Txbroadcaster
04-18-2008, 04:56 PM
About 4:30 on Monday afternoon, someone stole a truck full of lawn mowers from a street in East Oak Cliff.
Tom Thompson called 911: "We just had a truck stolen on Overton Road."
Mr. Thompson and his wife own Antebi Landscaping. They had just received a call over a two-way radio from one of their drivers. A thief was taking off with the crew's 40-foot box truck. They ran after it, but couldn't catch it.
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Audio: First 911 call for help
Audio: Second 911 call for help
For the next several minutes Mr. Thompson would try to convince a 911 operator to send police after the truck, only to be told that, first, an officer would have to come out in person and take a stolen-car report.
"Can you go chase the truck?" Mr. Thompson asked. "Can we get the police to chase the truck? I don't need a report. Can you get me the police department?"
"We take calls for police here, sir," the 911 operator replied. "In order for police to do that there has to be an initial report."
"OK, what do you can I give them the report?"
"They'd have to come out and meet with you in person."
"Oh my God, you mean they've got my truck, they're driving down the road, and nobody's going to go get him?"
"Sir, before they can do anything, you have to make an initial report."
"OK, I'm trying to. What do you want me to do?"
"OK, what is the address where police can meet with you?"
And so it went. After they hung up, Mr. Thompson's wife, Bella Antebi, called 911 back and spoke with a different operator. She got a similar response.
"I was so frustrated, I felt like just moving out of Dallas," Ms. Antebi said this week. "Just like, you know, I'll move my headquarters someplace else, and I'll pay taxes elsewhere."
The 911 call center is run by Dallas Fire-Rescue. When they receive a call concerning a police matter, the call takers send the information to police dispatchers.
Dallas police say that, generally, reports of stolen vehicles must be taken by officers in person, but that police dispatchers often do broadcast descriptions of vehicles that have just been stolen. That way, the responding officer or other officers in the area can keep a lookout for it.
"The dispatcher has the ability to say, Hey, we just got a report of a white, 18- wheeler going down Main Street; if anybody sees it, stop it,'" police spokesman Lt. Vernon Hale said.
But in this case, Dallas police say they received the information as a low-priority call, and no description was broadcast by police dispatchers.
It was unclear Friday whether police or fire personnel are responsible for assigning call priorities, but Fire-Rescue spokesman Lt. Joel Lavender said the 911 call takers handled it appropriately.
Since the 911 call came from someone who was not at the scene of the theft, he said, it would have been inappropriate for the call takers to grant it more urgency.
"It just sounds like it was an unfortunate situation," he said. "However, the 911 call taker did handle the phone call properly."
As Ms. Antebi was making the second of the two 911 calls Monday, the thief in the 40-foot truck was still less than three miles away from the scene of the theft. As he came around a corner in a neighborhood, he sideswiped a 4-door Mitsubishi and kept going.
The Mitsubishi's driver a mother, who had her two boys and their grandmother in the car followed the truck to get its tag number. Then the thief realized he was being chased.
"He got mad and just stopped in the middle of the street, put it in reverse and just ran into us," said the grandmother, 52-year-old Wanda Dawson.
The car's front windshield was broken in the impact, the glass cutting Ms. Dawson's forehead.
Soon after that crash, the thief drove the truck into a home's fence, bailed out and ran. A resident came out of his home to find the truck still moving. He jumped into the driver's seat and shifted it into park.
Police officers were dispatched to the crash at 4:45 p.m. They did not catch the thief. An officer was dispatched to take the stolen-car report at 5:21 p.m.
Tom Thompson called 911: "We just had a truck stolen on Overton Road."
Mr. Thompson and his wife own Antebi Landscaping. They had just received a call over a two-way radio from one of their drivers. A thief was taking off with the crew's 40-foot box truck. They ran after it, but couldn't catch it.
Also Online
Audio: First 911 call for help
Audio: Second 911 call for help
For the next several minutes Mr. Thompson would try to convince a 911 operator to send police after the truck, only to be told that, first, an officer would have to come out in person and take a stolen-car report.
"Can you go chase the truck?" Mr. Thompson asked. "Can we get the police to chase the truck? I don't need a report. Can you get me the police department?"
"We take calls for police here, sir," the 911 operator replied. "In order for police to do that there has to be an initial report."
"OK, what do you can I give them the report?"
"They'd have to come out and meet with you in person."
"Oh my God, you mean they've got my truck, they're driving down the road, and nobody's going to go get him?"
"Sir, before they can do anything, you have to make an initial report."
"OK, I'm trying to. What do you want me to do?"
"OK, what is the address where police can meet with you?"
And so it went. After they hung up, Mr. Thompson's wife, Bella Antebi, called 911 back and spoke with a different operator. She got a similar response.
"I was so frustrated, I felt like just moving out of Dallas," Ms. Antebi said this week. "Just like, you know, I'll move my headquarters someplace else, and I'll pay taxes elsewhere."
The 911 call center is run by Dallas Fire-Rescue. When they receive a call concerning a police matter, the call takers send the information to police dispatchers.
Dallas police say that, generally, reports of stolen vehicles must be taken by officers in person, but that police dispatchers often do broadcast descriptions of vehicles that have just been stolen. That way, the responding officer or other officers in the area can keep a lookout for it.
"The dispatcher has the ability to say, Hey, we just got a report of a white, 18- wheeler going down Main Street; if anybody sees it, stop it,'" police spokesman Lt. Vernon Hale said.
But in this case, Dallas police say they received the information as a low-priority call, and no description was broadcast by police dispatchers.
It was unclear Friday whether police or fire personnel are responsible for assigning call priorities, but Fire-Rescue spokesman Lt. Joel Lavender said the 911 call takers handled it appropriately.
Since the 911 call came from someone who was not at the scene of the theft, he said, it would have been inappropriate for the call takers to grant it more urgency.
"It just sounds like it was an unfortunate situation," he said. "However, the 911 call taker did handle the phone call properly."
As Ms. Antebi was making the second of the two 911 calls Monday, the thief in the 40-foot truck was still less than three miles away from the scene of the theft. As he came around a corner in a neighborhood, he sideswiped a 4-door Mitsubishi and kept going.
The Mitsubishi's driver a mother, who had her two boys and their grandmother in the car followed the truck to get its tag number. Then the thief realized he was being chased.
"He got mad and just stopped in the middle of the street, put it in reverse and just ran into us," said the grandmother, 52-year-old Wanda Dawson.
The car's front windshield was broken in the impact, the glass cutting Ms. Dawson's forehead.
Soon after that crash, the thief drove the truck into a home's fence, bailed out and ran. A resident came out of his home to find the truck still moving. He jumped into the driver's seat and shifted it into park.
Police officers were dispatched to the crash at 4:45 p.m. They did not catch the thief. An officer was dispatched to take the stolen-car report at 5:21 p.m.