County Defends Delay to Murder Call

More information has been made available about the 911 call and police response in Lancaster (Penn.) the night of May 12, 2007 when three people were stabbed to death in their home. According to information released by Lancaster County-Wide Communications, the calltaker failed to include information there was an intruder at the home, only that a “disturbance” was occurring. County officials say that created only about a two-minute delay, which could not have prevented the murders or the escape of the suspect. Comm center officials declined to say if the calltaker had been disciplined. Comm center director Michael Weaver told a newspaper, “We have a whole process we go through, and that was taken care of through that process,” he said. “We’re not allowed to talk about personnel issues, but it was taken care of.” Weaver said it took 3 minutes 33 seconds from call-answer to dispatch because of the agency’s old computer system–since replaced, that made it extremely difficult for calltakers to gather information from those needing help and dispatch police simultaneously. “You can’t do both at the same time,” Weaver said. “It was difficult to do that. It can be done, but it’s tough.” Read the entire story, including a county commission official statement, here.