The 911 phone call placed by At-large Council member David Catania last week — the one during which he claims he received “badgering treatment,” but the 911 office said he was frantic and unintelligible — has been released by WTOP.
Take a listen to the audio. The recording is slightly warbled and Catania was clearly upset, but we can’t help but side slightly more with the operator on this one. Responding to a question about whether this is a police, fire or medical emergency, Catania misspoke at first and said, “fire,” before correcting himself, shouting “I mean police, police!” When the operator tried to clarify, the yelling began, with Catania eventually demanding the operator’s ID number while shouting over her asking him questions.
While recognizing that he was obviously scared and in a panic, it’s still admittedly funny when the operator asks him if he is intoxicated, considering Catania had already taken the time to identify himself as a D.C. Council member. One point in Catania’s favor: it does seem like it would have helped if the operator had told him that police officers were already on the way earlier than she did, since that seemed to be his main concern during all the yelling that went on while she tried to get more details out of him about what exactly was happening and what he had seen or heard. Overall though, the 911 operator’s behavior comes across as pretty professional to us.
Tom Lee contributed
