A Call For Help

A successful investigative report often leads to changes for the better in a station’s community. KDFW-TV’s series A Call For Help certainly seems to have achieved this. Focusing on the emergency medical sercie division of the Dallas Fire Department, the series demonstrated shortcomings in the handling of some emergency calls. The report was spurred by the tragic story of the death of a Dallas woman when an EMS dispatcher delayed ambulance aid despite pleas for help. KDFW-TV investigative reporters Fred Mays and Clarice Tinsley developed an investigation which uncovered argumentative and insensitive practices by EMS employees. As a result, some fire department employees were demoted, dismissed, or disciplined and new training and screening procedures were implemented. For investigative reporting that benefitted the entire Dallas community and, through national publicity, the public at large, a Peabody Award to KDFW-TV for A Call For Help.