My recent story is with a female caller who would not stop screaming long enough to get a word in edge wise. An ex of hers had threatened her in some way and then dropped her off at her apartment and left. She refused to answer any questions other than a possible address where she was at, refused to go inside to her apartment and just kept demanding, and screaming "GET HERE! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS! YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW ANYTHING ELSE JUST GET HERE! WHY ISN'T ANYONE HERE YET!?!?!"

Now, obviously I can understand she was upset, and I guess it's hard to stress and explain how obnoxious she was as well as explain how apathetic I am 99.9378% of the time, but anyway...

After many attempts to get further info out of her (squads were on their way to the possible location while I was still on the line with her), I let this tasty verbal treat loose: "MA'AM! YOU WON'T EVEN TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE AND WE CAN'T TELEPORT TO YOU!"

OK, it kind of feels good to vent.

Thanks...

Respect is a two way street...They get as much as they're willing to give.

Oh, sure!

On a Friday, I was called out of training to handle a phone call in the office. It was from a motorist who was one of many who got ticketed the day before for not wearing his seat belt. He wanted to know who was responsible for that operation and as it was my department (but the CoP had planned it, conducted it), I stepped up to the bat. Well, it quickly got heated, and at the end of the phone call, I was rather terse with perhaps increased volume. After I got off the phone, I turned to the CoP and told him that I was out of practice, I should not have allowed the caller to cycle me like that.
________________________________________________________
("Dad, dad, dad, dad,...."––Phoebe pushing Prue's buttons and in a telekensis flare, EVERYTHING goes flying off the shelves. "......feel better?"––Phoebe, stunned
"......MUCH!"––Prue, (w,stte), "Charmed")

No, I understand, been there, done that.

I had a call where the complainant wouldnt stop screaming long enough for me to ask him any questions. I turned my back to him and began to talk to my backup about my weekend. That lasted for about 45 seconds before he stopped yelling and just stood there looking at me like he couldnt believe what I was doing. I turned back around and replied. Oh.. are you ready to speak with me now?

I handled the call and I think he got the point.

Dude....that sounds like some shit I'd pull.

I recently has a business owner who was bitching about his neighbor business owner and snow removel. He started screaming about kicking the guys ass, killing the guy and or having him killed, etc, etc. He was yelling at my trainee and the trainee was actually not taking the bait, by yelling back.

Kudos to the kid after we left. The guy just kept yelling, and going on. His secretary even walked out saying she was done with his shit.

I turned my back, like the last poster did. He finally asked what we were going to do, yelling more. The trainee started to answer and I held my hand up, said hang on a minute and asked the clown, "Are you done".
He said," not yet"
I told him, "Fine, we are done, when you can act like an adult, instead of a spoiled child and, we will come back, but we are not going to respond again, nor are any of us going to answer your calls, until you can act in a civil manner". I also told the guy if the person he was railing on had been there, the screamer would have gone to jail for threats.
He called my boss, the COP, started in on him, and my boss hung up on him.
The idiot is now a two officer response, because I listed him as being a threatening individual.

What a PIA.  
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I try not too.. But I have made the phone call to on of my bosses "Hey bossman...your going to be getting a complaint in a minute... Let me explain."
So far, my bosses after talking to those folks, have called me back and said "You did nothing wrong, I yelled at / hung up on / walked away from them too".

These are generally the folks who don't comprehend spoken language and need a good smacking to clearly "get" a message.

I like the idea of just ignoring the person and discussing the weather with my partner until they notice... Going to have to give that a whirl. Seems more practical than waiting through a few minutes of tirade before loudly stating, using my "authorathhhh" voice "Shut up and listen, my turn to talk.". Had a female complainant call my boss to complain after yelling curses at me for several minutes and I interrupted as above, she pee'd herself a bit and was complaining about me yelling at her.  My Lt was literally in tears laughing as he called me to correct my behavior.

I've had jobs like that where me and my partner would just walk out of the apartment and go downstairs to wait in our car.

We have this crazy ol' bat in town that called 911 for everything. She'd call to complain about someones driving in another city or kids playing in the lot across from her house. She used our little visits to ask questions about things that didnt concern her and bitch about city politics. It was starting to get out of hand. I took my last and final call from her about a missing empty cardboard box from her driveway, I told her to hang on while I got her a statement form out of the car. I walked down the driveway, got in the drivers seat, put it in drive and drove the fuck away. That was about 8 months ago and to my knowledge she hasnt called in since then.

I've probably snapped on people more while I was in dispatch than patrol. People get retarded while on the phone. On the streets, in my experience, not so much. Your mileage may vary.

Seriously?  I want to work where you do because they get retarded in person here on a very routine basis.

I feel for you my first day in dispatch was Friday and we had a bus full of kids roll after hitting a truck. So here I'm the new guy hired as a police officer but have to be in dispatch until I go to training. I have a guy call up during the time we are trying to get EMS and police out to the accident asking me for a phone number I said sorry we have an accident a bus just flipped full of kids so please call back later. Guy says "I don't give a shit about a bus flipping I just want the phone number!" At that time I just hung up.

My hat goes off to dispatch in my area they do all police, EMS and fire calls they also answer call for the maintenance and are pretty much who people call when they want to know about weather, road conditions, phone numbers yes for all departments and people in town and they also get phone numbers for people like dispatch is 411. I was asked for the number for a place to eat in the next town.

