I guess it's too much to expect that the person file a complaint/take proper steps with the appropriate agency before running to the papers?

It's unprofessional to the maxxxx. But seriously; she was calling the police because of fireworks.

Clearly she hates our freedoms and the 4th of July and America and would like us to be a territory of England again.

If we stop celebrating the 4th of July, like Ms Biver clearly wants, then the Brits will forget all about the Declaration of Independence and start taxing the hell out of all our tea again.

THEN WHAT, LADY?!?!

"She didn't know what I was calling about. Somebody could've been having a heart attack here."

Well first off, the woman said she was calling about fireworks. So if there was really an emergency, she probably would've stated it at the beginning of the call, right?

Secondly, maybe there's something that pops up on the operators screen when the call is transferred from Non-Emergency Police (311), so the operator didn't feel she needed to respond with urgency.

Not defending the operator at all, just playing a little bit of my favorite game - devil's advocate.

This woman has got "Fun Police" written all over her face. Just a casual observation!

Nothing better than spending your night celebrating your independence from oppressive government, by having to use state mandated/controlled fireworks, while being spied on by nosy and complaining neighbors. Long live freedom!

Um, that's nearly as bad as being put on hold by 911 in Atlanta for 5 minutes before a dispatcher answered. Fortunately, I was only calling to report a hit and run on an unattended car. (We don't have a non-emergency number here - call the police department and they tell you call 911).

A career cop in my area told me "the quickest way to get the police to your house is to call 911 from your home phone, scream as loud as you can, and hang up. Don't answer when they call back." Shocking.

@pinkbunnyslippers: I didn't really know what to think of this until now. I sort of agree with you. And even though it might be profiling, she does look like the kind of person that would call the police if you were riding your bike too close to her house.

Sure, the operator was real unprofessional about it, but calling about fireworks? I don't know about this woman, but I enjoy our freedom from the iron chains of The Almighty Great Britain as thisaintsweettea mentioned.

Let's think about this: normally I would think that being a 911 operator would involve you with the most horrid life and death situations on a routine basis. For myself I can't imagine much more that would cause me to focus on my job any more vigilantly(unless I was an ER doctor or something). So to me that says 911 operators typically must respond to the stupidest, tritest and most ridiculous matters on that same routine basis. So when this woman says "someone could have been near death due to a heart attack" my 1st thought is "yeah... and had the 911 operator not been doubled over laughing in response to your whining that person would have probably reached a responsive operator and most likely lived." So it mystifies me that it isn't immediately apparent to her that she is the cause of her own problem. I think it is her own sense of self entitlement to medal in the affairs of others that keeps her from seeing it. Otherwise 911 is for EMERGENCIES! Not to whine to the police because you're too g@dd@mn lazy to look up the number for your local police... as though they don't have anything better to do than listen to your whining.
/rant

@Moosehawk:
For starters, fireworks are illegal so calling in to complain makes a ton of sense. Second, if Norwood Park is anything like my neighborhood in Chicago, there are dozens of people setting off large displays all over the place: on street corners, in school parking lots, their backyards, right next to my damn apartment!

She is not ruining anyone's fun, she is trying to prevent her house from being burned down. But yes, she should file a formal complaint before going to the news.

@thisaintsweettea: "she was calling the police because of fireworks."

Fireworks are illegal in Illinois.

And honest to God, if I thought those damned teenaged hooligans across the street would have stayed in one place long enough for the cops to get here when they were playing with their illegal fireworks at 2 a.m., you bet your ASS I would have called them.

(But then they're also into illegally "borrowing" cars, spraypainting Nazi symbols on local churches, and other assorted mayhem and property damage. Probably if it was the non-hooligan teenagers I would have ignored it.)

@guymandude:
She did't call 911, she called the non-emergency line who then transferred her.

I probably wouldn't be able to contain my laughter either. I'm sure the 311 operator was able to relay a message to 911 prior to transfer.

