— by Courtney Oldwyn for the San Juan Journal —
Assaulted at gun point in the middle of the night in his home on Orcas island last week, Josh Mayson and his family are still reeling over the fact that a sheriff’s deputy didn’t arrive to investigate until 8:30 a.m. the next morning.
“This was a huge error on the part of the dispatcher and the on-duty supervisor that night,” said San Juan County Sheriff Ron Krebs. “The family is rightfully incredibly upset, as are we here at the Sheriff’s office. Everyone involved understands it was not the right thing to do.”
Mayson, a newly hired OPALCO apprentice lineman, was staying in a vacation rental cabin when a masked, gloved assailant allegedly came into his home around 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 9. He says the man held a gun to Mayson’s head, threatened to kill him and his daughter and stated that he “had nothing left to live for” and was “not afraid to die,” according to Mayson’s stepfather Dan Kimple, who spoke during an OPALCO board meeting on Feb. 19.
According to Kimple, his son texted his brother just after the assailant left. His brother came to the cabin, where they together called 9-1-1. They both spoke with the dispatcher who allegedly told them that since the gunman had left there was no need to wake the deputy on-call.
(To read the full article, go to http://www.sanjuanjournal.com/news/369495632.html)
“They both spoke with the dispatcher who allegedly told them that since the gunman had left there was no need to wake the deputy on-call.”
I’m questioning whether or not that dispatcher was earning his pay that night…what was he thinking?…(“Geez, it was just another one of those 3 am phone calls about a home invasion and a deadly weapon…if we responded immediately to things like that our deputies would never get any sleep…”
Such an appalling lack of judgement, IMO, calls for some public disciplinary action and demonstration of accountability.
We should demand that Sheriff Kregs holds a public meeting
on Orcas with Council Hughes. He should address what the
procedures are dealing with a 911 call and how many officers are on Orcas. Are Officers being paid when they are on call ? etc. Hearing this will not happen again is
not enough, this should of never happened in the first place.
Stop stop stop! Backup for a moment. What the dispatcher did or did not do is secondary. I want to know what fool put a policy in effect that has the sheriff deputy (who should be out patrolling the island) and in bed waiting for a phone call? Response time to calls involving assault in any form is absolutely critical. The idea that a dispatcher takes time to make a decision, then has to wake up a sleeping deputy, who then must dress, get to his vehicle and then begin his response is absolutely ridiculous. The fact that only one deputy covers this island at night is problematic enough. On-call? Someone has lost their mind. If the deputy had been patrolling then he may very well have been near the site of the assault. Hopefully we would not need to wake him to get a response. The Council and Sheriff need to answer for this on-call business publicly and immediately discontinue the practice.
Right on, Fred. What was he/she thinking????
Forgot what any police manual or general dispatcher instructions might say. Even from a standpoint of publicity re the sherrif’s office…. let alone detective work and assisting a community member who had been seriously threatened …. I would think that the dispatcher should have thought to send out an officer right away. A gun at someone’s head and the police don’t come?????
Very serious bad judgment.
I have been in contact with Sheriff Krebs tonight and we will host a Town Hall this Wednesday, 2/24 from 5-7 PM at the Eastsound Fire Hall, Station #21 if available (Sr. Center if Eastsound Fire Hall is not available) to discuss the issues around the home invasion, assault and San Juan County’s response.
Don Pencil, It has been this way for a very long time. If you want a deputy patrolling all night, an admittedly very slow time for the island, they will need to hire at least one more full time deputy. That translates into more money, which translates into more taxes, which is something that people always scream and rant about. You can’t have something for nothing. If the citizens of Orcas want a deputy on duty 24/7/365 they will have to pay for it somehow.
I recently retired after a 36-year law enforcement career serving at the federal (Senior Executive Level) and state and local police agencies. I am also a 10-year part-time, soon to be full-time resident of Orcas Island. After reading multiple articles concerning the Orcas Island home invasion incident and even with little substantive facts offered, I would surmise the Sheriff’s Department is properly handling the follow-up investigation. My true concern would be the initial response to the incident. Policing is a 24/7, “Protect and to Serve” profession, if indeed a deputy was not dispatched because it was preferred not to wake the deputy at such a late hour there is an obvious systematic line-of-command breakdown and an indicator of other internal procedural flaws. The community has a right to be angry over a failed response to a serious incident and should demand more from their law enforcement. The San Juan County Sheriff’s Department is your initial line of defense from crime and the public should never tolerate a cavalier attitude for a law enforcement response from a citizen in distress, nor should those who oversee the Sheriff’s Department tolerate operational failures when they become apparent. In the defense of Sheriff Krebs, in law enforcement there are often significant discrepancies between what is reported and what is factual. If what has been reported is factual I would hope and expect Sheriff Krebs will get in front of this issue by holding parties responsible, provides an open public dialogue and institute substantive changes in operational policy. The community must hold the Sheriff accountable but provide support without jumping to unwarranted conclusions. A “Town Hall” to answer and inform the community is a smart move on both the Sheriff and the Orcas Island community, as long as emotions don’t overrule the facts. A safe community is a commitment on both the law enforcement professionals and the residences of Orcas Island.
It’s unfortunate this incident occurred and I am sure the Sheriff will hold those involved accountable once the internal investigation is complete. People here need to realize that there are bad people with bad intentions everywhere, even on Orcas. We need to let the Sheriff and his Command staff handle this and not jump to conclusions. There’s always three sides to a story: the two sides and the truth. Even with this incident I still feel safe here on Orcas compared to living on the mainland. Sheriff Krebs was elected to lead our County Law Enforcement for numerous reasons and he will continue to strive to improve the Department and its relationship with our residents. This, of course, is just my opinion which we all have.