Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Child Taken In Carjacking; Police Response Delay Blamed On "Busy" Radio Channel

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 19:50:55 -0400

Child Taken In Carjacking; Police Response Delay Blamed On "Busy" Radio
Channel
911 Call Leads To Frustration, Delayed Response
POSTED: 6:35 pm EST March 30, 2004

MIAMI -- Police are investigating how a
child taken away during a carjacking ended
up being reunited with her mother before
police could even respond.

Stefanie Grife said she pulled over to
the side of the road on the
afternoon of March 14 and got out
to help her carsick son when a man
jumped in and drove off with her
daughter, 5-year old Shayna, in the
backseat

A man, who was nearby pumping
gas, called 911 for Grife.

911 Operator: "Police -- do you have an emergency?"

Man: "Some lady just got carjacked. Her baby is in the back of the car."

911 Operator: "Sir -- sir -- where is the lady? Tell her to come on and
give me the address."

Man: "I'm on the corner of 61st street and Biscayne Boulevard in the
Chevron."
Now 12 seconds into the call, the operator knows a child is gone and the
location, but no officer is on the way.

Man: "She's going crazy."

911 Operator: "She needs to calm down so we can get some help.
What kind of car are you driving?"

Man: "She has a 2003 white Expedition."
Grife: "Oh my God!"

911 Operator: "How old is the baby?"
Grife: "She's 5. Oh my God!"

32 seconds into the call, the operator now has a car model and tag
number, but there is still no officer on the way.
At a gas station nine blocks away, Shayna got help.

Man on phone: "Oh -- they found the little girl!" (Grife is heard
screaming in the background.)
Shayna later told Local 10, "I hit him (the carjacker) and said, 'Get
out of the car. It's my mom's car.' He stopped and pushed me out."

For Shayna and her mother the story had a happy ending, but for police,
it is not over yet.
Miami police have reviewed the call, and say that busy police airwaves
prevented the operator from getting the dispatcher's attention.

"The call was not dispatched," Lt. Bill Schwartz said. "Ideally there
should have been somebody on the way. However, because the air was busy,
it didn't go out. It's regrettable, but it didn't."

Police procedures indicate that time lapse is a No. 1 consideration, and
the first two to five minutes are critical.
Local 10 asked Schwartz if the incident needs to be looked at and
something needs to change.
"Oh, absolutely," Schwartz said. "I think just the attention you're
giving us here will make us look at this, of course."
The Grifes' car was recovered, but the carjacker is reportedly still on
the loose.

http://www.local10.com/news/2961996/detail.html

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