ALFRED — The Chief of the Maine State Police on Wednesday said his department did not employ all of the resources at its disposal when it failed to promptly respond to a 911 call from a Dayton daycare worker April 17.
It took a state trooper 21â„2 hours to answer the 911 call that involved an intruder who had apparently left the building 15 minutes earlier. Daycare workers said there was no assurance the individual wasn’t hiding out in the nearby woods or in the detached garage ”“ and they were worried the person could return.
Col. Robert A. Williams said the department will conduct a full review of what transpired that caused the delay. And he apologized to the owner of Little Hands, Big Hearts Family Childcare, Julie Dolbec.
“I accept responsibility and apologize,” said Williams. “It wasn’t a case of not having the resources. We just did not use the resources at our disposal.”
“We will do a complete review,” said Williams at a news conference at the Alfred barracks Wednesday. “Our goal is to find out what happened, not necessarily place blame.”
He said once the review is complete, the department will put together a plan to prevent similar situations in the future.
“(911 callers) have an expectation for us to be there sooner. As a parent, I’d feel the same way,” Williams continued. “We failed … it happened. It is not a proud moment.”
There were six children and two daycare workers on the premises that day. Dolbec, the owner, was four hours away out-of-state when she got a call from a worker, letting her know an intruder had been inside the daycare.
The daycare center is a split level former residence across from the Dayton Municipal Building on Clark’s Mills Road. The two staff members were downstairs, on the ground-floor level with the six children, who were having lunch, when one of the employees heard a noise on the first floor. Staff member Jessica Antoine said she ventured up the stairs and called out, “Hello.”
“I heard scurrying and a slam,” she said. When she got to the first floor, no one was inside, but closet and cabinet doors were open and looked like they’d been gone through ”“ though nothing appeared to be taken. Antoine said she saw footprints on the floor and messaged Dolbec. A call was made to 911. Then an hour later, Antoine made another 911 call.
“They said they had sent someone this was and they would get here when they could and that they had other things they were dealing with,” said Antoine. A parent arrived and made a call to 911 and was told the same thing, she said. Eventually, the trooper arrived.
While Maine State Police are experiencing vacancies statewide, it wasn’t a lack of resources that led to the delay, Williams stated. He pointed out the agency has a call sharing agreement with the York County Sheriff’s Office.
“They would have responded,” said Williams. “We did not ask for any resources internally or externally.”
The call sharing agreement began in the early 2000s and includes 14 rural communities without municipal police departments. It was changed in 2013 to provide more consistent interaction with communities. Under the agreement, Maine State Police provide primary coverage for Alfred, Dayton, Hollis, Lebanon and Lyman, with sheriff’s deputies covering the remaining nine communities. Each provide back-up for the other.
The sheriff’s office is now involved in the investigation and were at the daycare on Monday, collecting evidence.
Williams said it appears the failure to promptly respond was due to “a lot of little things,” and not the actions of a single individual.
He pointed out that the caller told dispatchers that the incident had happened 15 minutes before she called.
“We knew the person was not in the house,” he said. “The caller said he’d gone. I’m not arguing that we weren’t there when we should have been.”
When the 911 call came in, troopers were covering a chase that turned out to involve drugs, and another trooper was at the rifle range, undergoing firearms testing.
Williams explained that when a 911 call is received, it is passed to a trooper. If that individual is tied upon a call, it is passed to a supervisor, who determines the next course of action.
Williams said a team of three department officers from outside York County will review what took place. He said he expects the process to take a couple of weeks.
“We want to make sure whatever happened here doesn’t happen again,” he said.
Following the news conference, Dolbec, the owner, said she and the workers were very worried for the children when the incident took place.
When asked, Dolbec said the daycare doors were not locked when the incident took place ”“ she said it isn’t a state law. She said since the incident, however, the doors are now locked.
She said she is pleased with the state police’s current course of action on the matter.
“They definitely took full responsibility” for the 21â„2-hour delay, Dolbec pointed out.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].
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