CALLER: Okay…I’m with him. He’s really bad. There’s so much blood.
DISPATCHER: Now listen closely, and I’m going to tell you what to do—
At this point a lot of things have happened. As the dispatcher takes the information from the witness, she’s doing several things at once. The questions she asked gave her a snapshot of the events and the location of the crime. She has a physical description and an idea of the direction in which the suspect fled. While talking to the witness, the dispatcher would be typing the information into her computer and requests would be sent to patrol units and emergency medical teams. Often they’ll arrive while the 911 call is still in progress.
The next thing she did was to assess whether the scene was safe—relatively speaking—for the responding officers and EMTs. This will determine how those professionals perform upon arrival.
While these units are rolling, the dispatcher may also have the witness go to the victim to assess his apparent condition.
Expert Witness
Fredericka Lawrence, a 911 operator for Bucks County, Pennsylvania, says, “We talk the witness through an assessment. We ask about the types and locations of the injuries, and whether they’re actively bleeding. We ask them if the victim is conscious and responsive. If they are not immediately responsive, we ask them to try painful stimuli, which means they pinch the back of the upper arm. If the victim is conscious on any level, they’ll react to that. Sometimes the witness is asked to provide first aid. For a badly bleeding wound, we’ll ask them to apply direct pressure with a clean cloth; and I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve talked a witness through CPR. Sometimes the witness is a real lifesaver.”
“When calling 911, it’s essential that you cooperate with the dispatcher,” insists Cass Brennan, who worked dispatch in three different Ohio counties in the 1980s and 1990s. “That means that you should be as calm as possible and listen to their questions and provide the best answers you can. Don’t argue, and don’t make a fuss if they insist that you answer their questions, even if it means having to repeat information. 911 operators are trained to ask very specific questions and to keep the caller as calm as possible. They also want to keep witnesses in place so they don’t leave, don’t panic, and don’t compromise the crime scene.”
The operator enters all the pertinent information into the computer so that a permanent and easily accessible record of the incident is always available. All 911 calls are recorded, and every call is given an incident number. It’s useful to ask for the incident number in case you lose your connection or have to call back for any reason. The dispatcher will generally not offer this number but will provide it when asked. Tapes and/or transcripts of 911 calls are available on request—they’re not confidential and are a matter of public record. If you’re involved in an incident, you can request a copy of the tape. If you’ve witnessed a zombie attack, then that tape will probably get you on Larry King (but it is illegal to try and sell it on eBay).
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Zombies…Fast or Slow? Part 1
Few topics are debated quite as heatedly as that of the speed of the living dead. Romero had them move slow, and for most fans of the genre that is tantamount to the word of God. Upstart directors like Dan O’Bannon (Return of the Living Dead ) and Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead ) like their zombies to be more fleet-footed. I polled some key players in the world of zombie pop culture to see where they stand:
“Sssslllloooowwww!”—Max Brooks, author of World War Z
“For me, slow…. although I was pleasantly surprised by the
Dawn of the Dead remake and its Olympic sprinters. But I like slow ghouls—they seem a little more elegant and there’s a nice sense of inevitability in them catching up with the living. No matter how fast you run away, Death will always get you. Eventually.”—Jamie Russell, author of Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema (FAB Press).
“I think slow zombies are scary as hell en masse, but I wanted the zombies in the remake to be scary individually as well. The first thing I wrote in the movie was the first sequence in the movie—that of Ana’s husband being attacked by the little girl, Vivian (which was actually the name of the little girl who lived next door to me at the time). Maybe I made her fast, because a slow little zombie girl in the morning light just didn’t seem as scary. Whatever, I liked the idea of her jumping up and racing down the hall.”—James Gunn, screenwriter for the remake of Dawn of the Dead:
“As a veritable disciple of Romero, the slow is the way to go. The idea of smashing slow zombies with a bat still appeals to me. However, I do believe there is a place for the fast zombie. Very intense and very frightening, the speed and relentlessness is very scary. 28 Weeks Later illustrated that with perfection in the opening scene on the British countryside, when the protagonist was running from the hideout and the creatures were close to cutting him off from the hills at the angle they were taking. Very scary.”—Bowie Ibarra, author of Down the Road: A Zombie Horror Story and Down the Road: On the Last Day (both from Permuted Press).
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Once the 911 call has been made, the central dispatch will contact the specific unit whose patrol route covers that location. “In rural counties,” Brennan says, “one dispatch center is often used for all of the surrounding towns. Computers and radio reports track the general movement of available units. If the car that would normally respond is handling another complaint, at lunch, doing transport or any of the thousand other jobs that police officers routinely handle, then the request for responding units is broadened. In very serious crimes this might result in units responding from several neighboring towns.”
For violent crimes, like the one reported here, and one where the suspect is believed to still be at large, a fair number of cars would roll.
