''when in doubt, send them out''... it has little to do with understaffing or equipment and alot to do with prioritizing. Somewhere along the way, someone dropped the ball on this. I can not speak for everyone but in my training it was made VERY clear what brought about the responding to EVERY 911 hang up call.
It is protocol. It was a true story and was made into a movie. The problem alot of times is that these calls become monotnous because so many times they are simple mis-dials, or a child playing with a phone ect. BUT, it can not be assumed and they all have to be responded to as if someones life were at stake each time.
THAT my friend is where the slack falls since probably 98% of these calls are as I stated above, misdials. There use to always have to be a supervisor or a seargent on duty that any questionable call and/or pending calls was reported to. Those calls do not set for long. How long it sets depends on where it was placed on the list by priority. Other than small town police departments like the one where i came from, those 911 operators are not in there alone. Per training and SOP's, all calls are past on to someone in the chain, whether it be PD or a supervisor or whomever. In fact it starts with a 'call taker' then goes to a 'dispatcher', who then passes it on to either PD or Fire/EMS or whomever. IF all the department is busy with other calls and no one is available to respond a supervisor or seargent is made aware of this. OR at least that was the training that I remember. An example of prioritizing would be 'an accident with no injuries'... you are gonna be waiting a long time unless theyre not busy, because that call will go straight to the bottom of the list. So when I say that in my opinion someone somewhere in the chain dropped the ball, thats what i'm referring to. Calls to 911 are already turned into 2nd hand information by the time they go to the dispatcher and then depending on the situation, it can go on to a supervisor, plus a seargeant, and then on to whatever officer ends up getting the call, so alot of people touch these things. Even tho they are recorded, alot of people can have a hand in the pot before a call actually goes out. They cant blame just one person, but that is ultimately what ends up happening to save face. These men & women work hard and under stress levels that the rest of us can only imagine, and for the most part the public does get the response that they need and want but just like anything else, it's mostly the bad stories that get wrote about and it is not always a flawless system. I'm very sorry for these families loss and i'm also sorry for this 911 person because I remember how sad that job can be at times. All I can say is hold your head up because we also have to remember how rewarding it is most of the time.
(sorry if i wrote too much here)

sounds like they need a new 9-1-1 director and a new oversight board also. i hope other centers are learning from this and becoming proactive and taking steps so this doesn't happen in their centers.

After this many years of having the 911 system, how does "standardized protocols" still be an issue. I can see understaffing and outdated equipment, but standard operating procedures or SOP's are the first block you build on. jmo