Police sent to wrong locations in 2 incidents

The decision by the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office to withdraw from the Salt Lake Valley's busiest dispatch center and offer its own 911 service comes on the heels of emergency personnel being sent to wrong addresses in two recent high-profile cases.

Sheriff Jim Winder, speaking specifically to one of the incidents, said the mistakes did not directly have an impact on his decision.

"(The fire) happened after we had already made our decision," Winder said. "But it validates some of our concerns."

Authorities stress they don't believe the ultimate outcomes would have been any different if they had been sent to the right addresses the first time. And officials at the Valley Emergency Communications Center said both cases have been investigated to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

On Nov. 15, Kenneth G. Dolezsar was shot and killed in the parking lot of Village Inn, 10600 South 150 West. A witness in the parking lot called 911 on his cell phone and stated he was at the Village Inn at South Towne Mall in Sandy. The dispatcher, however, sent Murray police to the Village Inn near 5900 South and State Street.

"It was an error on the call taker's part," said VECC Fire Operations Manager Mike Veenendaal who noted disciplinary action was taken.

In another high-profile case, crews from the Unified Fire Authority were called Oct. 28 to respond to a house fire in Kearns. The bodies of 40-year-old Sharon Al-Shimmary and her children, 9-year-old Ashley, 7-year-old Christopher and 2-year-old Heather, were later found inside a bedroom.

Again, crews were initially sent to the wrong address. In that case, however, Veenendaal said it was not the fault of the 911 call taker.

In both cases, the delay in response to the correct address was a couple of minutes.

In the Village Inn shooting, the mistake happened when the dispatcher called up "Village Inn" on his computer and a list of addresses popped up. Rather than the South Towne Mall address, the dispatcher picked the one for Fashion Place without verifying it on his screen, Veenendaal said.

As the dispatcher continued talking with the caller, he realized the mistake he made and fixed it. Murray police also arrived at the Village Inn and found no problem.

With the fire, VECC said that incident was the result of a "perfect storm" of conditions. It also highlighted the importance of all cities and townships in the county to keep their records updated with VECC.