According to Greg Dagnan, CSI/Police/Investigations Faculty—Criminal Justice Department, Missouri Southern State University, “The dispatcher will keep the caller on the phone while emergency responders are in route. This process also encourages the caller not to hang up in case police can’t find them or some other unexpected event occurs. Police are usually the first to enter a scene like this even if others (fireman, ambulance) beat them there. Police must ensure that responders will be safe while lifesaving measures are performed.”
911 operator Fredericka Lawrence adds, “The constant contact between operator and witness not only saves lives, but it keeps the witness on the scene, which means that the officers and detectives will have someone they can interview. That speeds up the entire process.”
The Zombie Factor
The scenario we’re using to make our examination of the zombie outbreak is one seldom ever shown in the films. We’re working with the actual patient zero, the central or “initial infected person” in an epidemiological investigation. If patient zero is stopped in time, then there will be no plague to spread; if he’s stopped too late, then every person he bites becomes a potential disease vector.
The good news is that in the real world these things often start small. One zombie out there and a whole police force against it, with all the might and technological resources that can be called to bear, should be able to do the trick. It would be less dangerous than, say, a group of hunters trying to subdue an escaped lion or tiger. Dangerous, yes, but doable.
The bad news is that the zombie has to be seen and identified as a disease-carrying hostile vector. That’s not going to happen quickly or easily, and probably not at all during this phase. Diseases are invisible, so the police will likely react as if the assailant is either mentally unstable or whacked out on drugs. Or both. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because suspects demonstrating odd and irrational behavior are treated as if they are very dangerous. Extra caution is used, more backup is called, and greater safety protocols are put in place. On the level of one (or at most a few) of the slow, shuffling zombies, the police department is more than ready to meet the challenge.
In our scenario, our witness has seen
a strange and apparently drunk or stoned individual attack someone else and then stagger off in to the woods across the street. We don’t yet know why the zombie fled leaving a victim still alive. We don’t know if the sight of the witnesses’s car, or the smell of its engine frightened off the zombie. Can we even use the word frighten in connection with zombies?1 We don’t know if something attracted it; or perhaps called it. All we know, based on the eyewitness’s testimony, is that the zombie attacker has fled.
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Art of the Dead—Rob McCallum
Patient Zero
“I’m old school so prefer my zombies to be slow. The fast ones are pretty scary too but I just don’t see dead bodies being able to run for too long before bits of them start to give out and fall off!”
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The novels The Rising and City of the Dead by Brian Keene,2 Dead City by Joe McKinney, Dying 2 Live by Kim Paffenroth, and The Cell by Stephen King explore the possibility that some other force, being, or hive consciousness was able to control large groups of zombies. In Land of the Dead the chief ghoul, Big Daddy, seems capable of directing the actions of his fellow “stenches.” However in Romero’s original zombie films, Night, Dawn, and Day, the zombies were antonymous, their actions being directed by whatever constituted their postresurrection set of instincts. As such (and although they do seem to gather wherever one or more humans are hiding), they do not appear in any way organized, any more than flies are organized even though masses of them gather around a corpse. Even if we grant a certain degree of unpredictability due to the police initially having insufficient evidence, we are still looking at a situation in which the suspect will not be actively hiding (and will, by nature of its reduced intelligence, be incapable of this), and a suspect who will take no effort to prevent the leaving of evidence. There will be a lot of evidence to collect—fingerprints, footprints, blood spatter, trace DNA, witnesses, possible video surveillance from the location of the attack, and more. Once the police and crime scene unit arrives and the evidence collection begins, the hunt for our undead suspect will begin in earnest.
Help is on the way.
JUST THE FACTS
First Responders
A crime scene is a tricky thing. It seldom has clear boundaries like you see on TV. In some cases the crime scene expands to include the planning and staging areas, the routes taken to and from the “primary scene,” and even a recovered vehicle associated with the crime. Clues and evidence may be found at any or all of these.
The primary scene, however, is where the real action takes place. (For us it’s the research center on Argento Road in Romero Township.)
The first police unit to arrive at a crime scene has a lot of responsibilities to handle, and even a two-officer car will be kept very busy. As the first responder unit rolls up, the officers have to assume that the situation is still active and dangerous. Assuming otherwise could be highly dangerous to everyone involved. Just because a witness says that the assailant has left, that doesn’t make it so. And there is the consideration of the wounded victim. All of this is in their minds as they pull up to the scene.
But their first task is to observe the situation, noting the physical layout, the presence of objects (buildings, trees, vehicles, etc.) that could provide cover for a suspect or limit their assessment of the scene. They have to note whether any vehicles or persons are entering or leaving the scene. This includes identifying the presence of all persons (living or dead) and making very quick judgments about each person: Are they stationary or fleeing? Are they injured or dead? Are they actively engaged in a struggle? Are they lucid, raging, crying, etc.?
