State Senator questions 911 response time after breaking up burglary attempt

State Senator questions 911 response time after breaking up burglary attempt

November 17, 2006

By SONU WASU
6 News Reporter

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- It took 15 minutes and two phone calls to 911 to get deputies to respond to an emergency call made by State Sen. Tim Burchett as he broke up a burglary attempt at gunpoint. Now he questions why it took so long for deputies to arrive. 

Burchett had been staking out his warehouse on Amherst Road after it was broken into several times. He was hiding in the brush when he saw the thieves and called 911.

As he did, a deputy was parked across the street.

Knox County's Director of 911 services, Bob Corker, allowed 6 News cameras inside the Emergency Services dispatch center to show how dispatchers operate.

The dispatchers answered about 660,000 calls for help last year. That breaks down to about 1,800 calls a day.

Wednesday morning, Burchett's call was one of them. On the phone he tells the dispatcher, "Hey I can't talk right now. There's somebody breaking in my work right now."

Burchett says while holding the phone to his ear, he crawled on all fours through the thick brush toward the thieves.

When deputies did not get there, he says he decided to take matters in his own hands and told the dispatcher he was going to stop the thieves.

He put the phone down and ran toward the suspects with a 9MM. On the 911 recording, he can be heard yelling, "Hold it right there! Nobody move!"

Burchett then picked up his phone, and with the gun still pointed at the four teenage suspects, he told the dispatcher he was taking them to a nearby business and to send the deputies there.

He fed the suspects cookies while they waited for authorities to arrive. Ten minutes later, he called 911 again.

Burchett tells the dispatcher, "Hey, I just called 911 about 10 minutes ago. Somebody broke into my shed. I have not yet seen a deputy down here."

The Director of 911 services Bob Coker explains how they prioritize calls. "If there's imminent threat of loss of life and on almost all of in-progress calls, those calls are immediately transferred."

Burchett says this was obviously a crime in progress. He sat down with 6 News and listened to the 911 tape again. "I'm thinking this is totally ridiculous and it's not acceptable. I'm thinking the system has failed."

Burchett feels the fault does not lie with the 911 dispatch center. He says the lady answering the phone did her job.

Records show the call was dispatched from 911 to the sheriff's office exactly one minute and four seconds after his first call.

Now Burchett has some serious questions for the sheriff's office. "Where the heck were they? Why am I waiting?"

The sheriff's office did not return 6 News phone calls seeking comment on this report.