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UPDATE: Advocates concerned over response to 911 calls on possible drunk driver

Posted at 7:16 PM, Apr 11, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-13 23:21:42-04

UPDATE APRIL 13: 13 Action News spoke with Joan Eddowes, whose son Mark was killed in 1991 by a drunk driver near Boulder Highway. After watching our initial report, she says Las Vegas police should have done more to respond to Monday's 911 calls.

Eddowes says she understands police have to prioritize calls, but if they had a unit in the area, they should have tried to prevent the possibly drunk woman from getting back in her car.

Las Vegas police refused an on-camera interview on the situation, and told us the reason there was no response was because all units in the area were on other calls, and because the woman was already out of the car at the time, this was considered a low priority call.

ORIGINAL STORY

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) -- A couple living near Boulder Highway and Flamingo Road says dispatch never sent any crews out after they tried to report a woman they say appeared drunk in their apartment complex.

Crystal Clifford and her boyfriend, Al Viscardi, say they were on their balcony around 11:30 Monday. They say a woman pulled up in their parking lot and appeared to stumble around intoxicated.

They decided to call 911 and report her before she could get back in the car. They say they called three times and were told to call back if she got in the car.

"I was getting nervous that she would leave and something would happen," Viscardi says.  

He says kids play on their street and he concerned the woman would hurt someone if she got behind the wheel.

Viscardi says the second time they called dispatch, they reportedly wrote down incorrect information, thinking they were calling to report a stolen car.

By the time they called 911 a third time, the woman left the apartment complex.

They feel the situation wasn't taken seriously enough when they were just trying to the right thing.

"If you see something, say something."

13 Action News Crime and Safety Expert retired Las Vegas police Lt. Randy Sutton agrees, but says the department has to prioritize its calls.

He says in this case, the best officers could have done would have been to tell the woman not to get back in the car.

"It's impossible to assign a crime to her," Sutton says.

We sent Las Vegas police a list of the calls from this case, and they say they would look into the situation.