3 Face Firing Over Mishandled 911 Calls in Boy’s Beating Death

Officials in this city will move to fire three 911 operators and will discipline four others for mishandling calls from residents on the night a teen-ager was beaten to death on the steps of a church, the mayor said Monday.

Transcripts of the 911 calls made Nov. 11, the day 16-year-old Eddie Polec was beaten, show operators grew impatient with some callers and waited about 40 minutes after the first of 20 calls to send police.

Police responded within five minutes.

Mayor Edward G. Rendell said that of 11 operators on duty that night, three will be suspended with intent to dismiss, three will be suspended and transferred and one will be referred to a disciplinary board for a hearing.

“They are being suspended for abusive and rude responses to callers,” the mayor said. “That is unacceptable.”

Polec was attacked by up to 20 teen-agers swinging baseball bats, and died in a hospital the next day of a fractured skull. Five young men have been charged with murder. The attack followed a false rumor that someone from Polec’s neighborhood in Philadelphia had raped a girl from suburban Abington.

The mayor has appointed a committee to come up with recommendations for improving the 911 system. He said more police supervisors will be added to the operation.

Ronald Mauldin, a union official, said the operators and dispatchers were being made scapegoats.

The mayor “is blaming the equipment and the lack of supervision. The real problem is a lack of training,” Mauldin said.

Mauldin said the call-takers get five to seven days’ training, most of it on the job.

“That’s not enough. Years ago, you had to know X amount of streets, churches and playgrounds, certain areas of the city. Now, all you need is a 12th-grade education and be able to type,” he said.