Hate crime diagnostic and intervention tool for emergency dispatch

• US 8,670,526 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2011
• Issued: 03/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jeffrey J. Clawson
• Original Assignee: Jeffrey J. Clawson
• Inventors: Clawson, Jeffrey J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Joseph J
• Application Number:
  US13/026,043
• Publication Number:
  US 20120210271A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• Field of Search: 379/45, 379/42, 379/37, 379/201.01, 379/201.03
• US Class Current: 379/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to assist an emergency dispatcher in responding to emergency calls reporting incidents involving a hate crime or other anti-social behavior toward a victim. The systems and methods can include an emergency police dispatch protocol configured to facilitate uniform and consistent gathering of information about an incident being reported and configured to determine a determinant value corresponding to an appropriate emergency dispatch response. A diagnostic tool is provided to aid the dispatcher in gathering information about the victim that pertains to one or more bias categories. The victim information can be used to identify one or more potential biases that could have motivated the perpetrator of the hate crime or other anti-social behavior. The diagnostic tool facilitates uniform and consistent gathering of victim information pertaining to various bias types. The information may be stored and/or processed for use in monitoring and/or tracking hate crimes and other anti-social behavior. The diagnostic tool can be launched automatically by the emergency dispatch protocol, or manually by a dispatcher. The diagnostic tool presents a user interface that provides, among other things, instructions, symptoms, and input fields.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to assist a dispatcher, when communicating vocally with a caller via a communication device regarding an incident involving bias-motivated anti-social behavior toward a victim, to collect information about the victim to identify a potential bias that could have motivated the perpetrator toward the victim, the method comprising:

providing on a dispatch center computer system an emergency dispatch protocol to assist the dispatcher when communicating with the caller, the protocol presenting a pre-scripted interrogation including a plurality of preprogrammed inquiries for the dispatcher to ask the caller to collect information regarding the incident and generate an emergency dispatch response by emergency responders based on the collected information;

initiating a diagnostic tool on the dispatch center computer system, the diagnostic tool configured to aid the dispatcher in uniformly collecting victim information relating to potential biases that could have motivated the perpetrator, the diagnostic tool

presenting to the dispatcher a user interface,

presenting on the user interface a listing of a plurality of bias categories for the dispatcher to vocally relay to the caller over the communication device,

presenting on the user interface a plurality of input fields corresponding to the plurality of bias categories, each input field configured to accept input providing victim information for a corresponding bias category,

receiving dispatcher-entered input that is indicative of victim information and associating the victim information to the corresponding bias category, and

communicating the victim information corresponding to one or more of the plurality of bias categories to the dispatch protocol; and

compiling on the dispatch center computer system the victim information and incident information into a data record for later retrieval and analysis in connection with a subsequent incident involving bias-motivated anti-social behavior toward the victim.

2. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data record compiled with the victim information and incident information has a uniform format that can be processed to monitor trends in bias-motivated anti-social behavior.

3. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the data record from the dispatch center computer system to a data analyzer that is configured to identify patterns and relationships within data records received by the data analyzer.

4. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for nationality or ethnicity.

5. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for religion or beliefs.

6. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for gender.

7. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for sexual orientation.

8. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for disability.

9. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for age.

10. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data record compiled with the victim information and incident information comprises geographic information that identifies a location of the incident and that can be used to identify patterns, trends, and geographical clusters of bias-motivated anti-social behavior.

11. A computer system for assisting a dispatcher, when communicating vocally with a caller via a communication device regarding an incident involving bias-motivated anti-social behavior toward a victim, to collect information about the victim to identify potential biases that could have motivated the perpetrator toward the victim, the system comprising:

a processor;

an input device in electrical communication with the processor;

an output device in electrical communication with the processor; and

a memory in electrical communication with the processor, and having stored thereon;

an emergency dispatch protocol to assist the dispatcher when communicating with the caller, the protocol presenting a plurality of interrogatories on the output device for the dispatcher to ask the caller to collect information regarding the incident and generate an emergency dispatch response by emergency responders based on the collected information;

a diagnostic tool to aid the dispatcher in uniformly collecting information about the victim relating to potential biases that could have motivated the perpetrator, the diagnostic tool configured to

present to the dispatcher a user interface on the output device, the user interface including a listing of a plurality of bias categories for the dispatcher to vocally relay to the caller over the communication device and a plurality of input fields corresponding to the plurality of bias categories, each input field configured to accept input providing information about the victim for the corresponding bias category,

receive dispatcher-entered input provided via the input device to the input fields, the input indicative of information about the victim and associate to one or more corresponding bias categories, and

communicate the victim information corresponding to one or more of the plurality of bias categories to the emergency dispatch protocol,

wherein the computer system compiles the victim information and incident information into a data record that is stored for later retrieval and analysis in connection with a subsequent incident involving bias-motivated anti-social behavior toward the victim.

12. A computer system of claim 11, wherein the data record compiled to include victim information and incident information has a uniform format that can be processed to monitor trends in bias-motivated anti-social behavior.

13. A computer system of claim 11, further comprising a data analyzer that is configured to identify patterns and relationships within data records received by the data analyzer, wherein the computer system transmits the data record to the data analyzer.

14. A computer system of claim 13, wherein the data analyzer is positioned on a remote computing device coupled to the computer system via network connection.

15. A computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for nationality or ethnicity.

16. A computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for religion or beliefs.

17. A computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for gender.

18. A computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for sexual orientation.

19. A computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for disability.

20. A computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of bias categories include a category for age.

21. A computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the data record compiled with the victim information and incident information comprises geographic information that identifies a location of the incident and that can be used to identify patterns, trends, and geographical clusters of bias-motivated anti-social behavior.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including computer-readable instruction code for a dispatch center computer performing a method to assist a dispatcher, when communicating with a caller via a communication device regarding an incident involving bias-motivated anti-social behavior toward a victim, to collect information about the victim to identify potential biases that could have motivated the perpetrator toward the victim, the method comprising:

providing on a dispatch center computer system an emergency dispatch protocol to assist the dispatcher when communicating with the caller, the protocol presenting a plurality of interrogatories for the dispatcher to ask the caller to collect information regarding the incident and generate an emergency dispatch response by emergency responders based on the collected information;

initiating a diagnostic tool on the dispatch center computer system, the diagnostic tool configured to aid the dispatcher in uniformly collecting information about the victim that pertains to one or more bias categories, wherein the victim information specifies characteristics about the victim that can be a basis for a particular bias in one of the bias categories that could have motivated the perpetrator, the diagnostic tool presenting to the dispatcher a user interface, presenting on the user interface a listing of a plurality of bias categories for the dispatcher to vocally relay to the caller over the communication device, presenting on the user interface a plurality of input fields corresponding to the plurality of bias categories, each input field configured to accept input providing information about the victim for the corresponding bias category, receiving dispatcher-entered input that is indicative of information about the victim and associating the information to the corresponding bias category, and communicating the victim information corresponding to one or more of the plurality of bias categories to the dispatch protocol; and

compiling on the dispatch center computer system the victim information and incident information into a data record for later retrieval and analysis in connection with a subsequent incident involving bias-motivated anti-social behavior toward the victim.