Emergency Or Non-Emergency?: Harrah Police Clarify Using 911 After Missed Dispatch Call

A person from Harrah said the police never showed up after they reported a suspicious person in the park. Police said they never got the call. 

Sometimes things go wrong, but Harrah Police Chief Marty Burns said this example can teach a lesson. 

“We haven’t missed any calls that I know of,” Burns said. “This is the first one I’ve been notified.”  

Last week a person from Harrah was in Lions Park. The person wrote on Facebook they saw a suspicious person sleeping in their car with one foot sticking out. 

They said they called the police to check it out, but the police never showed up. Harrah Police Chief Marty Burns told us why. 

“The process does work. The message did get put into the system,” Burns said. “It just never got dispatched to us.”   

The person called a non-emergency line which goes to the Oklahoma County Dispatch Center. The line is for low priority calls, and it got lost in the shuffle. Burns said the person should have called 911.  

“We typically refer that [non-emergency] number to people who have questions about a case report, a crime that’s not in progress,” Burns said. “They may have information; they need to speak with an officer about.”  

A spokesman for the Oklahoma County Sheriff said anyone with an emergency should always call 911. As far as the suspicious person at the park, Burns said they didn’t find the person who was reported to police.  

"I talked to my officers and even though they didn’t receive the call, they were out there that day, and they didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary,” Burns said. 

Burns said they don’t want to miss any call from someone with a concern.  

“If the person felt that it was a situation that needed a direct response by law enforcement – that's what 911’s for,” Burns said. 

However, he said the community should know help is always three digits away.