My fiance yells at callers on a nightly basis. You have to own the call, if you don't, they will.

Yelling at callers doesn't necessarily own the call.

Making someone realize they are being a complete and utter ass in one sentence is pwning the call.

Scene:
Sudden snow squall. Property-damage accidents everywhere. Cars in the ditch, etc. Looking at my screen, literally 20-25 incidents pending.

Grab the next line ringing.
Me: Dispatch, what's your emergency?
Caller: Yeah, I'm on the (one-lane) bridge over $Creek.
Me: ...
Caller: And I was already driving across it and some guy started coming from the other direction.
Me: So you've had an accident?
Caller: No, we're both sitting in the middle of the bridge and he won't back up.
Me: So ... you back up.
Caller: BUT I WAS HERE FIRST.
Me: ...
Caller: Hello?
Me: Yes?
Caller: Did you hear what I said? HE WON'T MOVE AND I WAS HERE FIRST.
Me: ...
Caller: I need an officer down here to MAKE HIM MOVE.
(Repeat with slight variations in phrasing for another few iterations.)
Me: Ma'am. It's snowing like crazy and I don't have an officer to send down to you. You're acting like a four-year-old. I'll send an officer when I have one available, and if you're still there, he'll start writing tickets. *CLICK*

She didn't call back.

And oddly enough, she wasn't there when someone went by the bridge.

When they're yelling, it can work.  It's certainly worked for me on the street with some patients.

When callers start yelling at me, I just shut up and put my headset on my desk. When it gets quiet, I pick it up and say something like, "I'm sorry, I couldn't understand a word you said. Are you ready to talk with me?"

I've done so more than once.  With some people, it's the only way to get their attention.

I used to have a small radio at my desk when I was the Duty Officer.  If some wingnut called up and started yelling or just going ballistic for no apparent reason, I'd just hit play on the little personal recorded that I had on my desk.  What would play you ask???

Well just a bunch of random sounds (chickens clucking, roosters roostin', ducks quacking, some bagpipes playing, whatever).  

After about five seconds and the caller quieting down, I'd ask if they're going to lower their tone and talk to me like a human being and if they had cleared their head.  If they started in again, or said "NO", then I'd either ask them to call back when they've calmed down or just hang up on them.  I'm NOBODY's punching bag... I used to call 'em Phone Commandos (kinda like Internet Commandos) because they wouldn't say that shit or talk to you like that in person...especially when there's five or six other uniformed officers standing around.  
-SS

conservatively: Once a month.



realistically: once a week.



It's very rare that I'll snap at somebody because I've actually lost my cool, but sometimes people need to be yelled at to bring them back to reality. I usually talk very quietly, which brings them back down, but sometimes I have to raise my voice to get their attention and reel them back in.  

Yelling is simply another tool in the toolbox

Everything's recorded.
I just use the "I don't mean to be rude...but I really have to use the bathroom...Bye."

Even better....the fake radio call.....we have ear pieces, which u need to make it work.  Someone wont shut up, or is ranting about nonsense, you grab at the mic as you say to the person 'Hang on one second."  "Dispatch I copy that, I'll be enroute immediately!"  "Sorry, ma'am/sir, I have (Insert whatever call seems better than this one) to go to."  I've said everything from officer in a fight, burg in progress, to a guy sodimizing a goat, though that one only flew cuz the person we were dealing with was nuttier than hell and I only did it to get a rise outta my cover

I just laugh at them, usually when I start smiling during their "time of need" they realize how retarded they are.

Many times I've had complainants ask me for the absolute dumbest crap imaginable...I mean common people...

Perfect example for ya'll:

We get a call for a disturbance business in a local high end dress place.  When I show up there is a bigger sized black female yelling at the slightly smaller sized white male owner.  She sees me and says "Finally you are here!" As if it took me 30 mins to get there (it took 3 minutes).  She goes on to say "I ordered a dress from this guy, but he made it too small I cannot fit in it, I have nothing to wear for dinner tomorrow!" ... I look at her in complete amazement, I even let out a slight laugh.  I ask the owner of the store if he would issue her a refund even though above him a big signs says "no refunds."  He tells me that he will do whatever it takes for her to leave his store as she has been cursing him for over an hr until she called the police.  I ask her if she wants a refund she tells me again "I do not care about the money I need a dress for tomorrow! this guy promised me a dress, I paid for a dress and he did not get me a good dress! What am I supposed to do?"

"Ma'am that is most certainly not a police matter, this owner will refund you the money you paid and you can get on your way."

I'm in "Emergency Communications" now as the 2200 x 0600 Supervisor and the only sworn guy on the floor. Dispatch and 911 are handled by different people but in the same room. Minimum of 11 dispatchers and 3 relief dispatchers and usually 12 or so 911 operators although they switch the Fire/Ambo calls to the FD dispatch unit which is now in a separate building. Anyway when I hear my 911 operators having to continually ask the same question or raise their voices to be heard I'll wander on over and ask if they are ok. (I also deal with mouthy police officers but not so much) Every once in a while I'll take the call over from the 911 operator and tell the caller that we are not interested in their silly problem (when it is a silly problem) and that they should come down to HQ and make a complaint. I have had one guy drive down and start giving the guy at the door a bunch of lip and of course the goof dropped my name. The HQ Security guy called up and told me I had a "Guest" I got there and soon "City Jail" had a guest. I brought the "tape" of the original 911 call to court and  the Judge smirked as he fined him.