Dispatcher Suspended, Man Still Missing

A nine-year veteran Wood County (Wisc.) dispatcher has been suspended for 30 days without pay for mishandling a 911 call reporting a man limping along a highway in the early morning. That man, Greg Senn, was reported missing by his family later in the day, and has still not been found despite extensive searching. Dispatcher Brian Turner fielded the call (mp3) from a passerby at 6:25 a.m, but did not use an interpretation service to obtain information from the Spanish-speaking caller, and failed to send a Grand Rapids officer to investigate the man. He also failed to log the call and tell police about the call during the search and investigation, despite his position as a part-time Grand Rapids police officer. A letter of discipline (pdf) said Turner, “failed to handle the call in an appropriate manner,” but did not mention Turner’s specific errors. Comm center manager Kelly Zenz told reporters that “all aspects” of the call were considered to justify the discipline. “In that type of incident somebody should have been sent for a welfare check on that person,” he said. After serving the unpaid suspension, Turner must sign a corrective plan, and the discipline letter warned that future errors may result in termination. Turner has the right to appeal the discipline, but has not indicated if he will do so. The Senn family has criticized the discipline, saying they believe Turner should have been fired. The 911 call was revealed a month after Senn disappeared, when a police officer was questioning the 911 caller about an unrelated incident. Turner was then put on paid leave during the internal investigation that led to his discipline. Read a critical letter to the editor written before Turner was disciplined.