Media personality says he was on hold with dispatch for an hour after home was burglarized

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    LOS ANGELES (KCAL, KCBS) — A Los Angeles-based media personality says that he was on hold for just under an hour when he called 911 to report that his Studio City home was burglarized earlier this week. He believes the issue shines a light on an immediate need for the county.

Evan Lovett, the creator of the “LA in a Minute” podcast, says his home was burglarized on Friday evening while he and his family were out. The alleged thieves took off with precious family heirlooms and other items before they returned home, he says.

He said what happened next is almost more upsetting than the crime.

“Immediately when we called, it went to … the recorded message,” Lovett said. “Paraphrasing, but, ‘Your call is important. Don’t hang up. You’re in a queue and you’re gonna lose your position in the queue.'”

He said that while it’s understandable to wait for a few minutes, calling an emergency service like 911 should have much more urgency.

“Once I got to the six-minute mark, like, this is pretty interesting. Six minutes turned into 15, into 20, 30, 44, finally, the 59 minute mark the call was answered,” he recalled.

That was the first time they heard from another person on the other end of the line, asking if he was hurt or if anyone was in danger.

“I do realize that they’re critically short-staffed. I know the people, they are working hard. I’m not getting any of those employees, cause that’s a really difficult job, but at the same time it’s something, not a flaw in the system,” Lovett said.

He says that when he did finally speak with a dispatcher, they were great, as were the police who arrived about six minutes later.

“They explained that unfortunately they’re not surprised by the dispatch times,” Lovett said. “Sometimes, they’ve heard two, two and a half hours before somebody can reach a human being on the other end of 911.”

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman addressed the issue in a statement released to KCAL News on Saturday.

“911 wait times for non-urgent calls are unacceptably long right now due to low recruitment for open positions, for 911 operators and emergency and non-emergency calls being routed through the same operators,” Raman’s statement said. “My office has already been working closely with city leadership over the past few months to find appropriate solutions for this. While some new operators have been hired, progress has not nearly been fast enough. The city can and must do much more to ensure that Angelenos who need help get what they need.”

Mayor Karen Bass’ office also issued a statement later Saturday, which read in part, “This is unacceptable and we are looking into what happened last night. All Angelenos have the right to be safe in their homes, and it is our duty to protect that right. Last year we hired more than 100 additional 911 dispatchers and we are hiring more.”

Lovett hopes that his outreach through his podcast will help expedite those changes.

“I think it’s important that when you see something like this, that really can be life or death … What if my son was choking, what if my wife, you know, fell and had an accident in the shower,” he said. “I would call 911, you don’t even think about it.”

Police gave him two tips in the meantime. They said that landline calls to 911 are sent directly to dispatch, whereas cellphones are routed and triaged through the county first, and that he should hardwire home surveillance cameras to prevent them from being impacted by WiFi scramblers.

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