Delayed Response Just One Problem With Dallas 911

Most of us would consider a shooting at a Dallas office building to be an emergency. Attorney Pete Schulte, a former police officer, did. When bullets were fired through his sixth floor office window, Schulte called 911.
The shots were fired at about 3:00 p.m. on Friday, November 30, on Central Expressway near Fitzhugh Avenue. At least two rounds were fired.
When Schulte called 911, he made sure to request immediate assistance. However, it took more than an hour for an officer to come to the scene. Schulte said a responding officer told him that his call was categorized by the dispatch center as criminal mischief, a low priority crime.
Several officers and a detective apologized for the mistake, saying that the call got coded incorrectly. Schulte believes his call should have been classified as highest priority.
The Dallas Police Department has not made a statement about the incident.

Commentary.

This is just the latest of a number of mistakes for the Dallas 911 system. Other recent mistakes include two Texas wrongful deaths caused by 911 errors.
Last month, a man died when EMTs failed to respond to a phone call regarding a drug overdose. In that incident, two separate 911 emergency calls were made from the same apartment complex within minutes of each other—EMTs incorrectly concluded that the two calls were about the same incident.
Before that, in August, a woman was strangled while talking to the 911 dispatcher. The woman told the dispatcher that her ex-husband was assaulting her, but the dispatcher did not tell police that the call was high priority. The dispatcher has resigned.