I heard the operator talking about it. He just didn’t know....but 22 minutes to get someone there??? It doesn’t matter. The delay probably saved lives!!
Whose lives?
The first call came in at 12:08. I cringed while listening to Lovrak taking the call. As an experienced complaint taker he should have gotten the information together faster and transferred it to the radio dispatcher.
The dispatcher got the call at 12:13 and dispatched two Deputies at 12:16. That is an acceptable time frame to dispatch this call.
But here is the key: The first unit arrived on scene 14 minutes later and found the house already in flames. If the house had not been in flames, the Deputy would have contacted the Social Worker to confirm the circumstances but he still would have waited for the other Deputy.
In the best case scenario the call would have come in at 12:08, and dispatched at 12:10, but the first Deputy may still have not been on scene for 14 minutes. That would still have given Powell plenty of time to attack the children and set the house on fire.
The posters refer to Lovrak as a dispatcher. It is possible that if he has been there a long time that he is a dispatcher. For the purposes of this call he was the complaint taker and he transferred the call to the radio dispatcher. Many departments have their dispatch center set up with complaint takers and dispatchers. Before one can become a dispatcher one has to learn the complaint taker's job. It can be compared to the difference between an LVN and a Registered Nurse, or loosely, a paralegal to a lawyer.