SEATTLE — A social worker pleaded with a 911 dispatcher throughout a nearly seven-minute call to quickly get police to Josh Powell’s house after he locked himself inside with his two sons.
It took almost two minutes from the start of the call for the dispatcher to learn Powell’s address and more than three minutes to understand that the social worker was there to supervise a custody visit. Near the end of the call, she asked how long before officers could get there.
“I don’t know, ma’am,” he said. “We have to respond to emergency life-threatening situations first.”
She responded: “This could be life-threatening. … I’m afraid for their lives!”
Authorities said the call could have been handled better and that it was unfortunate for the dispatcher to leave the woman with the impression that help was not on the way. The agency that runs the call center said it would review the matter.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer said deputies appeared to have been dispatched during the call, and he did not believe the conversation caused unnecessary delays.
“Are we unhappy with the etiquette and the manner? Yes,” Troyer said. “Did it affect the response time? No. Dispatchers are typing information and addresses while they’re on the phone with callers.”
The details of the emergency calls emerged in audio recordings released by the sheriff’s office late Tuesday.
The social worker had driven the Powell boys, ages 5 and 7, from their grandparents’ home to their father’s house Sunday. Josh Powell had lost custody of the boys last fall after his father, with whom they lived, was arrested in a child-pornography and voyeurism investigation.
When she arrived, the boys ran into the house, and Powell slammed the door in her face, locking it. She called her supervisor and 911 using her cellphone.
In the first minutes of the 911 call, the woman quickly laid out the situation: “Something really weird has happened. The kids went into the house and the parent — the biological parent, whose name is Josh Powell — will not let me in the door. What should I do? … I could hear one of the kids crying.”
Nearly 20 seconds into the call, the dispatcher asked for the address, but the social worker didn’t know it and needed to look it up. Then he proceeded to question the woman repeatedly about who she was.
After getting it all straight, the dispatcher told her: “We’ll have somebody look for you there.”
Moments later, the house erupted in flames.
