gets local woman fast response
BY ASHLEY TUSAN JOYNER
News-Democrat
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The advanced technical abilities of a local public safety answering system enabled an emergency telephone dispatcher in St. Clair County to answer a frantic 911 call placed from Seoul, South Korea, early Friday morning.
At approximately 4:43 a.m. Central Standard Time, Patricia Michaels, a supervisor at the St. Clair County emergency dispatch center, answered the call from a woman who claimed her husband had beaten her, cut off her hair with scissors and used the scissors to cut her arm.
The woman also claimed her spouse had tried to choke her in the presence of their infant child.
" The clarity of her voice was amazing," Michaels said. "It sounded like she was right here."
But the caller, a military dependent, was phoning from her residence in Seoul near the Yongsan Army Garrison, where her husband had been deployed from Scott Air Force Base more than one year ago.
She, however, had relocated to South Korea from the metro-east two days before the reported domestic attack.
"Her words were 'Help me. I need help,'" Michaels said. "She was just so upset because she felt like she didn't have anywhere to go. Her husband had no idea what she was doing. Being a mother, I had a lot of empathy for her," Michaels said.
The call, which was transmitted digitally with voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, was placed from a computer using Vonage phone service.
The computer-based international system offers phone service using high-speed Internet.
The phone number was registered to an O'Fallon address.
"When she first subscribed to the service, they lived in O'Fallon," Michaels said. "I guess it's the kind of thing where your phone system goes wherever your computer goes."
After determining the caller's local military connection, Michaels contacted a sergeant at Scott, who then was able to communicate with the base in South Korea and arrange for the South Korean National Police to respond to the woman's apartment.
The call lasted a total of about 45 uninterrupted minutes.
"It's not uncommon to get these life threatening calls," she said. "This one was unusual because the caller was half way across the world. I knew I could rely on Scott to deliver the help we needed."
Norman Forshee, a 911 coordinator with St. Clair County, was unavailable Wednesday to explain exactly how VoIP calls are handled by the county's CENCOM answering system.
But Michaels says dispatchers are well-prepared for such calls.
" We have the best training in the state of Illinois," Michaels said. "This is first time we've gotten a call from overseas, but CENCOM has all kinds of capabilities."
BY ASHLEY TUSAN JOYNER
News-Democrat
*************
The advanced technical abilities of a local public safety answering system enabled an emergency telephone dispatcher in St. Clair County to answer a frantic 911 call placed from Seoul, South Korea, early Friday morning.
At approximately 4:43 a.m. Central Standard Time, Patricia Michaels, a supervisor at the St. Clair County emergency dispatch center, answered the call from a woman who claimed her husband had beaten her, cut off her hair with scissors and used the scissors to cut her arm.
The woman also claimed her spouse had tried to choke her in the presence of their infant child.
" The clarity of her voice was amazing," Michaels said. "It sounded like she was right here."
But the caller, a military dependent, was phoning from her residence in Seoul near the Yongsan Army Garrison, where her husband had been deployed from Scott Air Force Base more than one year ago.
She, however, had relocated to South Korea from the metro-east two days before the reported domestic attack.
"Her words were 'Help me. I need help,'" Michaels said. "She was just so upset because she felt like she didn't have anywhere to go. Her husband had no idea what she was doing. Being a mother, I had a lot of empathy for her," Michaels said.
The call, which was transmitted digitally with voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, was placed from a computer using Vonage phone service.
The computer-based international system offers phone service using high-speed Internet.
The phone number was registered to an O'Fallon address.
"When she first subscribed to the service, they lived in O'Fallon," Michaels said. "I guess it's the kind of thing where your phone system goes wherever your computer goes."
After determining the caller's local military connection, Michaels contacted a sergeant at Scott, who then was able to communicate with the base in South Korea and arrange for the South Korean National Police to respond to the woman's apartment.
The call lasted a total of about 45 uninterrupted minutes.
"It's not uncommon to get these life threatening calls," she said. "This one was unusual because the caller was half way across the world. I knew I could rely on Scott to deliver the help we needed."
Norman Forshee, a 911 coordinator with St. Clair County, was unavailable Wednesday to explain exactly how VoIP calls are handled by the county's CENCOM answering system.
But Michaels says dispatchers are well-prepared for such calls.
" We have the best training in the state of Illinois," Michaels said. "This is first time we've gotten a call from overseas, but CENCOM has all kinds of capabilities."
Source:Belleville News
