Author: jplucas

Questions continue to mount about policies and technological capabilities at Dane County’s 911 Center.

Union steward Laurie Lane told 27 News she listened to a recording of the 911 call from murder victim Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone. Lane’s comments to 27 News on what she heard were the first public comments on the content of the call. Lane said the call lasted approximately ninety seconds, and although Lane said she heard faint sounds of “movements,” Lane believed what she heard would not have been enough to prompt the dispatcher to treat the call as an emergency, and dispatch police officers. Madison Police Chief Noble Wray has disagreed, saying the dispatcher should have recognized what occurred during the call as a potential emergency. Authorities have made no comments on the call’s specifics, citing the need to protect the integrity of the ongoing Zimmermann homicide investigation.

After a week of playing the blame game, the director of Dane County’s 911 Center had no one to point fingers at Thursday night.

Director Joe Norwick was in the hot seat as Dane County Supervisors demanded answers about the handling of Brittany Zimmermann’s call to 911.

During the hour and a half hearing, supervisors asked Norwick about operations, policy and staffing.

A heavily redacted copy of a 40-page report into the alleged mishandling of a 911 call for help from murder victim Brittany Zimmermann sheds little, if any, new light on a number of important questions.

The report was released on Thursday night, minutes after the end of a joint committee of the Dane County Board in which embattled 911 Center director Joe Norwick answered questions from county supervisors about 911 center policies.

Scott McDonell began the meeting by stating that the matters under review could lead to litigation and anything said â??can be used in court.â? It was the public-hearing equivalent of a Miranda warning.

That was not the only admonition: McDonell, the Dane County Board chair, also explained that all questions would have to be screened and some could not be answered. This was followed by a stern lecture from Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, stating that any leaks of information about the details of the 911 call from slain UW student Brittany Zimmermannâ??s cell phone, if released, would seriously jeopardize the task of bringing her killer or killers to justice: “Our odds decrease with every new week.”

UW-Madison’s SAFEwalk program is back to full strength after seeing 11 students quit last week amid complaints from them that the program has been understaffed.

The 911 dispatcher accused of mishandling a call from the cell phone of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann the day of her slaying on Wednesday denied hanging up on the call, union officials said.

Shannon Maier, president of AFSCME Local 720, which represents Dane County courthouse and 911 center employees, said the dispatcher, who hasn’t been named, contradicts center director Joe Norwick, who last week said the dispatcher ended the call from the slain student’s cell phone.

“Oh I’m obviously disgusted,” says Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity member, Justin Banach. “This portrays the Greek community in a poor manor.”

The news has sent a shock wave through fraternity and sorority houses on campus at the UW Madison. One of the universities own fraternities, Sigma Phi Epsilon, or Sig Ep, is under investigation for hazing allegations.

Dane County board members will hear from 911 Center Director Joe Norwick Thursday evening about what went wrong with Brittany Zimmermann’s 911 call shortly before her murder on April 2.

Members of Sigma Phi Epsilon’s Madison chapter are being investigated in connection with a fraternity stunt last week in front of their house on Langdon Street.
University of Wisconsin-Madison leaders said the investigating surrounds what some are calling a hazing.
But the fraternity argued that what happened was purely a stunt and not hazing.

As summer approaches and students prepare for a three-month break from classes, police remain hard at work in the homicide investigation of UW-Madison junior Brittany Zimmermann.

UW-Madisonâ??s SAFE program coordinators said they are fully staffed and ready to provide students safe late-night transportation amid employee resignations and reports of employee dissatisfaction.

University of Wisconsin-Madison official said that all school programs that provide late-night transportation for students and staff will be fully staffed for finals week.

Madison police spent two weeks pursuing a bogus lead in the investigation into Brittany Zimmermann’s slaying because of bad information from the Dane County 911 center, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said Tuesday.
Falk also said the 911 center can’t determine whether a dispatcher hung up on a call from Zimmermann’s cell phone on April 2, the day she was killed, or the caller disconnected it. Center director Joe Norwick last week said the dispatcher hung up the phone after hearing nothing on the line, though Madison police say there were sounds that should have led the operator to dispatch police.

