Dallas police confirm a family waited 7 hours for officers to respond to what the family described as a life-threatening mental health call. 온라인카지노사이트 5 Investigates shows how city leaders are addressing alarming police response times.
Police confirm that a Dallas family waited nearly seven hours for officers to respond after reporting what the family described as a life-threatening emergency.
When you need them, you expect the police to show up quickly. Jodie Trevino told 온라인카지노사이트 5 Investigates that when that moment arrived for her and her son Alec, the Dallas Police Department dropped the ball.
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"I was in hysterics. I was crying. I was ... anxiety. I mean, you can imagine," Jodie said.
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Jodie's son, Alec, had a mental health crisis and called his mom at work to say he was considering taking his life.
"I didn't know what to do. I'll be honest, I really didn't know what to do," Alec recalled.
Alec called 911 and then called his mother to say police officers hadn't shown up. Jodie urged her son to take an anxiety medication and then she headed home.
"I was in a panic. I was in a panic. I was stressed out," Jodie said. "I had no idea what to expect when I walked in the door."
This is unacceptable. I've had respect for y'all. Y'all just lost all of our respect.
Jodie Trevino, referring to the Dallas Police Department
Fortunately, Alec was OK, but it wasn't until nearly seven hours later that a police officer finally knocked on their front door.
Dallas police told 온라인카지노사이트 5 Investigates the call for help was received at 1:01 p.m. and the first officers arrived at the home at 7:55 p.m.
"I said, 'This is unacceptable.' I said, 'I've had respect for y'all.' I said, 'Y'all just lost all of our respect,'" Jodie said.
The Trevino family is not the only one raising concerns. As 온라인카지노사이트 5 Investigates has reported the Dallas Police Department often exceeds its own goals for response times on some calls, not just by minutes but by hours. In the Northeast Patrol Division, where Jodie and Alec live, the average response time in April for urgent Priority 2 calls was more than three hours, at 203 minutes. The police department's goal for a Priority 2 call is 12 minutes.
Across the city, even the most life-threatening Priority 1 emergency calls are averaging 11 minutes for an officer to arrive. That's a response time three minutes longer than the goal of eight minutes for the most urgent calls.
In some parts of the city, response times have averaged 15 minutes this year, nearly twice the target response time.
"We're seeing it going the wrong direction. And so, every month we're looking at it, I want to see it start moving in the right direction," said Dallas City Councilmember Gay Donnell Willis, who sits on the city's Public Safety Committee that oversees the Dallas Police Department.
Willis wants police to examine not only how decisions are made about dispatching police officers, but also what happens when too many officers are sent to a single call and whether officers are being redirected to other incidents quickly enough.
"I think we need to understand what that protocol is and if it needs to be changed," Willis said.
온라인카지노사이트 5 Investigates questioned the department's current protocol and spent days and nights watching how Dallas police responded to calls in real time.
In one instance, an officer working a call on Greenville Avenue asked for assistance, and 11 other units were assigned to that location. Law enforcement experts said a heavy response may be needed initially, depending on the type of call, but once it's under control, officers need to be rapidly cleared from the scene and made available to respond to other calls to keep them from backing up.
"If they can be released, they need to be released so they get back out on patrol to serve us," Willis said.
Willis revealed the city is considering adding police patrol stations to see if it would help reduce response times.
"We probably need at least one more, maybe two. We're 350 square miles in Dallas. And so it makes sense to look at. Do we have the right number of patrol stations?" Willis said.
In an interview two weeks ago the city's new chief of police, Daniel Comeaux, said he planned to look into the slow response times and also work on the city's goal of hiring hundreds of police officers.
"I'm gonna look at everything and we're gonna try to make everything better for Dallas," Comeaux said.
While increasing the number of officers on the street may help reduce response times, Comeaux said they're also going to examine where officers are positioned and what divisions they work in.
"We're going to figure out how to make things better. We're gonna work really hard at that," Comeaux said.
Meanwhile, Jodie filed a complaint in October asking police to investigate the response time to her son's call for help.
"I could have lost my son because of this," Jodie said.
온라인카지노사이트 5 Investigates asked Dallas police why it took so long for officers to respond to Alec's call. A spokesperson told us that, "At the time of this incident, all available officers were assigned to other calls with multiple calls still holding … We understand the community’s concerns about response times, and we are actively working on solutions, including better resource deployment, targeted recruitment and hiring efforts."
The Trevino family said they hope the new chief will be able to get response times sorted out so that people don't have to wait too long for help to arrive, leaving people waiting hours when minutes can matter.
"When we need help, we need help," Alec said.
Tell us about your experience
If you have found yourself waiting for police to arrive, and can safely send us photos, videos, or information, we would like to hear from you at: iSee@Leathernavigator.com. We want to know more about what's happening in your neighborhood as we continue to track this problem.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at -- callers will be connected with trained counselors available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also visit for additional support.
