“Dear PoPville,
(Wed. July 31st) I was part of a group that witnessed a mentally ill woman scream at, follow, threaten, and then physically attack a random woman and her dog outside Bundy Dog Park in Shaw. I and another witness called 911 while it was happening and (after being on hold for several minutes) were assured police and an ambulance were on their way. No emergency services ever arrived in response to our 911 calls. The perpetrator just walked away.
After a half hour had passed, another witness called 911 back and was told they had no record of a dispatch or any information about the incident. A couple minutes later we flagged down an MPD patrol car. Had he not just happened to be passing by, the victim would have received no assistance whatsoever.
I can only think of 2 explanations for what happened tonight – either the crime was relayed to emergency services and they chose not to respond, or the 911 center never actually dispatched anyone. In any other city, this total lack of emergency response would be front-page news, but this seems to have become just part of living in DC. Is it too much to ask that when we call for help, someone actually responds?
Update since my original email: In response to an inquiry from my ANC Commissioner, the Office of Unified Communications said they sent EMS to a nearby cross-street where they spoke with a person who stated they didn’t need an ambulance or police (none of us know who this was, but it wasn’t the victim). The 911 call center then tried to call one of us back, and when they didn’t pick up OUC cancelled MPD, without anyone even driving by the actual scene of the crime where the victim was waiting. OUC blamed the “delayed” response on “how separated the parties involved were,” by which we presume they mean it was too much effort to have someone check out the reported location of the crime less than a block away from whoever EMS spoke to.”