Call Center Employee Under Investigation

An Allegheny County call center employee is under investigation for an incident that occurred earlier this month on December 11th. A call regarding a fire came in on Overlook Street. Using the electronic software that was installed in the county call center in August, she typed in Overlook and picked the first of the auto-fill-ins that popped up - for Overlook Court. The firefighters were dispatched to Washington's Landing although the fire was in Fineview. The employee realized her mistake and the firetrucks never made it to the mistaken location.

Chef Bob Full, head of the Allegheny County Department of Emergency Services said there are three streets with the Overlook prefix in the city and eight in the county. This is the second time such an incident with a street name with the Overlook prefix has occurred.

The employee has worked with the call center for more than ten years and is under investigation.

"This has no bearing on the new computerized dispatch system that has been installed since August of this year. There's over 521,000 calls that have been loaded unto that system. This is clearly, whether it had been the new system or this employee back in her days with the city of Pittsburgh 911 center, it would have happened no different," said Full.