911 call taker's mistake delays police response

Elderly man beaten, robbed; police arrive 35 mins. later

Boston police acknowledged yesterday that because of a mistake by a 911 call taker, it took officers about 35 minutes to respond to an elderly man who had been beaten and robbed last month.

It was the second time in less than two months that a 911 call taker's mistake led to a long delay in a police response.

The mistake occurred when the call taker told a dispatcher that the crime was not high priority because the assailant had fled, said Elaine Driscoll, spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department.

When police arrived at the scene in Hyde Park that morning on April 20, they found the victim bleeding from his head, surrounded by concerned neighbors who had called 911 several times looking for help.

"It's quite a trauma," said the victim, a 76-year-old retired printer who asked that his name be withheld. "I couldn't understand it . . . I don't know what kind of training they give" 911 operators.

Driscoll said the call taker and the dispatcher, who forwarded the call to police, will be retrained and could be disciplined. "Unfortunately, the call taker misjudged the gravity of the situation," she said.

Driscoll said the city's 911 center, which is located in the department's headquarters, receives more than 600,000 calls a year.

"Every one of those calls presents a unique scenario," she said. "These operators at times have moments to deliberate, to determine the gravity of the situation. We're constantly helping them to sharpen their judgment and to also deliver the best possible service. That said, [Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis] is obviously dissatisfied with the response, and he wants it addressed immediately."

In March, police took 14 minutes to get to a homicide scene on Washington Street in Dorchester after a 911 call taker mistakenly sent police to the same street address in Downtown Crossing. By the time police arrived at the homicide scene, the victim, Melissa Santiago, 29, had been dead several hours. Her boyfriend was later charged with fatally stabbing her.

That error was blamed on the call taker's overreliance on a computer mapping system that immediately called up the Downtown Crossing address.

Davis said at the time that the episode showed how technology can fail in a city like Boston, where the same street address can be found in different neighborhoods.

In the most recent case, the victim said he was on his way home from Cleary Square, where he had just bought a newspaper. He was several feet from his house when a man in his 20s wearing a knee-length leather coat and green pants hit him, stole his wallet, and took $31 from his pocket.

The victim's neighbor, Paula Chasan, said his screams for help were so loud, they woke her up.

She rushed out to help and learned other neighbors already had called 911.

The call taker, who was not identified, knew the man was bleeding and needed help, but categorized the call as lower priority because the assailant was gone, Driscoll said.

The call taker should have told the dispatcher the call was a higher priority call because she knew the victim was injured, she said. The dispatcher, who took the information from the call taker, should have told the officers the case required a fast response, Driscoll said.

"The dispatcher could have caught the sense of urgency," Driscoll said.

Chasan said she believes the assailant, who has not been arrested, might have been caught had police arrived sooner.

Chasan said emergency medical technicians arrived after police came. A spokesman for Boston Emergency Medical Services, Lieutenant Chris Stratton, said EMTs respond to all medical emergencies to which they are called. They usually wait for police on calls to dangerous crime scenes.

The victim, who has lived in Hyde Park since the 1960s, was in the hospital for two days after the attack. He suffered a broken nose and a bruised jaw. His knee requires physical therapy.

Davis called him the day he left the hospital to apologize.

The victim's wife said her husband was lucky.

"If he'd had a heart attack, he might have been dead," she said.

"I've got a rainbow-colored face right now," the victim said. "It was quite a beating. But that's all right. I'll survive."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.