VOLUME CLXXIII NUMBER 287 WWW.COURANT.COM WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2009

Company Teaches 911 DispatchersHow To Get The Most Out Of Calls

GeorGe Deuchar, director of training for PowerPhone Inc., talks to emergency dispatchers at the Hartford Fire Training Academy last week. Deuchar teaches dispatchers how to question 911 callers in a way that arms responding officers with information they need to protect themselves.

Rick HaRtfoRd / tHe HaRtfoRd couRant

By LoreTTa WaLDMaN Special to The Courant

The seminar, held last week, was offered by PowerPhone Inc., a Madison-based company specializing in crisis communications training for public safety professionals — one of a hand-ful of firms in that business nationwide.

Deuchar, the director of training, taught dis-patchers how to question 911 callers in a way that arms responding officers with the information they need to protect themselves. It’s the newest course offered by the privately held company, and one that brought deep meaning for many in the room.

Among the dispatchers were two from New-ington — Jim Deschanes and Walt Golembski. Deschanes spoke briefly of being on duty at the time of the Dec. 30, 2004, domestic violence complaint that resulted in the shooting death of Newington Master Police Officer Peter Lavery.

Other dispatchers who came from through-out Connecticut and as far away as Boston know such a situation could easily have happened to them.

PowerPhone was founded in 1984 by Phil Salafia, who was inspired by an experience he had as a police officer responding to a call from a person he thought was sick, but who turned out to have a loaded gun.

Salafia was among the first to introduce spe-cific protocols and training for civilian police and fire dispatchers, according to the company. His son, Chris, is now president and CEO. Power-Phone has 15 full-time employees at its Madison headquarters and subcontracts with 21 instruc-tors around the country.

PowerPhone, which does not release finan-

cial information, has trained 150,000 call-takers in more than 6,000 agencies in all 50 states and 12 other countries. Clients have included the Singapore Civil Defense Force and the United Nations. The firm also creates and sells call-han-dling software.

Nationwide, 132 officers were killed in the line of duty in 2008, according to the company and, this year, law enforcement fatalities are up 20 percent. Lavery, a 42 year-veteran, was killed by an ex-convict who fired a burst from an al-tered assault rifle while hunkered down in the basement of his girlfriend’s house. Bruce Albert Carrier, 45, a former correctional officer who had been fired, then killed himself during the 19-hour standoff.

A state police report later confirmed that Lav-ery and his back-up officer, Laurence DeSimone, followed procedure when interviewing Carrier’s girlfriend Mary Fletcher, who reportedly shook her head “no” when asked if there were weapons in the house.

Regardless of whether “investigative ques-tioning” by a dispatcher might have prevented that tragedy, the company is built on the premise that in some cases, it can. Training for dispatch-ers for years had been more about how to use the equipment, said Chris Salafia.

“At the end of the day, it’s about getting the officer home safely,” he said. “That’s the whole point of this class.”

For dispatchers, he said, “It’s the understand-ing that they are a lifeline, not just for the caller, but a lifeline for the responder.”

Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant

With his clean-shaven head, confident stance and deep, commanding voice, George Deuchar calls to

mind a detective on a TV police drama. Listening to the retired New Jersey police

captain recount a domestic disturbance he handled years earlier leaves no doubt he’s the real deal.

The man accused in the incident said he wanted to call his attorney, Deuchar told about 30 police and emergency medical dispatchers attending a one-day seminar at the Hartford Fire Training Academy.

“He went into another room and, because there was a wall, I couldn’t see what he was doing,” said Deuchar, a 26 year veteran of law enforcement. “Instead of the phone, he picks up a knife.” But for his fast-acting partner — who saw the knife and grabbed it out of the man’s hand, breaking the man’s arm in the process — Deuchar might not be around to tell the story.