@Moosehawk:

Hey, you don't know the situation with the fireworks. Someone firing off m80's at 1 in the morning keeping an entire neighborhood awake is a problem.

Over the 4th, a group of kids though it would be funny to launch roman candles at their neighbors house. The neighbor called 911 about it. Why? because the fireworks caught his garage on fire. Maybe he should have called earlier, that way he'd still have a garage and a car.

Someone fireing off a few fire crackers, not a problem Someone firing off a lot of very loud fireworks in the middle of the night disturbing everyone, problem.

@pinkbunnyslippers: "This woman has got "Fun Police" written all over her face. Just a casual observation!"

I thought the EXACT same thing.

@Spaceman Bill Leah: Jwalking is illegal too. If I called the police about it. I wasn't meddling, I was just trying to prevent someone from being hit by a car in the middle of the road.

On any other day I can see a call to police but on July 4th...comeon.

To those of you saying the operator was laughing at her insane reason for calling, it was stated that the operator was already laughing when they picked up the phone,so she could have been calling about something much more serious and had this problem.

OK first off no matter what a 911 operator should not be laughing when they pick up the phone, period.

Second. In the city of Chicago, where I live, on July 4th the fireworks are so bad in some neighborhoods it sounds like a war zone. Every year you hear of a house burning down. We knew someone who's porch caught on fire this year. On our block when I tried to run my dog out for a fast walk the air was filled with so much smoke it resembled a light fog. We usually go out to the suburbs to stay with family on the 4th but falling midweek it was too much of a pain to do so. All the fireworks are of the "bought in Indiana, completely illegal in IL" variety and often are quite huge. They almost look professional. Of course they only go up about as high as the tallest condo buildings.

Yeah, sorry, anyone calling 911 over fireworks deserves to be laughed at. I would even argue it's abuse of an *emergency* system and she should be fined.

D@mn it... I have to retract a perfectly good rant b/c I missed she called 311 first. @^$%#!*~! Belay my last.

@forrester:

See Davis Thomas and Dojistar. We are not talking about some sparklers and bottle rockets here. We are talking full pyrotechnic displays in areas where there is less than 10 feet between buildings side to side and minimal yard space in front and back. Some of these people are not "celebrating", they are arsonists.

911 dispatcher (police/fire/medical) here. at work, no less. :)

we hate july 4th and new years fireworks calls. over and over and over all night long. i know you have to work in the morning, turn on a box fan already.

yes, that was immensely unprofessional. we joke around as much as any workplace, when it is the time for it. but never on the phone, especially 911 lines. time and place for everything.

yes we do deal with a lot of awful things, and it really does make you desensitized to certain calls. otherwise we'd all be depressed all the time. fireworks are definitely bottom of the barrel calls compared to cardiac arrest/shooting/burglary/choking/prettymucheverythingelse.

this lady calling about fireworks is NOT unusual, neither are you sitting-on-your-cellphone people, and the 'what is the number for the Target on Main St?' people. all very unfortunate, and annoying.

/rant

There's nothing wrong with calling to report fireworks...when the area is in a drought period, one pyrotechnic gone wrong could end up burning down an innocent bystander's house.

Besides, better to call 911 than take matters in your own hands...someone went on a shooting spree at a group of people setting off fireworks in their apartment complex parking lot. One person died and the guy who did the shooting had his appartment set on fire in retalitation.

Well she said the operator picked up the phone and was laughing. The operator may not have been laughing at her, but something else. It wouldn't surprise me if the 911 operator was in some sort of "ready" mode where she was in an operator queue. Something really funny happens, and she laughs at it, but then the phone rings. A 911 operator can't just ignore the call. I know I did stuff like that a couple times when working help desk. I'd just gotten off the phone with a dumb customer and was laughing about it, not realizing I had put myself back in the queue, and my phone started ringing. I couldn't ignore the call, I HAD to pick it up. I had a tough time talking since I was still laughing to myself.

