Another Glitch at Beleaguered Center

For the second time, questions are being raised about the handling of an incident by the Dane County (Wisc.) public safety comm center that ended with a homicide. In this latest case, two calls reporting a “noise complaint” in a Madison city park were not dispatched to officers. About 90 minutes later, police responded to the park and discovered a murder victim. Comm center officials said the two calls were classed as Priority 7, the lowest, and by policy were cancelled without a police response after one hour. But Madison police chief Noble Wray said it appeared the center had violated policy by not sending officers. The center was criticized last April after the murder of Brittany Zimmermann, when officers weren’t dispatched to a 911 hang-up call from her apartment. She was later found murdered. Read about the latest incident, listen to the logging tapes here, and decide if the dispatcher asked all the necessary questions, if the call was properly prioritized, and if the “delete after 1 hour” procedure makes sense. Read another article and the county administrator’s orders here.