Austin
If I may ..
Yes 000 is answered by a telstra operator BEFORE being put through to a police officer, or ambo or firey.
In the NT all three services are co-located at Berrimah in the Police Communications Centre.
In the greater Darwin area which includes areas almost as far south as Katherine, all police AND fire 000 telephones are manned by Police Officers. Ambo's do their own, (at least at the moment). All calls are recorded. Any unanswered calls (or overflow calls) automatically, after a few seconds will divert to other 24hr Police Stations (Katherine then Alice Springs) .. hence the requirement to announce where you're calling from, possibly more than once.
I'm guessing that this unahppy event happened at 3.00 am this morning?
All callers are asked to supply information that identifies the event, the location and any other info the operator thinks is pertinent to help determine how many officers are required to respond, whether other services may be required, this is then what determines the priority given to the event.
All jobs phoned in are prioritised. Each job, depending upon the information is allocated a specific code and also delivers if need be, the same job/info details to another service.
It could be, that whilst you may have wanted someone to attend there and then, it may not have been possible as all resources (police officers) may have been involved in a similar or even higher priority event at the same time.
It does happen, where all police officers on duty are called to a single event. Sad, but true.
If you like, you could PM with further details and I may be able to offer other advice.
You are within your rights to make a complaint re the operator, and with all calls recorded, and if per chance anything abusive happens to be recorded from either side, this will be factored into what action is/was taken.
If I can be of further assistance ...