Probably just an unfortunate event and the wrong call at the wrong time. People are only human, and if the events happened like I described, then I can't really put blame on people. Sometimes it's just hard to stop laughing.

@lorddave: You might have a point if she actually called 911. She called 311 and they transfered her to 911. It's right there at the top of the page.

@forrester: It's ok to burn someone's house down because it's the 4th of July? Seriously?

@Rectilinear Propagation: How does that change anything? Abuse is abuse whether she was transfered or not.

I live in Michigan, right along the shoreline. My town was packed with FIPs on the 4th of July so I can hardly believe there was anyone left in Chicago to light fireworks off.

@bonzombiekitty: Yeah, but people don't call help desks because someone is having a stroke.

The 911 operator should have transfered her instead of hanging up.

@lorddave: That doesn't even make sense. She called a non emergency number. That is not abuse. The end.

Why is this under the label "YOUR GOVERNMENT" ?

This has nothing to do with MY GOVERNMENT.

It has to do with one individual working for the dispatch office that needs to be fired.

Here's the problem with illegal fireworks and the reason Michigan was (and might still be) considering legalizing them again. People buy them in Indiana, pay taxes to the IN government and use them in MI and the cops don't typically have the time/manpower to stop them and people rarely report them. Then people light shit on fire in MI and MI tax dollars pay to stop the town from burning. The fines for using fireworks are miniscule. Hell, the fines for selling them in MI are tiny.

@enm4r: What doesn't make sense is pretending that talking to 311 first changes anything about talking to 911.

@lorddave: Please present your solution to the problem then. If you call me at work, and I transfer you to 911 you're at fault? Yes, perfect sense that makes!

So what should she have done? She called the non emergency line.....

Take it from there, it'll be like a choose your own adventure!

this was from the article.

"Before the holiday weekend, police and fire officials encouraged people to call 911 to report illegal fireworks, as they do every year at this time. The 311 operator had every right to transfer the call, he said.

"Fireworks are illegal and they are dangerous. We received thousands of calls -- as we should have," Smith said.
"

This was not stupid because the police themselves were telling people to call 911 about them.

Basically this is a 911 operator not doing her job and putting people in danger.

Please read the article before commenting.

@enm4r: Um, no one forced her to speak to 911. No one put a gun(or bottle rocket) to her head. Get over it.

There are so many ignorant responses here, I don't know where to begin. For starters, many a house has been burnt to the ground because of someone's freedom to shoot off fireworks. Secondly, there's no reason why any neighborhood should look and sound like a combat zone just so a few people can have their fun. I've been kept up for days on end well past midnight courtesy of these fun-loving, patriotic Americans, and wouldn't hesitate for a moment to call the police. About 911-Where I live it doesn't matter which number you dial, it all goes to the same operators and they sort it out. The police here in Savannah will be glad to tell you that. A few years ago while living in Columbus, Ohio, we were the victims of a home invasion. Some guy didn't like it when I told his daughter to pick up the pop can she threw in our front yard. The two of them and a few of their friends came back and broke out the front windows , then while the father was literally kicking in our front door I called 911. They told me it wasn't an emergency. The cops arrived an hour an a half later after I saw them cruise by a few times and flagged them down.

Though I don't say this response was at all professional or correct, I have come to accept that there will be literally an insane amount of individuals setting off fireworks on the 4th. I don't think the police force could even make a dent in the illegal firework activity, when I lived near a large park the fireworks started at 2pm and ended at 2am, and it smelled like sulfur for a day. I just think this situation was a bad reaction to a problem so rampent that the police would do nothing but seeking out people setting off fireworks if they answered every call of this nature. Bad things can result from fireworks but in Chicago there are things that cause more problems, like gunfire.

@lorddave: They were the ones who decided that she was SUPPOSED to be talking to 911. Fining her makes no sense.

Celebrate your country's independence by blowing up a small part of it!

Being a Chicago resident I can sympathize. I don't call about fireworks but I have called about noise complaints in my building.

