‘My wife could have been here today’
Hollywood man says she died after 911 calls went unanswered
The phone rang. And rang. And rang.
Delroy Burgess’ wife was having trouble breathing. He was getting desperate, but nobody was answering the 911 call to get help to their Hollywood home.
Burgess, a Miami Gardens Police sergeant, had a workaround when nobody answered the Broward County 911 number: He called the dispatch center for Miami Gardens, and they summoned Hollywood Fire-Rescue.
While he waited, he called Broward’s 911 again. Still nobody answered the phone.
While he waited even longer, his wife, soulmate and best friend of 34 years went limp. By the time paramedics arrived, Rocklyn Burgess, 65, had died of a heart-related ailment.
The unanswered 911 call is only the most recent example of the reoccurring failures in Broward’s troubled 911 operation — the same operation that came under fire yet again this week when a state safety commission demanded that Broward County make critical fixes to the system.
In April a Sun Sentinel investigation revealed there were thousands of unanswered 911 calls that never connected callers with the help they needed.
Now as Broward faces the prospect of being forced to turn over the system to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, some county leaders say they’ll refuse.
“This is a clear example of why we can never allow the Sheriff to take over the 911 system,” said county Commissioner Mark Bogen. “This is a clear example of the Sheriff ’s inability to run a 911 system. And the Sheriff ’s Office needs to be held accountable.
“And unfortunately there are many, many residents this is happening to. This is inexcusable. This is horrific.”
A husband desperate to save his wife
Would things have turned out differently if paramedics arrived faster? Burgess isn’t sure, but the thought haunts him.
“If they picked up the phone when I first called, my wife could have been here today, and I’ll go to my grave thinking that,” the 62-year-old widower said. “That could have been the difference between life and death.”
“I was amazed when nobody was picking up. I had to look at my phone to see if I was calling the right thing. I was shocked. I didn’t think this would be happening to me.
“It’s saddening to me. It’s been tough.”
The Broward Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday that the call was made from the Burgess home on Oct. 31 at 4:36 p.m. and 49 seconds. With no answer, the call ended at 4:37 p.m. and 42 seconds — nearly a minute later.
Officials said a 911 operator tried to call back at 4:38 p.m. and 29 seconds but didn’t get an answer. Burgess said nobody tried to call him.
Records show Burgess called 911 in Broward a second time at 4:44 p.m. and 37 seconds, and hung up at 4:45 p.m. and one second — which was about 38 seconds of the phone ringing.
The Sheriff ’s Office said a 911 operator called back a second time, which Burgess disputes.
A Fire Rescue call was created after receiving a call from Miami Gardens Police at 4:44 p.m. and 24 seconds.
Hollywood Fire Rescue arrived at at the home at 4:51 p.m. and 31 seconds — about 15 minutes after Burgess made the first 911 call.
The Sheriff ’s Office did not comment in detail Friday on the Burgess case, other than to say it met the national industry standard: “The Broward Sheriff’s Office follows the national standard of the National Emergency Number Association of 90 percent of calls answered during the busiest hour of the day within 15 seconds.”
“The Broward Sheriff ’s Office is currently reviewing the handling of the emergency calls in this incident,” spokesman Carey Codd said.
A troubled system
Broward has been in the midst of a 911 upheaval.
The regional call centers serve about 1.9 million residents in unincorporated Broward County and 29 municipalities. The county is in charge of the communications equipment, and the
Broward Sheriff’s Office, as a vendor, is in charge of the people. Only two cities, Coral Springs and Plantation, opted out of the regional plan when it was created in 2014.
But Coconut Creek joined the Coral Springs 911 system Nov. 7, and other cities have weighed their options to break away from the troubled regional system.
Coconut Creek Mayor Josh Rydell said Friday he has no regrets.
“We’ve shaved our response down by minutes,” he said. “A night-and-day difference. It’s the best decision we ever made as a city.”
In April the Sun Sentinel compiled examples of 911 calls that went unanswered.
In April two neighbors drove to a nearby fire station when 911 calls went unanswered after a house erupted in flames in Hollywood. It took 15 minutes after the first 911 calls for firefighters to arrive, but the house was fully engulfed.
For one family the result was tragic: A baby was dying, and the phone at the 911 center rang and rang and
rang. The baby, 2-month-old Keishawn Johnson Jr., died.
Also among the Sun Sentinel’s findings: 911 call centers were dangerously understaffed.
In May Sheriff Gregory Tony asked the Broward County Commission to remove itself and let the Sheriff’s Office totally manage the 911 system.
That got swift backlash, but the county did agree to give millions of dollars to the Sheriff ’s Office to increase the salaries of existing 911 workers and raise salaries as a hiring incentive to deal with the understaffing issues.
But this week the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission also demanded that the 911 system be turned over to the Broward Sheriff ’s Office, which handles the emergency calls. The reason: The Coral Springs police chief had expressed frustration with not getting cooperation from the county or the Sheriff ’s Office to improve the 911 system in the Parkland-Coral Springs area.
The Coral Springs police two years ago bought a new dispatch “hub” to resolve a two-step process that’s faced during emergencies: If a caller uses a cellphone in Parkland to dial 911, that call today is sent to the Coral Springs Police, whose operators then transfer the call to the county’s regional dispatch center.
The new computer program could potentially allow Coral Springs to dispatch the correct units immediately, and save time.
So the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission reasoned that the county needs to “get out” of the regional operation so that only one group manages the system, instead of leaving the county in charge of the equipment and the Sheriff ’s Office in charge of the personnel.
Bogen said he still refuses, now pointing to the Burgess case as proof that the 911 problem still exists. He said on Dec. 6 he will ask the County Commission “to have this taken away from the Sheriff and we find a person or organization that can properly run it.”
He disputes the MSD commission’s premise that law enforcement could run the system better:
“How could anyone ask or recommend the Sheriff ’s Office to run a 911 system when people are dying due to their inability to respond?” he said.
The state safety commission had threatened subpoenas if the county doesn’t comply.
“Let them bring the wrath,” Bogen said. “I’ll deal with them.”