DISPATCHER PUNISHED FOR IGNORING CALL

MARBLE HILL -- A call for help that was dismissed by a dispatcher at the Bollinger County Sheriff's Department this week has prompted the sheriff to "lay down the law" to department employees.

The dispatcher has been put on probation, said Sheriff Dan Mesey, who called the episode an unfortunate mistake, and warned: "If he makes this one again, he's in the unemployment line."

The call came at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday from Doug Brune, a resident of Patton. Brune had heard some noises outside his home and feared a burglar was trying to break in. But the dispatcher decided the call wasn't serious enough to warrant alerting the deputy on duty, Mesey said.

As result, it was 10 hours before anyone in the department was sent to Brune's home.

Brune said he and his wife had just gone to bed and turned out the lights when he heard someone jiggle the back door to his home and slam the door to his truck, which was parked behind his house. He grabbed his gun. After inspecting the area, he called the Sheriff's Department.

"He (the dispatcher) more or less put it off, like somebody was looking for a place to sleep," Brune said. "When you've got your wife and baby in the house, you get concerned."

Mesey said he found out about the incident when he reported to work at 6:30 a.m. Thursday. He called Brune and immediately sent a deputy to Brune's home. The deputy arrived about 7:30 a.m., Brune said. There were no signs of entry into the home, Brune said, and nothing was missing.

Still, Mesey said: "We had an extremely serious situation and we won't tolerate it. Dispatchers are to send out a deputy on every call."

Mesey said the dispatcher may have dismissed the call because it used to be accepted procedure to do so.

"They've done these things in the past," Mesey said, "and he may have never been taught any different."

Mesey, who was elected sheriff three weeks ago, said dispatchers used to be allowed to "evaluate" a call themselves. Under that policy, it was up to the dispatcher whether to alert a law enforcement officer as to a possible crime.

"It shouldn't be up to the dispatcher who's sitting 20 miles away; you ask any sheriff that," he said. Mesey said he has since "made it known in no uncertain terms that this won't be tolerated."

Mesey said the deputy on duty at the time of the call, Jerry Benfield, knew nothing of the incident.

Mesey said he called the department's three dispatchers together Thursday morning to explain the new procedures. Mesey said he didn't know that dispatchers had routinely evaluated emergency calls in the past.

He said he found out the practice had been going on for more than 10 years, and he was told it was because of the department's lack of manpower.

"It's literally like starting a brand new sheriff's department," he said.

Brune said he felt Mesey handled the situation well. "He felt really bad about it. And he gave me his home phone number and told me to call him at home if it ever happens again. You know a man is serious when he gives you his home phone number.

"The main thing is nobody got hurt and nothing was stolen."

Brune said he had voted for Mesey for sheriff, and Wednesday night had wondered if he'd done the right thing.

"It's like my wife said to me, `What good is the law up here if they don't come out?'"

But Brune said by Thursday morning, his confidence in the department and Mesey was restored.

"I think the man is really trying, and from the way I understand it, it wasn't his fault," Brune said.

Burglaries are the most common felony crimes in Bollinger County, Mesey said, with an average of three such crimes a month.

"Compared to Cape, that's nothing, but to us that's pretty doggone important," he said.

He said many of the houses in the county are in rural areas where the nearest neighbor may be miles away.

"That makes it a somewhat easier crime to get away with," he said. Mesey said people should call the sheriff's department even if they are merely suspicious of someone or some situation.

"Even if we don't find anything, that's our job. I want people to call all the time, even if it turns out to be nothing," he said.

A dispatcher training session was planned for Thursday night, he said.