Investigation to Focus on Why Police Call Was Never Sent

Chief James Strillacci said he is determined to find out why a call taken by a dispatcher on Tuesday and logged into the department's computer system never made its way out to the officers in the field.

"This is definitely an anomoly," Strillacci said in a phone interview on Friday. "We're trying to figure out what happened and take corrective action."

The call in question was made to the routine line — not 911 — on Tuesday afternoon around 3 p.m. The caller was Quintana Texidor, who was upset that some teenagers had been harassing her daughter and had threatened to "air out" her house. Texidor said the boys had been seen outside her home.

Texidor talked on the three-minute call about a number of issues that were ongoing, Strillacci said, but at the end of the call, the dispatcher told her  a car would be sent out shortly.

"That call never got sent out to the officers in the field," he said.

When Texidor called back about an hour later to say that the situation had escalated, police were sent immediately, Strillacci said. As they were on their way, minutes later, police said, one of the teenagers pulled out a gun and shot the girl's cousin, who had come outside to ask them to leave, in the neck. He is expected to survive the shooting.

Strillacci said civilian dispatchers routinely handle the phone calls that come in to the department. The dispatcher takes the information, logs it into the computer system and codes it according to the action warranted, he said.

A police officer then sends the call out into the field, Strillacci said.

"Apparently, the civilian dispatcher did put it in the system, but it did not get sent," he said.

Strillacci said the call came in at about the same time as a shift change, and he is looking into whether or not that could have interfered with the transfer of information.

He also said the investigation could take some time so that all the records can be examined and all the parties interviewed.

"We're interested in thoroughness more than speed," he said.