MADISON, Wis. — Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk admitted that mistakes were made with regards to the Zimmerman 911 call in April.

UW Student Brittany Zimmerman was found slain in her campus apartment in early April. Recent records show Zimmerman made a call from her cell phone on the day she was killed.

“She (911 dispatcher) didn’t do everything right,” said Falk. “There are two errors of procedure.”

MADISON, Wis. — Dane County’s top official said that a better response to a 911 call from a college student before she was slain still couldn’t have saved her life.

County Executive Kathleen Falk apologized Tuesday at a news conference for errors employees made responding to the April 2 call from Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone.

Falk said one of the errors wasn’t discovered until as late as two weeks after the slaying.

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said a veteran dispatcher missed significant sounds on a 911 call from murdered college student Brittany Zimmermann, and a second error caused investigators to spend days searching for two innocent men.

27 News has also uncovered the 911 dispatcher, who mishandled an emergency call from Zimmermann’s cell phone, had requested a transfer out of emergency communication work nearly a month before the Zimmermann call.

Last week, county officials confirmed the 911 operator, 54, had requested, and received a transfer from the communications center, but did not specify the date of the transfer request.

Dane County officials failed to follow a consultant’s staffing recommendation made in a 2004 report that warned of a potential “catastrophic event” if staffing levels were not immediately increased.

The “strategic plan,” prepared by Seattle-based MTG Management Consultants, recommended hiring five additional dispatchers, one manager and two technology professionals. “Additional staff increases will likely be required in the near future as 911 activity continues to increase,” the report said.

MADISON, Wis. — Local officials said on Monday that they plan to release new information regarding the killing of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student but gave no details on when.

This follows last week’s revelation that the Dane County 911 Center received a call from 21-year-old Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone on the day she was killed. However, a 911 dispatcher hung up on the call and then failed to call back, which violates protocol. Police officers were never sent to investigate.

MADISON, Wis. – A highly touted program to walk University of Wisconsin-Madison students home safely has been understaffed while services are in high demand after a student’s murder, employees complain.

The SAFEWalk program has turned away several students seeking escorts after the April 2 murder, in part because the university refused to schedule more workers, employees say. Many of the callers accepted free cab rides instead but others walked home on their own.

MADISON, Wis. — Dane County officials planned to offer apologies to the family of a slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student after revelations last week that a 911 call from the victim’s phone was apparently mishandled.

On Monday, Dane County Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott McDonell said he believes a mistake was made at the 911 Center and apologized. Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk has also drafted some letters of apology to Brittany Zimmermann’s family and fiancé, according to a spokesman.

The apologies follow last week’s news that the Dane County 911 Center received a call from 21-year-old Zimmermann’s cell phone on the day she was killed in early April. However, a 911 dispatcher hung up on the call after apparently hearing nothing and then failed to call back, which violates 911 protocols. Police officers were never sent to investigate.

Dane County Supervisor Dave Wiganowsky is demanding an independent probe into how the 911 call from murder victim Brittany Zimmermann was handled by the county’s dispatch center. Wiganowksy says he’s not necessarily “pointing fingers” but he’s hoping an external audit can determine what role if any the lack of response from the 911 dispatcher played in the death of the UW-Madison student.

The operator who authorities said mishandled the 911 call from Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone on the day of the student’s murder declined a request for a interview from 27 News.

A member of her household told 27 News reporter Tony Galli the county worker is remaining private about what happened. He also expressed skepticism the media would treat her fairly.

Madison has tamed its raucous State Street Halloween celebration, but this weekend’s 40th annual Mifflin Street Block Party remains a booze-infused wild child.

On Saturday, thousands of college students are expected to converge on the Downtown neighborhood to drink heavily and get arrested in droves.

What started in the 1960s as a peacenik music fest, has turned into a chain of hard-drinking house parties and street revelry.