The only advice i can give any other Chicagoans is, even if it's a non-emergency but involves police, call 911 directly. 311 justs reroutes your call to a 911 dispatcher, even for non-emeergancy calls.

And fireworks both 1. illegal in IL, 2. a fire hazard, and 3. just plain annoying late at night.

And, no, that doesn't make me a hater of "freedom". If your idea of being patriotic only involves shooting off explosives and bbqing one day a year, you're a tool.

I guess Lord Dave is fortunate enough to have never had to call 911 for any reason.

In my city if you need to file ANY kind of police report you have to call 911 and that's all there is to it. Try any other method and you will be ignored or transferred to 911.

This is the way they choose to operate the system.

@ron704: Uh, the burn down house thing can be used to make anything illegal. It's a red herring. Fact is the vast vast vast majority of fireworks don't hurt a single thing.

@lorddave: Did you read the full Sun-Times article?
I quote:

"Kevin Smith, a spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said the conduct Biver described "depicts unprofessional behavior."
[...]

Before the holiday weekend, police and fire officials encouraged people to call 911 to report illegal fireworks, as they do every year at this time. The 311 operator had every right to transfer the call, he said.

'Fireworks are illegal and they are dangerous. We received thousands of calls -- as we should have,' Smith said."

I live in Chicago. All major news outlets report that we should call 911 over fireworks. You are wrong. End of story.

I highly doubt the operator was laughing at this woman's specific complaint if 911 got thousands of similar calls that night - it's not like that joke gets funnier each time. I can possibly forgive the initial laughter - probably some unrelated joking around with other operators. But if you can't get your act together when a call comes in and have to hang up on someone - sorry, you're not qualified to be a 911 operator.

I don't think some of you actually read the post.

Twice it references how the laughter didn't appear to be directed at the firework incidents, It states that the woman was laughing before telling her the complaint, and that she did not know what the complaint was. "She didn't know what I was calling about."

Why is everyone talking about fireworks? It doesn't matter, and isn't an important part of the story. If you're working for emergency services you just hope that the people take their job seriously, as obviously the operator wasn't.

It wasn't that the operator was busy with work or another call (unless she was still laughing about another call and needed more time), it had to be something external to the current situation. Which is horrible for an emergency operator to be that careless.

Aside from public displays where people can enjoy them in a safe environment, there is absolutely no reason for the existence of fireworks in the hands of idiot people.

Those who feel the need to announce to the world, "I THINK I AM COOL," by lighting off illegal fireworks within an urban environment are just as immature and deplorable as people with extreme bass boosters in their cars.

Let me take that back. People with fireworks are much worse.

@lorddave: I will be the judge of what hurts me and what doesn't. If my space is invaded by fireworks because I can't sleep at night, that's a problem. Red herring, my left foot. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater either, regardless of whether there's a fire or not. So people should be able to drink and drive even though the majority of people who do so never cause any harm?

my city has made fireworks illegal any day of the year unless you get a special permit.

anyway, it is perfectly fine for her to call. She didn't know if it was someone doing a fireworks display or kids goofing off. Either way, someone could have gotten hurt. Or property damaged.

but laughter from a 911 operator? that person needs some remedial training.

Is it better to call 311 to prevent a possible fire from occuring, or to simply hold one's breath and then dial 911 when the fire to their property does happen?

So for the people that think it's dumb to call 311 in this woman's case, I hope you have fire insurance. Remember that when they ask you, "So you saw the people lighting the fireworks and you did nothing to stop them? Not even call the police?"

Wow. At the risk of sounding like a total snob, I have to say: Consumerist has really lowered the bar on accepting "qualified" commenters. Remember the good ol' days when you actually had to demonstrate that you had something germane and clever to say?

Between the new format and the epidemic of ignorance and lack of reading skills (evidenced in some comments on this post), I no longer feel much at home here.

@ElizabethD:
Welcome to the Gawker network...

Let the poor kids pop their fireworks in peace.