Why are 911 tapes released?

[Danestress]

When there is a tragedy but no likely criminal charges, why do emergency response centers release 911 tapes to the media?

 

I would feel so angry if my family suffered a hideous tragedy that was not criminal in anyway, and the next day, the news headlines online allowed people to hear my call to 911. Somehow it doesn't seem right. I understand when there is a trial that those tapes should be subject to legal subpoena, but why are they released to the media just as news? I am hurting for this local family :(

[Lady Florida.]

They are public records just like any other police report. I agree that it doesn't seem right, but it's the media, not the police, who should be chastised. The police have to release them. The media chooses to air them. I think the only time police can withhold them is if making the tapes public would interfere with an investigation.

[stripe]

I don't know why they do it, but it's not legal in many states

http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/telecom/confidentiality-of-911-call-recordings.aspx

[Danestress]

They are public records just like any other police report. I agree that it doesn't seem right, but it's the media, not the police, who should be chastised. The police have to release them. The media chooses to air them. I think the only time police can withhold them is if making the tapes public would interfere with an investigation.

 

But in this day and age, everyone is the media. Am I wrong to think that 'public record' means just that - you or I can demand it and put it on our blog? Some of the local news networks have declined to air the tapes in this case, but others - like the Daily News in the UK, will go ahead and do so, and it just takes one place deciding to air it for the whole world to hear it.

 

It bothers me.

[Lady Florida.]

I don't know why they do it, but it's not legal in many states

http://www.ncsl.org/...recordings.aspx

 

Interesting. And I don't see Florida on either of those lists, so that's probably why we Floridians hear 911 tapes on the news almost nightly. In some states courts have ruled that 911 tapes are public record. Some feel it's the best way to expose botched responses to calls. I suspect it's mostly the media who uses that argument.

[BarbecueMom]

 

 

Interesting. And I don't see Florida on either of those lists, so that's probably why we Floridians hear 911 tapes on the news almost nightly. In some states courts have ruled that 911 tapes are public record. Some feel it's the best way to expose botched responses to calls. I suspect it's mostly the media who uses that argument.

 

My state does not release 911 calls. I can't see how they could under HIPPA, since most smaller departments dispatch fire, EMS, and police. We didn't need patient names for EMS-only calls, but if police responded we sometimes did. I took and dispatched my own calls simultaneously for 8 departments when I was working; we didn't have separate phone and radio operators.

 

I will say that most of the disputes over how a call was handled came from responding officers, not the caller. Sometimes a dispatcher forgot to ask some vital information (like asking if anyone has weapons), and sometimes the scenario the caller described didn't match what was actually going on (strange noise outside becomes dead guy in yard). Unless this is a widespread, systematic problem (which I think would be in the taxpayers' interest), there's no reason these disputes can't be handled in-house and keep the caller's privacy intact.

[stripe]

I remember a long time ago watching on the local news some video footage of a mentally impaired teenager who had climbed something or other and had to get assistance to get down. It was in another part of the country completely. It was totally irrelevant to almost everyone else on earth, but I think the fact there was video of it made it seem newsworthy to someone. I tend to dislike stories like that, that would not get on the news if there was no video to accompany it. I think the screams of terrified relatives tends to have the same "dramatic" effect.

[BigMamaBird]

Whenever the news plays a 911 call I have to change the channel. I can't handle the fear and pain in the people's voices. It's one thing to read the facts about a tragedy but it just seems explotative and voyeuristic to use the audio. I don't like it.

[Whereneverever]

I hate that they do this. I've had to call 911 for one of my kids multiple times and I'm 100% I wasn't at my finest. That they broadcast people's terror and pain when it's not needed for a legal case grosses me out.

[Lady Florida.]

First, please understand I'm not defending the practice of broadcasting 911 calls. I think it's unconscionable. I'm only trying to answer the OP's question as to why they are released.

 

I can't see how they could under HIPPA, since most smaller departments dispatch fire, EMS, and police. We didn't need patient names for EMS-only calls, but if police responded we sometimes did. I took and dispatched my own calls simultaneously for 8 departments when I was working; we didn't have separate phone and radio operators.

 

Emergency departments don't fit the descriptions for organizations bound by HIPPA.

 

http://www.911dispat...aa_position.pdf

 

While I agree that morally it's an invasion of privacy, unless a state has made laws against releasing tapes, there is nothing illegal about it. See upthread for a list of states that don't allow them to be released.

 

 

I will say that most of the disputes over how a call was handled came from responding officers, not the caller.

 

It's media types who claim release helps shed light on disputes. I have rarely heard the pro-release argument come from anyone who isn't involved in media.

[Parrothead]

In many states they are public record. They can also be used as testimony in the courts. It used to be in some rural areas when EMS was dispatched one could hear over the scanner something along the lines of, "John Smith is suffering another heart attack." As a HIPPA concession they can't give a name over the radio when dispatching or transporting. But that is the only area that falls under HIIPPA.

[BarbecueMom]

In many states they are public record. They can also be used as testimony in the courts. It used to be in some rural areas when EMS was dispatched one could hear over the scanner something along the lines of, "John Smith is suffering another heart attack."

 

 

The county north of us was still like that. Addresses still given in tree stumps you pass and old barns that you turn at. In fact, their 911 EMS calls were transferred to the nursing home staff. I'm pretty sure everyone that goes to the hospital still ends up in the town's gossip notes in the local paper. Facebook has nothing on rural newspapers.