Problems With Dialing 911

When Maria Navarro called 911 (“4 Women Killed When Gunman Invades Party,” Part 1, Aug. 29) and, in a fairly calm voice, asked for help because her estranged husband was coming to shoot up her birthday party, the Sheriff’s Department dispatcher acted according to procedure and turned her down because there was no immediate threat. About 15 minutes later, Navarro and three others were dead or dying.

How many sheriff’s units at that time were having coffee or on routine investigations and could have been diverted without any loss of department effectiveness? Granted, about half the calls received on 911 are pranks or inappropriate. Why not modernize the screening rules to rule out some calls and respond to others if resources are, in fact, available?

First, this did not sound like a prank call. The screener could have validated Navarro’s identity by some combination of cross-checking her number and calling her back. Pranksters don’t call from their own homes because their addresses and phone number are flashed on the 911 screen. Without much more effort, the screener could have checked Ramon Navarro and found that he had a record. With still less effort, the screener could have checked general availability of units for dispatch.

With all our computing power and logic devices such as “decision trees,” law enforcement agencies should be able to move past the Cro-Magnon age of over-simplified policies. Even the cop on the street will have access to this power someday.

BOB HOLLIDAY

Santa Monica

The writer worked on computerized patrol allocation models for the New York police.