Can an emergency dispatcher or police officer refuse to respond to a 911 call?

I know of at least one agency where officers can answer a dispatched call for service with, "Acknowledged, no response." The incident is then closed. In doing so, the officer takes full responsibility if the call turns out to be something other than the non-event he has decided it is. The management of the agency has placed considerable trust in their officers to allow them to do this. At the same time, they don't leave the decision not to assign a call to anyone to the dispatchers and call-takers. Their philosophy is that the cops have more training than the dispatchers and are more familiar with the people in the community, so they can make that "no response" decision.

More commonly, the officer can respond with a phone call to the complainant. The agency does not have a 24-hour desk manned by an officer, so the cops frequently handle informational issues by cell phone from their cars. Once he or she has spoken to the complainant, the officer can log the disposition of the call as "handled by phone," or make a physical response if the circumstances warrant this.

I personally laud the trust this agency places in their line officers, but this requires some very careful recruiting, selection, and training. The agency is a fairly small one (about 50 sworn) and much of their recruiting is done by invitation, when a department member comes across a likely candidate. Everyone is encouraged to keep an eye out for good recruits, experienced and otherwise.

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