Crime & Safety

Did Man Shot By PD Suffer From Lack of Efficient Dispatch?

Response times may have been delayed in the case of a man shot to death by Dunwoody police.


It's too early to tell how much miscommunication was created in the shooting pf a 34-year-old Marietta man in Dunwoody because of the separate roles of DeKalb Fire and Dunwoody Police.

Both are operated by two distinct dispatch centers, a division that came about shortly after Bradley Almy was shot.

After it incorporated, Dunwoody chose to contract with Chatcomm for police emergencies.

Find out what's happening in Dunwoodywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Listen to a retellng of the transcript and acommpanying story here of the energecy call. Stay tuned for a full upload of the 911 call - as we have ben attempting to find a usable format.

Chatcomm receives all initial calls, and then manually transfers it to DeKalb call takers in the case of fire and paramedic emergencies. That adds up to 1 minute 30 seconds to a 2 minute 20 second average dispatch time, according to city officials.

Find out what's happening in Dunwoodywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The 3-minute, 50-second maximum average response for DeKalb Fire was exceeded by at least a minute and a half in Almy's case, according to dispatch records.

Based on the police dispatch logs, DeKalb fire trucks were unclear where to go in at least one case, and didn't know how to get there after a road closure in a second case.

It's unclear if fire and police talked directly on radios or only through their intermediary dispatchers, based on the Dunwoody log.

Kimberly Greer, assistant to the city manager in Dunwoody, said that the city is still working to make the dispatch centers streamlined. Asked if a unified dispatch center could have helped in this situation, Greer deferred.

"There's a separation between DeKalb and Dunwoody ... we provide certain services and they do to. We try not to duplicate."

Greer also said that Dunwoody's release of its 911 call did not detail the actions of DeKalb Fire. The department has not released its call record as of this time.


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