911 delay hampered search for missing Calgary boy Parker Wells, review finds
Calgary's 911 operators broke protocol, delaying police notification by 48 minutes in the search for Parker Wells, an 11-year-old with autism who was later found dead.
911 operators broke protocol before search for Parker Wells began
Calgary's 911 centre failed to follow established procedures on the morning Parker Wells disappeared, delaying the police alert by nearly an hour, according to a city review reported by globalnews.ca.
Parker, an 11-year-old non-verbal boy with autism, walked away from his north Calgary day home on the morning of July 16. The first call from the day home came in at 10:53 a.m., but police were not alerted until 11:41 a.m. — 48 minutes later.
Iain Bushell, the city's head of emergency management, confirmed the lapse in a statement issued Tuesday.
"Established procedures were not followed, resulting in a delay in how certain information was acted on," Bushell said. "That delay did not meet the standard of service we expect."
Operator had enough information, review concludes
The city review found that the 911 operator who received the initial call did not flag it as an emergency. The day home had not formally listed Parker as missing at that point, but the review determined that the operator had sufficient information to notify police regardless.
"The supervisor should have more fully considered the totality of available information, specifically the child's age and the inability of day home staff to locate the child," the review stated.
A 911 supervisor reviewed that first call shortly after it came in and also failed to act. When the day home called back roughly 30 minutes later to formally report Parker missing, the alert finally went out — but the window of those critical early minutes had already passed.
Bushell said disciplinary action has been taken against the employees involved, but declined to provide specifics citing privacy rules. He added that 911 staff "feel the weight of that responsibility" when calls end in tragedy.
Two-week search ends in grief
Parker's disappearance drew an outpouring of effort from across the city. Hundreds of police officers and volunteers searched homes, boats, sheds, garages and waterways over the course of two weeks. The search was complicated by Parker's neurological condition — officers were warned that direct confrontation with strangers could frighten him. Patrol vehicles played his favourite Disney songs in an attempt to draw him out, and some searchers left out Goldfish crackers.
After two weeks with no sign of the boy, the search was called off. The following day, one of Parker's shoes was discovered near a culvert. His body was subsequently found in a network of pipes beneath the north end of the Deerfoot Trail expressway, roughly three kilometres from the day home where he had last been seen.
A makeshift memorial of flowers, stuffed toys and candles grew beside a footbridge near the site in the days that followed.
Changes to 911 and Amber Alert criteria under review
The City of Calgary has since implemented a series of changes to its 911 operations, including additional supervisors, more frequent spot reviews and updated training. Bushell said the city is "committed to strengthening our processes and ensuring our employees have the support, training and tools they need to serve Calgarians effectively."
Parker's case has also renewed calls to reform Canada's Amber Alert system. Amber Alerts are typically reserved for children believed to have been abducted and in serious danger; in Parker's case, one was issued only as a special exemption and not until the second day of the search. The Alberta government has since announced it is reviewing the criteria for issuing such alerts.
Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)