Response Time Questioned After Woman’s Murder

Police in Denver (Colo.) held a press conference last week to address questions about a 13-minute response time to an incident that ended with the murder of a woman by her husband, while she was on the phone with a police dispatcher. In addition, police have admitted that a dispatcher did not broadcast information to officers that the husband had armed himself and the woman was screaming. Instead, a patrol officer noticed the notation on his in-car laptop and broadcast the information to other responding officers. Police said the 13-minute response time was normal, and within the average Priority 1 response time for the last four years (response time info, pdf). They also said an investigation is underway on whether the radio dispatcher erred by not broadcasting critical information to officers. Kristine Kirk dialed 911 when her husband became erratic after eating legal marijuana candy. Kirk dialed 911 and an unnamed calltaker took information from her that there was a gun in the house, but it was locked in a safe. Officers were dispatched almost immediately, police said, and the calltaker stayed on the line with Kirk to update the information in the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system. After about 12 minutes Kirk told the calltaker that her husband has retrieved the handgun, and one minute later Kirk screamed and there was no further conversation. One minute later, the officer noticed the firearm notation on his laptop, and arriving officers found Kirk dead from a gunshot. Her husband was arrested and charged with murder. Read more about the incident timeline here. Update: The day after the incident, Denver officials put calltaker on administrative leave, and later changed its policy to include more incidents for a “Code 10″ emergency response. Read more about the priority code changes. A disciplinary action was begun in mid-May, and at the same time Fox31-TV reported that a recent software update may have contributed to the delayed relay of information to officers.