Disaster talk' : roles, responses, and expectations in a triple zero call during the 2011 Queensland floods

On 10 January 2011, a series of triple zero (emergency) phone calls was made to the Toowoomba District Police Communications Centre by persons who had been caught in flash flooding. This paper examines the calls using conversation analysis and membership category analysis to consider the way in which expectations by the caller and call-taker, and the orientation to the role of 'call-taker' by the person assuming that role, impacted on the way in which the call was managed.The analysis has implications for training and implementation of policy and procedures when taking emergency calls while under duress.