Widower brings emergency dispatch training to Blackfoot
A Florida woman would be alive today had the local 911 system not failed her. To make sure that doesn’t happen elsewhere, like in Idaho, her husband now travels state to state to share their story and advocate for 911 dispatcher training standards.
Today, Nathan Lee was spreading his message in Blackfoot.
Denise Amber Lee was a 21-year-old mother abducted from her Florida home in 2008. She was later raped and killed even though she and others had called 911.
A woman called 911 to say she thought someone in distress was in the back seat of a dark green Camaro. That person in distress was Denise, but police never received the dispatch information about the car. Less than 30 minutes after the 911 call, Denise was dead.
“As hard as it was and looking back, when you have situations like that, you don’t have a time machine. You can’t go back and fix them. And I kept asking myself how Denise would want me to handle it and she would want me to do whatever I could to try to make sure it doesn’t happen to anybody else,” says widower Nathan Lee.
With the failures of the 911 system, Lee began the Denise Amber Lee Foundation.
“Most of the public would be shocked to learn that 911 dispatchers in Idaho are not required to be trained, certified. There’s no kind of credentialing process for them whatsoever, and that is actually quite common. There are 24 states in the United States like Idaho right now. 911 is the first link in the chain of public safety. It’s the first link. And if that first link in the chain is broken, we’re in trouble, all of us,” said Idaho State Police Lt. Kevin Haight.
Lee shared his wife’s story during the four-hour seminar, and went step by step through the 911 center’s errors, turning their tragic mistakes into teachable moments.
“The 911 industry rallied behind me and supported me and were sorry for what happened and I wanted to help give back. I wanted to make sure this didn’t happen to another family,” said Lee.
Nathan Lee has inspired a movement to make sure another life is not lost due to poor training of 911 dispatchers. His mission is to make sure tragic incidents don’t have to happen before we take action to improve our dispatch systems.
The Denise Amber Lee Foundation is working toward bringing dispatchers in the Gem State proper professional training and recognition. Its goal is to put legislation before the House and Senate next session, which begins January 17, 2017.
