A Winnipeg woman who was shocked when a 911 operator asked her to confront a stranger she found asleep in her home says she’s been nearly as surprised to find out how many others have had similar experiences when calling for help in an emergency
Angela Chalmers went to the media this week, just over a month after she says a 911 operator told her police were busy and it would be a while before they could help with an intoxicated man she found asleep on her couch early on the morning of June 18.
Chalmers and her roommate barricaded themselves in another room after her dog alerted her to the intruder and were still on the line with 911 when she says the call-taker suggested she could try waking the man up herself.
“We were really pleading with the person to get the police here and then the 911 operator said, ‘Well, if you are that concerned, the police are not going to be able to get here for a while, so why don’t you go downstairs and see if you can wake the person up?’ she recalled this week.
“That’s insane. I think that’s probably, you know, the polite version of of what I said afterwards.
“That’s just absurd to recommend that, you know, to a person who’s calling in in extreme distress.”
After waiting a little over 20 minutes, Chalmers said a police cruiser pulled up out in front of her Earl Grey neighbourhood home, and the officers waited for backup to arrive few minutes later before coming in.
She says it took four officers to wake the man up and struggle to get him out of the house.
“When he awoke, he was obviously under the influence of something. He was not in his right mind,” the 44-year-old documentary filmmaker said.
“So the idea that, you know, an untrained — one single person — could come down and deal with him when it took four police officers to deal with him? It is terrifying.”
Chalmers said police at the scene told her the man was intoxicated and didn’t know where he was. Because he hadn’t stolen and anything and appears to have come in through an inadvertently unlocked door, she and her roommate declined to press charges.
In a statement to Global News Winnipeg police say the incident has been reviewed and the operator who spoke with Chalmers “was provided with appropriate feedback regarding the handling of the call, some of which deviated from standard practice.”
‘Absolutely inappropriate’
Since speaking to the media, Chalmers said she has been contacted directly by Winnipeg police. She said the representative she spoke with started off by apologizing on behalf of the service.
“’Absolutely inappropriate,’ were her words,” Chalmers said of the call.
“They acknowledge that this was incorrect and they hope that this experience is going to stop something like this from happening in the future.”
That’s exactly what Chalmers had hoped to hear, especially after speaking to her roommate and learning the 24-year-old thinks he probably would have taken the operator’s advice in the heat of the moment.
Chalmers acknowledges she too might have listened to the recommendation had she not already experienced a violent home invasion.
Twelve years ago, Chalmers was brutally assaulted and left for dead after two men broke into her Vancouver apartment in an apparent attempt to rob a drug dealer who had reportedly live there before her.
“When they realized they had the wrong person, they decided to hold me hostage,” Chalmers said.
“Because I had seen their faces and I’d heard their conversations, they decided the best thing to do would be to kill me.”
Chalmers credits a neighbour’s call to 911 with saving her life following a violent assault.
It took a month for Chalmers to decide to go public about her latest experience, but she says after telling her story to friends and neighbours, she felt obligated to bring light to the issue.
She has since done several interviews with media locally and across the country, and says she’s been shocked by the response — she’s been inundated by messages from people in Winnipeg and across Canada with similar stories.
Chalmers says she hopes bringing her story forward helps to change how 911 operators are trained and acts as a warning for others to think twice before taking the advice of the person on the other line in an emergency.
“It’s shocking to me that that this is not a unique experience,” she said.
“Yes, we depend on the police; yes, we depend on the fire department and any of the emergency services.
“But 911 is our first point of contact and they need to know how to help keep people safe until the first responders can get there.”