By Steve Thompson and Tanya Eiserer
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Dallas police officials blame dispatcher error for the 16 minutes it took an ambulance to reach an officer hurt last week during a training accident.
Sgt. Debra Echols, 47, was not seriously injured when she fell and struck her head Thursday, and she is expected to return to work Saturday. But the incident has heightened concerns among officers about delayed responses.
“They were very concerned about how long it took,” said Deputy Chief Vincent Golbeck, who heads the central patrol division where Echols is assigned.
Jason Evans, a Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman, said the typical response time for an ambulance is about three to four minutes.
At 2:51 p.m. Thursday, officers at Fair Park contacted police dispatch for an ambulance for a “training injury” at 1600 Admiral Nimitz Circle.
At 2:54 p.m., the dispatcher told the officers that the computer system would not accept that address. An ambulance was sent at 2:55 p.m. after the dispatcher input another address in the vicinity.
Minutes later, Dallas fire dispatchers contacted police to tell them rescuers were having trouble finding the officers, and a second ambulance was dispatched. An ambulance arrived at the scene at 3:07 p.m.
Police say the sign marking the 1600 block of Admiral Nimitz Circle is incorrect, and authorities plan to change it.
But even with that snag, the dispatcher should have been able to guide the ambulance there, police spokesman Lt. Andy Harvey said. Instead, the dispatcher entered the wrong numerical address for a nearby block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, causing further delay, Harvey said.
“This is not a computer issue,” he said. “It was the dispatcher who made a mistake.”
Police are investigating the dispatcher’s actions for possible discipline.