Criminal Charges For Dispatcher, Lost 911 Calls

Charleston County (SC) sheriff’s investigators have arrested a 911 center calltaker on criminal charges after they found she took at least 45 telephone calls for servie since last January, but failed to enter information for a police or medical response. The arrest is a rare response to allegations of misconduct by a public safety dispatcher in the U.S. Dezerea Shelton, 27,  was fired Sept. 5th, officials say, and now faces obstruction of justice and misconduct in office charges. She’s jailed on $40,000 bail. Comm center officials began an investigation earlier this month when a citizen complained that police never showed up when he reported a burglary in progress at a neighbor’s house. Police in Mount Pleasant said they were never notified of the incident. Logging tapes confirmed that Shelton fielded the man’s two 911 calls, but that no incident was ever entered into computer-aided dispatch (CAD) for dispatch to officers. Further investigation showed that Shelton had similarly failed to enter incidents for 45 other incidents dating back to Jan. 8th of this year. One incident was medical-related, and the others required a law enforcement response. No injuries were reported as a result of Shelton’s actions, officials said. The motive for Shelton’s inaction is unknown, officials said, and there seems to be no pattern to the types of calls she mishandled. Jim Lake, 911 center director, said supervisors are increasing their review of call reports to insure calltakers and dispatchers are properly handling telephone calls and incident dispatches. Earlier this month Detroit officials said they were considering criminal charges against two dispatcher who failed to promptly dispatch officers to critical incidents. Update: The Post and Courier newspaper did a follow-up on the situation, but no motive for Shelton’s inaction has been identified.