Standardized emergency dispatch protocols trade individual discretion for difficulty screening out non-emergencies.

Evidence

Many years ago, when emergency dispatch systems were first put into effect, it was the dispatchers’ responsibility to filter out which calls needed to be prioritized and which did not (International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, n.d.). This, unfortunately, did not provide for a fair and unbiased system, considering that the dispatch system typically sends off first responders to approximately 240 million calls each year. Starting with the 1980s, a protocol was put into effect to standardize dispatchers’ communication with callers. Today, most dispatch systems follow the protocol of the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED) and while this helps eliminate some forms of individual bias that could affect the caller (e.g., not sending help because the dispatcher does not believe the caller), it also makes it more difficult to filter out calls that are not urgent, or rather, calls that might not qualify as emergencies at all. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 284

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to procedural-justice and rule-bound discretion tradeoffs in policing and bail decision literature.