Milwaukee alderman, victim of hit-and-run, seeks 911 changes
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee alderman who has fought reckless driving became the victim of a hit-and-run. He now calls for changes to the city's 911 training.
Milwaukee Alderman Lamont Westmoreland said the hit-and-run happened at 87th and Lisbon. He said the driver sped off, and he followed the car roughly 20 blocks to 68th and Lisbon to get the license plate number for the car.
"I was side-slipped by, I call him an idiot driving like a bat out of hell, or fleeing a hurricane," Westmoreland told FOX6. "He just slammed on the gas. I know without a plate number, you don’t have a shot in hell in catching this person. Ultimately, you want this person to pay for the damage they caused."
He got close enough to share the license plate number with dispatch.
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911 audio reviewed by FOX6 shows the dispatcher initially telling Westmoreland he had to go into the district police station to file a police report.
Milwaukee Alderman Lamont Westmoreland
"I’m not going to the district," Westmoreland told the dispatcher. "I am an alderman here in Milwaukee, so I do know that I don’t have to go to the district. I do know that a squad can respond to me."
"Because you are moving from where the accident occurred, if you pull over I could send officers out then, but I can not send out if you continue to follow," the dispatcher then responded.
The alderman was upset the 911 dispatcher initially didn’t give him other options besides going to the station. He could have also met officers at the scene or at his Milwaukee home.
On Monday, he questioned the city's director of emergency communications, as well as the executive director of the fire and police commission, and representatives of the Milwaukee Police Department.
"What I will say is, we don’t take appointments for an officer to go out," said emergency communications director Tony Bueno. "There’s so many things that can happen in the interim, so to expect that the call taker would take the home address would set up an expectation that's not accurate. Speaking from the call taker perspective, the best practice is to have the caller call when they are actually physically at home or where the contact is to be made."
"I would want the telecommunicator to tell you: ‘For your safety I am advising you to pull over, first and foremost,’" Milwaukee Police Department assistant chief Craig Sarnow said at the hearing. "Because I’ve seen, we’ve seen a number of these incidents turn from a hit-and-run to a road rage and to far worse."
"I think where the confusion came from my understanding of it was you were following the car so you weren’t technically at the scene of an accident, but that’s neither here nor there. You should have been given the option, ‘I can have a squad meet you at your location where you are now’ and you're an alder, you live in the city, so we could have sent somebody to your house," the assistant chief continued. "You should have been given those options."
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The alderman said he was also upset with how the call seemed to abruptly end.
"Ok, I’ll go home now," he said on the call.
The dispatcher responded, "Ok."
The alderman said the call then went to hold music featuring Frank Sinatra.
"I don’t think she hung up on you like how that term is sometimes used in the middle of the call: "They hung up on me’. I agree, she ended the call, and it would have been better if she said something to the effect of, ‘Okay, have a good day sir’ or ‘Okay, I’m ending the call now, please remember to call when you get to the location,’" Fire and Police Commission executive director Leon Todd said.
Westmoreland said he wants to make sure 911 dispatchers give future callers all their options, so victims know where they can report a crime.
The city's emergency communication leaders told the Common Council's public safety committee they would train 911 dispatchers to share those options.
The emergency communications director said the person who took the alderman's 911 call was "relatively new."
Alderman Westmoreland says he was not injured in the hit-and-run crash, but he is weighing the $500 deductible to have the dent and scratches in his car fixed.