The first responders have to locate the scene, which isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Witnesses, especially phone-in callers, are seldom clear and concise, and these callers may be unfamiliar with the location of the incident. Once they find the right spot, they have to secure the scene to prevent contamination of evidence. Much will depend on how well the first responders handle this.
As the officers get out of their unit, they have a chance to take sensory impressions of the scene. What do they hear? What do they see? What do they smell? Often these first impressions are crucial to the development of an effective investigation of the crime.
If the suspect is in view, he needs to be contained and detained, then cuffed and placed in the back of one of the responding vehicles.
The officers have to locate and assess the victims. Backup and ambulances are typically called at this point, even before the officer gets out of his car. In our scenario the victim is comatose and badly injured with what looks like bite wounds and other lacerations. While waiting for this, the officers provide any necessary first aid the situation requires. Police officers are trained to do this and, sadly, very often have way too many opportunities to practice it. Prophylactic measures, such as latex gloves, are now standard for most police departments in the United States, which significantly reduces the risk of infection from welling blood and open wounds. In zombie attacks, of course, first aid can get dicey, since the infection rate from fluid exchange is estimated at 100 percent.
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Zombie Films You Never Heard Of (but Need to See)—Part 2
The Happiness of the Katakuris (2000): A Japanese zombie musical. Weird, not very well done but absolutely watchable if alcohol is involved.
I, Zombie: A Chronicle of Pain (1998): Granted, it’s pretentious, but it’s clear some real thought went into this British zom film. Give it a chance.
Io Zombo, Tu Zombi, Lei Zomba (1979): An Italian zom com with a witty sense of humor. Very hard to find, but worth it.
Kung Fu Zombie (1981): Hilarious Hong Kong zombie comedy. The plot doesn’t make much sense, but you’re laughing too hard to care.
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971): A true “lost classic” that deserves to be found and watched. Creepy, subtle, and nicely twisted.
The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (1974): Also known as Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, this one has the makings but never quite found its audience. Dig up a copy.
The Living Dead Girl (1982): There’s a good argument on both sides as to whether this is a zombie flick or a vampire flick; either way it’s an interesting study into addiction, codependency, need, and love.
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The first responders have to establish a beachhead for the invasion of other specialists who will collect and process the evidence and investigate the crime. Witnesses need to be located, identified, and detained so that they don’t slip away with the words “I don’t want to get involved” ringing in their heads. Safe and easy access for emergency vehicles has to be established and identified.
As they get a handle on the situation, the first responders contact dispatch, which in turn notifies the correct follow-up detective unit so that detectives can make the scene. Detectives from the violent crimes3 division are requested. In violent crime, especially when there is an injured victim and the perpetrator is not only at large but also possibly armed and still in the vicinity, a lot of police support is sent. The idea is to put enough feet on the ground so that the presence of overwhelming force neutralizes any further criminal activity, and because the more eyes there are on a scene the more can be discovered.
The first responders also have to look for obvious evidence (a bloody knife, footprints, shell casings, etc.). Again, in our scenario, the officers also find the victim’s gun, a Glock 23C automatic pistol. They look for and identify ejected shell casings and determine that at least three shots have been fired.
Expert Witness
Joe McKinney, a homicide detective in San Antonio, Texas, and the author of Dead City (Pinnacle Books, 2006), a cops versus zombies novel, observes: “On my department—and from my experience, police work is more or less the same all over—detectives respond to scenes after the uniformed officers working patrol have the situation locked down. Patrol officers, you see, are basically jacks-of-all-trades. Their job is to respond to a situation first and contain it
. Once the situation is contained, the patrol officer calls the appropriate follow-up unit that has been trained on all the particulars a given situation presents. For example, a murder, or a dead body found under suspicious circumstances, would warrant the officer to call Homicide. If the officers make a disturbance call in a fleabag motel and find a homemade meth lab, they call the Narcotics Unit. The key to police work in large and medium-sized departments is specialization.”
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Art of the Dead—Ryan Allen
Unusual Suspects
“My first experience with a zombie movie was watching the Romero classic, Night of the Living Dead. I was just a kid when I saw it, and I recall not really knowing what I was watching. It was just some black-and-white movie I happened onto late one night. By the end I was scared and wondered where my dad kept the lumber and nails. You know…just in case.”
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According to Sgt. Dennis Miller, a recently retired Los Angeles police officer, “We have all sorts of specialized detectives all the way up to our elite Robbery/Homicide dicks. Sometimes a case is passed up the chain of command because it’s going to become a ‘hobby,’ meaning that it’s going to take a lot longer than the regular detectives have time for. Most detectives are handling a lot of cases and luckily a lot of these get closed quickly because we’re not talking criminal masterminds here. Some bozo bashes his friend over the head with a golf club and then hides the club in his garage…that’s a quick close. But if the case gets political, or it gets big—a serial murder, something involving a celebrity, or something where there’s going to be a lot of forensics and a long court case, then RH steps in and handles it.”