Lawsuit Claims Comm Center Negligence

A lawsuit filed in federal court against Prince George’s County (Md.) claims that a county dispatcher failed to send officers in response to a 911 call reporting an auto theft, and did so “based on nothing more than the likelihood that the caller seeking assistance was African American.” Raymond Brown noticed a tow truck taking the car from his driveway in Oct. 2006, and dialed 911. The dispatcher believed the car was being repossessed, and asked him to call back within an hour, when the two company would have reported the repossession. However, Brown still believed the car was being stolen, and followed the truck, at one point confronting the driver, who fatally shot him. The family’s lawsuit says the unnamed dispatcher asked Brown about his car payments as part of a comm center practice “to screen calls regarding car thefts…from predominently African American communities.” Download (pdf) the lawsuit complaint here.