When the Laramie County Combined Communication Center experienced problems early Wednesday morning with its administrative and 911 phone lines, resulting in a busy signal for incoming callers, it posted an alert to the public on its Facebook page.
The 4:43 a.m. post was brief, and the advice to those with emergencies was surprising.
“If there is any emergency, please locate an officer on the street, or head to the Cheyenne Police Department at 415 W. 18th St.,” the post read. “We will update you when the phone lines are back up and running.”
As it turns out, that's not the right policy.
The Cheyenne Police Department later clarified that the message was posted by an overnight officer who was authorized to access the social media account but the messaging was faulty.
“The information posted contained an error and was corrected at 5:39 a.m.," the statement says.
Going out and finding an officer on the street is not standard procedure.
"To clarify, the Cheyenne Police Department does not expect the public to locate an officer or travel to the station in an emergency,” the statement says. "Standard procedure in the event of a phone outage is for calls to be rerouted to a neighboring dispatch center."
The agency referred any further questions to the communication center, which didn’t respond to an inquiry.
That's Not The Plan
The advice sparked outrage, criticism, and confusion from area residents who chided the dispatch center for its apparent lack of a contingency plan to address such emergencies.
Some wondered where in the world they would find a police officer in the middle of the night, and others said it was fortunate that many Laramie County residents are armed and prepared to take matters into their own hands if need be.
Kathy Scigliano, a real estate agent and past Laramie County Commission candidate, lampooned the announcement.
“If someone is breaking in make sure you run out the back door and try to find an officer on the street,” she commented, followed by a crying laughing emoji. “Good thing most of us have guns in our homes. Good lord.”
Sharon Patterson-Perriton also saw the humor in the advice.
“Locate an officer on the streets?” she commented. “Hahahaha just flag one down hahaha."
At 11:25 a.m. Wednesday, the communications center updated its post stating that the phone outage had been fixed.
‘Doesn’t Seem Like Common Sense'
Frank Groth, a retired police officer in Gillette who spent about 25 years with law enforcement agencies in the San Francisco Bay area, said he has never seen an emergency communication plan that includes a policy of instructing residents to go out and look for a police officer if a 911 emergency dispatch system goes down.
“That doesn’t seem like common sense to me,” he said, adding that such a policy is futile. “How big is Laramie County? Deputies and police officers could be anywhere.”
Dispatch centers should have at least two analog phone lines to accept 911 calls if main phone lines go down, Groth said.
He added that the Laramie County dispatch center’s recommendation for people to go to the Cheyenne Police Department headquarters in the event of an outage is reasonable, provided that at least two officers are on duty in the lobby, especially if the emergency happens in the middle of the night.
Scott Schwebke can be reached at scott@cowboystatedaily.com.
