Opinion
Criticism of Falk taken to unwarranted extremes
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Also by Jason Smathers:
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- ASM: The gauntlet has been thrown (January 17, 2010)
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In the latest of the Brittany Zimmermann debacles, Zimmermann’s family and fiance have sued the county, former dispatcher Rita Gahagan and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk in a wrongful death case of the University of Wisconsin student.
While I know the family’s grief must be overwhelming and they want to hold those who erred responsible, this has to stop. While Falk certainly made mistakes and Gahagan failed to do her job, our crusade to protect the public has turned into a gutting and intensely destructive public whipping.
When news of the 911 call from Zimmermann’s phone first came to light, then-911 chief Joe Norwick came out and fumbled through an explanation of the facts on the ground and misled the public on whether there was material in the call that should have been responded to.
Then came Kathleen Falk. At her press conference, Falk addressed the media with an acknowledgement that mistakes were made, though she did not specify at first what those mistakes were — except in her letter to the Zimmermann family.
Bill Lueders and Jason Shepard of The Isthmus tore into her with scrutinizing questions about whether Norwick made a mistake or if she heard the call (she answered “yes” and “no” at different times).
So began the onslaught. The 911 Center became an immediate topic of reform for everyone in the county; Dane County supervisors asked for an audit of the system, Norwick eventually resigned, and Falk pledged action to fix the center.
And when Falk came in to speak to our editorial board, she delivered statistics and numbers on the expert response time of the 911 Center and the large amount of money put into the capital budget for the center over the years. While some of it looked piecemeal, 2008 and 2009 saw obvious, targeted increases and improvements, including the inclusion of a Police Priority Response System.
But of course, it still didn’t answer why the 911 Center had failed on that day. As a result, I defended one of our earlier editorials that Falk marked as unfair (“Get the Falk Out,” Dec. 3) when it criticized the non-conclusion regarding why Gahagan, a 20-year veteran of the 911 Center, didn’t hear something that was obvious to police. How could the county take all this into account, including Gahagan’s e-mail stating the headphones were faulty, and still just conclude it was all a black swan event?
Falk’s outrage melted away and she pierced me with a stare of relief and exasperation, “And you know what?” she said. “That perfectly articulates our frustration.” Falk acknowledged it didn’t seem to make sense given all the odds. But sometimes there is human error.
She’s right. I just wish we would realize that.
The problems with the Dane County 911 Center stem from two basic problems: lack of effective leadership or protocol and the possibility of outdated equipment. These two issues are being improved. Some may argue the replacement of software should have been more aggressively implemented in 2004 by Falk. And they are probably right. Furthermore, I would argue Falk’s colossal fumble at that press conference was a failure in leadership — a scared and nervous community could have had some faith restored in its safety system by Falk, but she instead sounded more confused than most of the public.
But when Falk seemed to be on the verge of either tears or a nervous breakdown while in this office, I came to this realization — we need to stop pointing our fingers at her in relation to the events of that April day.
In lieu of a murderer, the public, media (us included) and her competitor Nancy Mistele have seized upon Kathleen Falk as somehow responsible for her death. We don’t know whether Zimmermann would still be alive today if the dispatcher had heard the noises, but we can certainly speculate. And because of that fact, we follow that “The Buck Stops Here” mentality to trace the root of all our woes. And it landed at Falk’s feet.
But even if the headphones didn’t work or there was some consistent disregard for protocol, you can only take Falk to task for her errors. She can certainly be held accountable for not doing everything in her power to maintain the standing of the 911 Center and protect it from mechanical errors and foibles. But when people like candidate Nancy Mistele imply she’s responsible for a death, they step over the bounds. When the media hound Falk and imply her negligence might be responsible for a young woman’s death, they lack tact. She’s made many mistakes here, but we’ve reached the extent of what our accountability dogpile can accomplish with Falk on this issue.
Hold her accountable for the 911 Center funding. Make sure she keeps an eye on the center and never loses sight. For that matter, make sure no successor or underling ever forgets what life it holds in the balance. But don’t make Falk atone for some manslaughter by negligence. Because no person in this situation — not even a public official — needs to be reminded in such accusatory terms of something their conscience will remind them of every single day.
Jason Smathers (jsmathers@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in journalism and history.
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I agree completely. Zimmerman would almost certainly still be dead if the call was handled properly, the only difference would be a chance that the killer would have been caught.
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Falk has obstructed the most basic requests for information by journalists.
Falk is the antithesis of honesty and transparency.
And now, Falk want to cover her ass by instituting police sobriety checks, just to make sure that we know she’s tough on crime.
The 911 is a culture of skepticism towards callers and those in the administration, Norwick and Falk should be held accountable.
See http://www.dane101.com/breakingnews/2008/05/01/911dispatcherfailstofollowuponzimmermannphonecall for an illustration of how the 911 Center handles calls.
Talk to any journalist covering the story to see how Falk obstructs investigation.
I’m a liberal, but a woman was murdered and Falk’s administration of the center that is supposed to help failed miserably.
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We need to hold her accountable. The buck stops with her. I am glad someone is running against her and I too would point out what Falk did wrong. From day one she has botched everything and was not telling us the truth. The 911 center is horrible and needs major restructuring. If liberals believe Bush was to blame for everything in the country or world, then we can certainly blame the person in charge of our county for the 911 center faults. Her answer to everything is form a special task force and come up with solutions. Well 2004 she did it and did not implement those solutions. So yes I do personally blame Kathleen Falk for the wrongful death of Brittany. She should have done the proper things that were suggested in 2004 but failed to do so. If she gets re elected dane county and Madison will be a disgraced. They will be voting for a democrat because she is a democrat. Granted her opponent is a republican but that does not matter. Falk has failed the public and should resign and live underneath a rock for the rest of her life.
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Presidents have sex in the White House & lie. Senators, Congressman, have affairs & lie. Bankers take our money & lie. Now comes Kathleen Falk & her lie. When do we hold our elected officials accountable? What she and Joe Norwick did was a lie. Isn’t anybody angry?
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I dispute your assessment that Jason Shepard and I “tore into” Falk at her press conference or that this is what started the feeding frenzy over the 911 Center. We asked tough questions, as did other media; it’s true there was some general skepticism of the press corps regarding Falk’s assurances, but no one was unduly harsh. I like and respect Kathleen Falk.
As for your claim that this set in motion the tone that followed, this is simply not true. Falk’s press conference happened AFTER two other press conferences that did far more to generate media interest and concern. Both were held on May 1, 2008, the day Isthmus reported that Zimmermann had called the 911 Center, but that no help was sent.
The first press conference, at which there were much harsher questions than those put to Falk, was by soon-to-be-embattled 911 Center director Joe Norwick. The second was by Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, who contradicted some of what Norwick had said.
It then emerged that Norwick had lied to the press in claiming that the dispatcher who mishandled Zimmermann’s call was still on the job. Falk backed him up, and defended the 911 Center as safe. This even though she had not followed through on a consultant’s recommendation to increase staffing.
All of these things, and the fact that Nancy Mistele needs issues to run on, have done far more to set the tone regarding Falk than anything Jason or I have said. I have not joined the lynch mob, and in fact have taken Mistele to task for her statements on the case. See http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=24349
Bill Lueders Isthmus news editor