Police to retrain 911 call takers

Dept. expedites effort after error delays response

Tom Witt, a dispatcher in the call center at Boston police headquarters in Roxbury, handled calls yesterday. (John Bohn/Globe Staff)

Boston police supervisors will start listening in on more 911 calls and retrain all of the department's emergency call takers and dispatchers, officials said yesterday, one day after they acknowledged that an operator's mistake delayed the police response to an elderly man who had been beaten and robbed.

About 100 call takers and dispatchers will be retrained in the coming weeks on several aspects of the job, including how to categorize calls, so police can ascertain the urgency of the calls, verify the addresses of emergencies and crimes, and handle stress.

The course had been scheduled to take place over the next several months, but was expedited after the bungled call, police said yesterday.

The announcement followed a report in yesterday's Globe that a 911 operator mistakenly told a dispatcher that the robbery on April 20 was not high priority because the suspect had fled. The call taker knew, however, that the 76-year-old victim was bleeding and needed help. Police arrived 35 minutes after the first 911 call.

It was the second time in two months that a mistake by a call taker delayed the response. In March, police took 14 minutes to arrive at a homicide scene in Dorchester after the call taker, who was relying on the 911 computerized-mapping system, sent officers to the wrong address.

"It is a human system, backed by technology, but it's still a human system," Superintendent in Chief Robert Dunford said yesterday during a news conference at police headquarters in Roxbury.

"Mistakes will occur," he said. He also praised the employees and officers of the department.

"They absolutely do the best job they possibly can," Dunford said.

A couple of days after the assault, both Commissioner Edward F. Davis and Dunford called and apologized to the victim, a retired printer who asked to be identified only by his first name, Jim.

Dunford said he told the victim and his wife there would be a review of what went wrong.

"They are really nice people, very understanding," he said. "They were concerned and they should be."

Jim and his wife, who is 65, said they were pleased there would be changes to the system.

"That's fantastic," Jim said.

"That's a step in the right direction," his wife said. Jim "just doesn't want it to happen to anyone else."

Dunford said the problem with the 911 operation, which is located at police headquarters, is not systematic, but the operation should be improved.

"We try to learn from what took place and make the system better," Dunford said.

The public, he said, "should expect police to respond expeditiously."

Sergeants and lieutenants, who usually tap into high-priority calls and listen to how operators field calls, will listen to even more of them. Deputy superintendents and superintendents also will make sure call takers are following proper procedures.

Department officials also will research 911 call centers around the country to find out their practices and whether Boston should adopt them.

The call taker and the dispatcher involved in the April 20 call will be immediately retrained and reprimanded, Dunford said.

Police officials said the dispatcher, who received the information about the victim's condition from the call taker, should have told police heading to the scene that the call was urgent.

The call was high priority, Dunford said, because "the person was injured, and there was a likelihood that the perpetrator was still in the area."

The suspect, described as a man in his late 20s wearing green pants and a black, knee-length leather jacket, has not been arrested.

He beat the victim with a blunt object, then stole his wallet and $31 from his pocket, leaving the victim with a broken nose, a bruised jaw, and an injured knee.

Davis, in a statement yesterday, again apologized to the victim, calling the case "troubling."

"Our community members deserve and require exemplary 911 service," Davis said.

"Rest assured that the Boston Police Department is taking every step necessary to ensure that individuals in crisis receive efficient, timely, and customer-friendly police response."

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