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Urbana police detail administrative review after delayed response to attempted abduction report
Summary
Chief Larry Boone told the council that staff misinterpreted an Aug. 6 call about an attempted abduction, delaying response; an administrative investigation prompted counseling, retraining on call triage and active listening, and an audit process for call handling.
Urbana Police Chief Larry Boone summarized an administrative investigation into the department’s handling of a reported attempted abduction on Aug. 6. Chief Boone said a police services representative mistakenly treated the call as a vehicle accident and did not forward it to an officer, which delayed the investigation.
Chief Boone said the sequence: on Aug. 6 a complainant reported an attempted abduction involving her 11-year-old; the call was misunderstood and not forwarded. On Aug. 10, a citizen raised concerns on Facebook; by Aug. 11 supervisors and deputy chiefs were alerted and an interim deputy chief began a review. The interim deputy chief checked call logs, contacted the school resource officer and attempted to locate the Facebook poster; initial follow-ups yielded no corroborating records of an officer response.
Deputy Chief Searls described corrective actions resulting from the administrative investigation: involved civilian staff were counseled; division-wide active listening training and retraining on call triage will be implemented; annual refresher training for call takers will be developed; supervisors will audit front-desk calls to verify appropriate triage; and one employee has been directed to prepare a list of open projects and will change assignments upon deputy chief appointment.
Chief Boone emphasized the error was not due to language or racial undertones but likely due to multitasking by the call taker: "The police services representative misunderstood the call to be a vehicle accident. It did not forward it to an officer." Deputy Chief Searls said the division supervisor "is going to be implementing division wide active listening training" and outlined the audit process for calls.
No disciplinary term lengths or personnel names beyond the involved positions were provided on the public record; the council was informed of the training and audit steps and that an administrative investigation was deployed after an unprofessional public post by the interim deputy chief.
