14-Minute Wait For Bensenville Cops: Records

BENSENVILLE, IL – A Bensenville woman was with her baby in February when she saw someone on a surveillance camera apparently trying to break into her house, police said.

She called 911. But officers did not show up for 14 minutes, public records show. The longer-than-usual wait was attributed to confusion at the dispatch center that serves a number of towns.

Patch obtained the police report through a public records request.

Early the evening of Feb. 17, the 30-year-old woman saw on the camera system a man wearing all black with a mask looking through doors and windows, the report said.

The man was at the front door, then went to the back patio looking through doors and windows, police said.

Inside, the woman got a gun and then locked herself and her baby in a room, according to the report. She noticed that a patio screen door that was normally closed was slightly opened.

Police saw footprints leading up to the house in the backyard from the neighboring White Pines Golf Club. Footprints could also be found leading to a damaged fence, police said.

Video showed the backpack-wearing man looking through doors and windows, police confirmed.

On the video, the man could be briefly heard speaking an unfamiliar language, police said.

The police department later filed a report with the Addison Consolidated Dispatch Center about the delayed response.

The 911 center received the call at 7:11 p.m., but officers weren't alerted for another nine minutes. The first officers arrived at 7:25 p.m.

In an email to Patch, Bensenville Police Chief Daniel Schulze said there was initial confusion at the dispatch center on the identity of the man outside the woman's house. At one point, the woman mentioned it may be her neighbor, Schulze said.

"We submitted this call to the dispatch center for review and were assured that if it were to happen again today, we would be dispatched immediately while the dispatch center continued with the caller on the line," the chief said.

He said the department considered it an anomaly and not indicative of a trend.

"For this year, the average call answer time is 4 seconds, and we answer the 9-1-1 calls within 20 seconds 99.72% of the time. The average talk time on 9-1-1 calls is 1:57," Schulze said.

The dispatch center referred questions to Bensenville police.