MILWAUKEE — A 99-year-old woman waited three hours for police after emergency dispatchers reportedly misclassified a call about an attack inside her home as a welfare check.
Two dispatchers have been placed on leave as Milwaukee’s Department of Emergency Communications reviews its response, KOLD reported.
| MORE: EMS is more than a transportation service: Why reimbursement must evolve
The city received the first call through the Life Alert emergency response system at about 5:15 a.m. on Aug. 3. Two additional calls followed. In one recording, the woman can be heard screaming for help while a man yells threats.
Police were not dispatched until three hours after the initial call.
Tony Bueno, director of the city’s newly created emergency communications department, said the first call was classified as a welfare check rather than a battery in progress. A battery-in-progress call would have received a higher response priority.
“For something like this, it’s unacceptable, and I believe that we in the department could have done better,” Bueno said.
Milwaukee police arrested a man in his 20s who is accused of breaking into the woman’s home. The woman, who lives alone, was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
The department is reviewing its internal training process following the incident.
