Question from a citizen in the audience

"Can dispatchers receive better training on how to handle calls from citizens?"

Chief McClelland: When someone calls 911 or HPD, you are speaking to a call taker who is a City of Houston employee, not HPD. The only employee I have at dispatch is the individual who actually gives the call to the officer. The call taker gives the information to my dispatcher. So if a call taker is rude, or asks inappropriate questions, I cannot discipline that employee or retrain them. But I can pass on the complaints and the displeasure.