911 Makes A Bad Call
Imagine calling 911 and being told that the police will be on their way, but no one ever shows up.
On the night of Friday, February 13th, 18-year-old Ticha Fukuda of Taylorsville noticed a strange car following her. When Tisha got out of her car, the other vehicle stopped at the end of the street and came back, circling the house ten times. That’s when her sister Makenzie, age 22, called 911.
In a recording of the 911 phone call, Makenzie tells the dispatcher that the car has been circling the house for an hour or two, and Makenzie says that when someone in the car rolled down a window, her friend heard them say “That’s them.” The dispatcher told Makenzie that she would send over an officer.
But Tischa and Makenzie waited. And waited. And no one came.
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According to Lt. Justin Hoyall of the Unified Police Department, the Dispatch Office made the decision to put out an attempt to locate order concerning the suspicious car to all of the officers in the area, but somewhere along the line the important fact that the car had been circling the residence and that an officer needed to come to the house was lost. As a result, no officer ever came to the home.
Lt. Hoyall says that this was the result of a miscommunication, and that the police on duty were only told to look for the suspicious car.
“This is a very unfortunate situation, that we didn’t respond,” said Lt. Hoyall. “We have an expectation that we are going to respond to our citizens when they need our help. And we hold that very true. So we are taking steps to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
Ticha says that she has always had complete faith the reliability of 911, but now that faith has definitely been tested.
Her mother, Jennifer Gardiner, is a Gephardt Daily employee, and it is she that brought the incident to our attention.
“Based on my past, I’ve always trusted in the 911 system,” Gardiner said. “I am a little discouraged that it didn’t work this time.”
Lt. Hoyall wishes to remind citizens that it is perfectly within their right to call 911 again and ask for an expected arrival time if they feel that it is taking too long for a response from the police.
Are you confident in the 911 system? We want to hear what you think in the comments below.
