East Hampton Village Dispatcher Has Not Been Disciplined

The dispatcher, who took the emergency 911 call when , has not been brought up on any disciplinary action despite not following protocol, according to East Hampton Village Administrator Larry Cantwell.

Cantwell confirmed that the dispatcher, a veteran in the East Hampton Village Communications Department whose name has not been released, should have asked Sherri Ross for her nearest cross streets when she provided her address on Nov. 14. Asking for a cross street is part of the dispatcher's protocols, he said. 

"As of this moment, we have no action pending or under consideration," Cantwell said on Tuesday morning.  "Will that change? I don't know." 

Though the dispatcher clicked the wrong hamlet on his computer screen after he punched in the numerical and street address. There are four 419 Montauk Highway addresses in East Hampton Town alone. By clicking the wrong hamlet, the dispatcher sent an ambulance crew from East Hampton to a nonexistent house near Urgent Care, instead of sending Bridgehampton Ambulance Company to the Ross' house in Wainscott. 

"We have no information leading us to believe that anything other than a mistake was made by him," Cantwell said on Monday.

Lanny Ross was pronounced dead at Southampton Hospital, nearly an hour after the call.

According to the 911 recording, the dispatcher did not ask for Ross' nearest crossest street until police and ambulance personnel couldn't find the house, nearly seven minutes into the call. 

"Because someone made a mistake, didn't follow procedure, made a mistake, even if the actions of an employee are actionable that doesn't mean we have to take action," Cantwell said. "That doesn't mean we're not concerned about the way the call was handled."

Cantwell said that the cross streets aren't always in the database and that the dispatcher has to chose not only the address, but the hamlet and the right fire district to send to the call. He said the village has vowed to improve the system. 

Officials are looking at how exactly to improve the system to reduce the risk of a mistake "without reducing efficiency in terms of speed," Cantwell said.