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Community Members Upset Over Slow 911 Response

CHATTANOOGA (WRCB) -

Updated Thursday 10:29 pm

More than 200 neighbors attended the Hilltop Neighborhood Association meeting held at Brainerd Baptist's BX building.  These neighbors asked tough questions to Chattanooga Police Chief Freeman Cooper and Mayor Ron Littlefield. 

Many wanted to know what it would take to get more patrol cars on their streets.  Chief Cooper says it isn't that easy.  "If they are not working on a particular case they are riding around in this area. If we take police officers from Hixson, who is patrolling in Hixson?" he says. 

Frustrated neighbors are beginning to take matters into their own hands.  "Many people are buying guns," says April Roara.  Roara, herself, has been a victim a handful of times.  "We are struggling here. I don't have anything left in my home," she says.

Neighbors we talked to say they don't feel as though they got the answers they were looking for.  "This is what I expected," says Joan Flores. "Nothing got accomplished tonight no one their questions answered," says Roara.

Those neighbors who didn't get their questions answered are encouraged to attend Chattanooga Police Department's CPIC meeting.  This meeting is driven by community input.. They are held on the 2nd Thursday of every month at 6:00 pm at the Shepherd Rec Center.

"This escalated from frustration to anger with the home break in that didn't get a response," said Trey Commander of a Brainerd break-in on Friday. 

Commander is the Vice President of the Hilltop Neighborhood Association, and he says in this case neighbors were doing exactly as they should, but first responders didn't act quickly enough. 

A woman watched helplessly as her neighbor's home was vandalized. 

"I think there is about to be a break in across the street," she said to the 911 dispatcher in her first call. 

It wasn't until her third call, nearly twenty minutes later, that Chattanooga Police arrived. 

"We just watched burglars walk out the front door of our neighbor's home with stuff in their arms. There is no excuse for this," she said during the third 9-1-1 call. 

"We watch each other, when we say there is a suspicious person, we know who is in the neighborhood and who is not; we keep an eye out for these folks," Commander said. 

The neighbor made three calls into 911; the first at 3:12 p.m. Records show the call was entered as a suspicious vehicle. The second call came in about four minutes later stating the suspicious vehicle had returned. It wasn't until this call, that the call out for an officer was dispatched. Chattanooga Police officers arrived 19 minutes and 44 seconds after the first call came out; it only took them eight minutes to arrive on the scene.

The officers were dispatched from the Amnicola Highway location, instead of the Eastgate Precinct, which is closer. 

"This was during shift change, and we had one officer out on a fight call alone," says Lt. Kim Noorbergen with the Chattanooga Police Department. 

Noorbergen tells us a number of officers were at the Police Services Center for training.  As far as response from the 911 center, they have not returned our calls for comment.

Commander, along with other angry neighbors, have called a special meeting of the neighborhood association. It will be Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Brainerd Baptist BX. A representative from the Chattanooga Police Department, Mayor Ron Littlefield and the District 6 council candidates have all been invited to attend.