The Dallas (Tex.) police department is investigating the handling of a 911 call from a woman who was being attacked by her ex-husband, and whose body wasn’t discovered by arriving officers who knocked on her door. Deanna Patrick’s body was found two days later by family members who broke down her door to investigate water coming from the apartment. Patricks’s sister heard a portion of the 11-minute 911 logging tape, and says her sister was screaming for her life. DPD has not released details of the incident, but sources say Patrick dialed 911 from a cellular phone, and it took nine minutes to locate her address. Then, officers dispatched to the address were not told the details of the call, the sources said, and did not investigate beyond knocking on her door. Today the police department issued a press release saying they are investigating the comm center’s handling of the incident, and are also reviewing dispatching policies and practices. They announced they’ve already added a new incident classification to their computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system for, “a disturbance involving imminent serious bodily injury or death and requires an emergency response.” In an interview with a local newspaper, the unnamed 911 calltaker said it was obvious during the 911 call that there was a disturbance, buy beyond that, “I can’t say that I knew what was going on.”
The Dallas Police Department issued this statement on August 22, 2012 about the Patrick murder incident:
Investigation of 911 Call on Crimnson Court
The Dallas Police Department continues to investigate the handling of the 911 call received from the 9300 block of Crimnson Court on August 17, 2012. This comprehensive investigation will be conducted as an Administrative Inquiry to determine if the nature of the call was sufficiently communicated through each step of the process to the responding officers and the appropriateness of their response based on the information provided. The criminal investigation of the homicide will also continue through prosecution. In order to ensure the integrity of the criminal investigation and subsequent prosecution, some results of the Administrative Inquiry may not be immediately released.
Actions have already been taken based on the preliminary review. In order to strengthen the communications between 911 call takers, police dispatchers and field officers, a new call classification has been created. A call for police service dispatched using this new classification indicates this is a disturbance involving imminent serious bodily injury or death and requires an emergency response. It increases the priority to the highest level in which a call is dispatched and authorizes field officers to respond with their emergency lights and sirens activated. A training bulletin regarding the new classification was originally issued the evening of August 20th but pulled back shortly after issuance. This was to allow time for testing to be done with the computer aided dispatch (CAD) system to ensure the new classification did not create a conflict within the system. Once the testing was complete, the training bulletin was re-released on the morning of August 21. The new classification is already in use.
The Dallas Police Department has also initiated a review of the policies, practices and procedures involved in the handling of 911 calls. To ensure a thorough review is conducted, new personnel will be assigned to the Communications Division. The new personnel will bring a fresh perspective and facilitate the implementation of any identified improvements to the Police Department’s current call taking and dispatching process.
3 comments… add one
OMG! all that info and the officers didn’t KICK the door in? How SAD, and sad for the dispatcher/s not passing on updated info to the officers. I wonder how much money City of Dallas is going to pay out for this incident? I would love to hear the entire tape. I smell a BIG settlement here, and maybe someone losing their job, and or big time suspension of those involved, dispatcher and officers.
just so people know who may not know, when you dial 911 from you cell phone, the agency, (public safety answering point), who will be receiving that 911 phone call, DOES NOT receive an actual physical address of where your calling from. The only thing it shows, is how far your calling from the nearest CELL TOWER. So with 911 Cell callers, you NEED to be calm and clearly speak your physical address as to where your location is, If you don’t know it or only a partial part of it, use landmarks, building, names of building, intersections, any other type of possible landmark and DO NOT HANG UP ON 911 OPERATOR, Stay on the phone until help arrives.
*This comment is for those that really don’t understand the Cell Phone system when it comes to dialing 911.
All of the above information would be valuable, and if they had handled the call correctly. Classifying it as a non priority call when there is obvious distress, and not giving your officers all the information they need to make the correct judgment call, then not sending a patrol to a welfare check to the same residence the following day is what is in question. I support the chief’s decision in discipline in this instance, based on the fact that the assault might not have been prevented, but aid and medical response could have made a difference in her life, and his immediate capture.
*This comment is due to the base that yes, there was a delay in police response time due to the lack of address given because the cell phone is untraceable, but the mistakes made by the dispatcher during dispatch, and following resulted in death, suspension, and loss of job.*
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