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NewsHound
07-02-2008, 06:02 AM
PLANTATION - Despite a two-minute conversation in which a 911 caller told an operator she was racing to the police station with a gunman in pursuit, police weren't dispatched to help her until she lay dying in the station parking lot, according to records obtained Tuesday by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Olidia Kerr Day, 45, repeatedly screamed for help. But no one sent officers to try to rescue the mother of three, no one helped guide her to the police station, and no one waited for her in the parking lot, dispatch records show.

Plantation Police Chief Larry Massey said the 911 center, like other computerized dispatch centers, aims to alert officers within a minute of receiving an emergency call. Information is sent to all patrol officers and 911 center employees as soon as it's entered into the computer.

It took twice as long for the Plantation 911 center to enter the details of Day's call on April 25 into its computer system. Day already had spent another minute on the phone with Sunrise 911 operators before she was transferred to Plantation. Her total time on the phone with dispatchers was 3 minutes, 24 seconds.

Records show nothing was typed into the system until shots were fired.

"We all know that seconds save lives," Massey said. "Do I wish that the communications center personnel got it on the radio sooner? Yes."

When Day and gunman Carlos Cevallos, 48, drove into the parking lot, Officer Amy Wetzel, 28, was behind a front desk window, talking to a dispatcher and a community service aide. She ran out of the lobby with her gun drawn after she noticed the commotion outside, police said.

Cevallos chased Day across the parking lot and shot her from behind. Wetzel ordered him to drop his gun and fired two rounds but missed. Day had fallen face-first to the ground. Cevallos stood over her and shot her once more. He then turned to Wetzel, put his Bersa 9mm handgun to his temple and pulled the trigger, police said.

"I'm shocked that it's a possibility that a call could go on that long before anyone sends help," said Day's son, Edward Kerr, 24. "She does everything she can (to get help), but everything she tries fails."

Day's boyfriend, Jesus Sosa, 41, also had called 911 about the same time. He told a Plantation 911 operator that he was in his van, trying to follow Day and Cevallos, who were traveling south of Northwest 70th Avenue in separate cars.

Sosa lost sight of the two cars and hung up on the 911 operator. He then flagged down an officer. As Sosa begged the officer for help in finding Day, the officer received an alert on his police radio about the shooting in the station parking lot, police said.

The 911 center at the same time also was juggling a report of a possible abduction from the Broward Mall, according to police reports.

Day's family and some emergency services consultants have criticized the Police Department's handling of the call.

Paul Linnee, a consultant based in Minneapolis, said calls from people who are not at a fixed location are challenging, but once an operator learns where the caller may be or is headed, the call should be dispatched to officers.

"Did the call taker take all two minutes of the caller's call to try and get information out of her before telling the cops about it? If the answer to that question is 'Yes', then the call taker may have done something wrong," Linnee said of Day's case.

The signal from Day's cell phone bounced off a cell phone tower that initially routed the call to Sunrise's 911 center, even though she was driving in Plantation at the time. A Sunrise 911 operator transferred the call to Plantation, where 911 Operator Rebecca Prieto, 28, tried for about two minutes -- most of the call -- to get Day to describe her location. Prieto also asked Day whether she spoke Spanish and if she knew the man who was chasing her. Day screamed back that she wanted to know where the Police Department was, but neither operator told her.

Day reached the station on her own at 7:28 p.m.

Though Massey said he doesn't fault his department's handling of the chaotic situation, on May 8 he issued a memo to department leaders, calling for a revamp of the current training program for 911 center personnel.

"In its totality, I think we did a good job," he said. "I think the actions of the dispatcher were certainly reasonable. I'm standing behind her. I know she took a beating in the press for it, and it's unfortunate. It's a tough job."


Source (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-729flb911calls,0,3333930.story)

07-03-2008, 09:43 PM
i work for a large agency. In the 20years i have been doing this job i have yet to see money go where it is needed. Such as into the equip we utilize to allow us to help a citizen who maybe too upset to answer much needed questions. Apparently she,the vic, did know where she was for Sunrise pd to know to transfer her to plantation or she could of just presumed and asked for pl pd. In the excerpt i am responding too it never said how sn knew to give this caller to plantation bc OFTEN a citizen will ask to be transferred to the city they believe they are in and then that city will be having to clarify by asking the address or roadways where the caller is, or she could hv said rdwys she was driving and direction of travel or none of the above and only kept saying i am in plantation please get me police i am in plantation. Plantation is pretty big. When the cell phone co's can show the EXACT ADDRESS of any and all cell phone calls, that will be a beautiful day for everyone - citizens and the very grateful 911 operators who more often then not have to figure out where help is needed even though we can not see where the caller is and may have never even been in the area of where the caller is. In the centers it would be an incredible feat if we had zoned maps to show EXACT JURISDICTION for any caller that may be traveling so that when they go from one jurisdiction to another instead of flipping thru a map book the automated map wd clearly show who we have to patch caller thru too eliminating wasted moments and creating a powerful tool for a 911 operator who is trying to get thru to an upset citizen while trying to figure out where they are and who may need to be notified if caller is becoming a multi-agency situation. So money to upgrade cell phones beyond pinging and into exact locations. Money into the center for automated maps zoned for all adjoining jurisdictions. Then when things are able to work to make the 911 call takers job easier to help someone in, usually their worst moments, if we had IM -instant messaging from the 911 call operator to the police dispatcher so that when updates are being added to the call the dispatcher will have those updates pop up directly for the dispatcher to advise her responding units. This would hv been a beautiful upgrade, and perhaps a life saving one, for the Charlotte county sheriffs office. This would also be an excellent tool for when a call comes in that did not seem to be an immediate threat to anyones life, and then changed. BOOM a PoP up mesg to dispatcher attached w/the needed info would be such a help when you could be working anywhere from 30 to 100 units and goodness knows how many messages u could be getting and no time to address them and then the important msg could be one of the last. We have IM emails why not in a life or death job such as the one that 911 operators do , and do mainly efficiently and effectively, while trying to get answers from more then not ,uncooperative citizens? This would be beneficial to the 911 call takers, the police dispatcher and the units and last but not least, the CITIZENS. Put money into meeting the future. Hire people to work the 911 to whatever CAPACITY the given population REQUIRES for the 911 center to be able to truly meet the demands of its citizens. Crime is growing and these shootings are becoming all too common. We need equipment that makes our job efficient by token of the capabilities that it allows us to utilize and not just on our HOPE of the citizen knowing just where they are and what direction they are traveling. We need a 911 Center to meet the challenges of the year 3000 NOW. These type of situations, and the ever expanding populations all over the world inundate the 911 center w/mainly non-emergency calls and then when it is an emergency, right now, we can only hope the caller,who is freaking out, can tell us where they are so we can hopefully get help to them on time.

07-06-2008, 02:27 AM
Stand behind her? It sounds like she chose gossiping with the girls over doing the job in a timely fashion. I've been in the situation of having female officers come into dispatch (our bathroom was cleaner), and I never let personal conversation come first. This is unreal.