Robbery victim disappointed in Dallas PD's response time

It was more than an hour from the first 911 call to the first officer arriving on scene at an armed robbery of a West Dallas clothing store on Sunday.

Terror came through the doors of DTLR Shoe and Clothing Store in the 2200 block of West Dallas about 3:30 Sunday afternoon.

The victim didn’t want her name used or her face shown. She and her father spoke about the robbery.

“I was telling him I don’t have access to the safe. I don’t know if it was upsetting him, but he started waving and pointing the gun to my head saying, ‘Just give me the stuff out the register,” she recalled. “He's like, ‘Hurry up! Give me the money.’ I’m like, ‘You’re scaring me. I’m nervous. I have kids.’ So he’s like just put the money in the bag. So I’m putting the money in the bag. And as he got the money, he turned around and ran out.”

She ran for her phone.

“The first thing I did was went to go get my cell phone and call 911.”

The first 911 call was made at 3:46 p.m. At 4:11 p.m., another employee pulled the silent alarm.

“So once the silent alarm was pulled, I guess we thought we were gonna get a quicker response, which they still didn’t show,” she said.

DPD says the call was dispatched at 4:40 p.m. Another 911 call was made at 4:35 p.m. Police say the first officer showed on scene at 5:03 p.m., an hour and eighteen minutes after the first 911 call.

“We have a panic alarm, and we have 911,” the father said. “We pressed the panic alarm, and we pressed 911. That’s two systems that we have. And if they didn’t work, there’s a serious problem.”

The woman and her father feel every priority call should be a priority

“It could save one life by them responding,” he said. “We're thankful, but those panic buttons and that 911 system is there for a reason.”

A police spokesperson says it appears there were several priority calls across the city within about 10 minutes either way of the store’s 911 call and that officers who work near Singleton Boulevard in West Dallas were taking a suspect to jail.

DPD did not give an official explanation on whether that is the record and whether police shortages played a part in the delay.