Not required to rescue

This is interesting:

A federal civil rights lawsuit filed against Dane County and a former 911 dispatcher by the parents of homicide victim Brittany Zimmermann should be dismissed because the county has no constitutional obligation to protect individuals from the acts of others, a response to the lawsuit states.

...

According to the brief for the dismissal motion, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has said the U.S. Constitution "does not require municipalities to rescue persons in distress." Further, the court said negligence or gross negligence "cannot be the basis for a constitutional violation."

I'm about as far as you can get from being a Constitutional scholar, but my gut is telling me two things here: 1) that the county may be right in that the Constitution does not require governments to provide competent rescue services to its citizens, but that 2) regardless of what has been established by the court, this is a shitty, shitty thing for the county (or any government) to say.

Perhaps the federal lawsuit wasn't the correct course of action for the parents to take in this case, but I think it's pretty clear that serious mistakes were made by both the 911 center and the county officials who dealt with the press and the aftermath. And though nothing can change what happened or make Brittany Zimmermann's parents feel much better, it does seem like some sort of lawsuit is in order here.

It should be a bit of a wake-up call for all of us, though, to read that Dane County doesn't believe it has any real obligation to provide emergency services to its citizens. And if it does deign to provide them, it needn't do so "competently." There is something very wrong with that mentality. If citizens weren't contributing anything to the government--no taxes, no votes, etc.--then this might make more sense. As it stands, though, it's far from comforting to know that the county has so little regard for our safety.


h/t: mal contends at Uppity Wisconsin

UPDATE: On a related note, this potentially intriguing bit of news just popped up on TCT regarding a possible connection between a man recently arrested on kidnapping and sexual assault charges, and the murder of Brittany Zimmermann.

The Zimmermann case debacle

I'm currently working on an article for dane101.com about the Dane County 911 Dispatch Center's botched response to the Zimmermann call. One thing I've noticed since this story broke are the many comments from readers who've had pretty sketchy encounters with 911 operators. It started to seem like a pattern, and that, of course, has me concerned. So I'm seeking such accounts from various people, and so far the picture that's forming is not one of systemic failure on the part of the 911 Center, but certainly enough of a problem to warrant serious concern and reform. I hope to have the full report up by later this evening, so check back at dane101 for that later.

In the meantime, everyone and their uncle has been weighing in on the case, especially since the recent statements and apology issued from Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk. Like most everyone else, I too am of the opinion that a full accounting needs to happen: release the contents of the call (if not the actual recording, then a descriptive transcript), do a full investigation of what went wrong that day, hold responsible the person or persons that messed up, and do a thorough retraining of dispatchers to make sure procedure is always followed so that this sort of thing never happens again.

Michael Leon over at Uppity Wisconsin expressed his frustration with Falk for a perceived lack of full disclosure, wondering if the public good is being shoved aside in the interest of political maneuvering. While I disagree with Leon that Falk's assertion that even if the dispatcher had followed procedure, Zimmermann likely wouldn't have been saved "amounts to a Bushian I-can’t-tell-you-anything-but-trust-me assurance," his call for greater transparency is one I can get behind.

It's likely Ms. Zimmermann wouldn't have been saved, especially considering the limitations that still exist in tracking down calls placed from cell phones, but it would have been far more likely that police might have found or had better leads on the killer had procedure been followed. We all feel outrage and sadness over the murder itself, but if there's anything to be angry with the dispatch center about, it's the hampering of the investigation and bringing to justice of the perpetrator.

If the public is to regain full confidence in the 911 Center again, a full accounting needs to happen. Transparency, apology, stricter standards. And please, get everyone on the same page regarding cell phones and our ability to track them. These things are the very least we can do for the community and, most of all, for the sake of Brittany Zimmermann and her family.

EDIT: Nathan Comp put together an interesting interview with Madison Police Chief Noble Wray over at The Daily Page.