Upon Arrival Cops Did Not Search for Endangered Ohio Teen

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On Tuesday, April 10, 2018, the police received a call from a teenager claiming he was trapped and needed immediate assistance. It was reported that the 16-year-old boy, Kyle Plush, called the police twice in an attempt to pinpoint where he was.

The young boy was unfortunately not found by the police but instead later on by his father. Only a few days later, did the cop’s body cameras reveal that the officers only searched for 11 minutes without exiting the police cruiser to investigate further.

Before the event of the incident, Plush became trapped while trying to reach for his tennis equipment. After being suddenly pinned under the seat the Ohio teenager used the help of Siri to call the police. The vehicle he was trapped in was a gold minivan and was sitting in Seven Hills parking lot. This was the information he relayed to the police during his call along with a plea for help.

After receiving this call, the dispatcher did not relay it to officers at the scene and in doing so failed to help him.  Before the incident, the dispatcher, Amber Smith, complained on Facebook about her job. She worked as a dispatcher for four years but claimed she thought it was a prank along with describing a problem with the computers prevented her from informing police in the Cincinnati neighborhood.

Smith was put on administrative leave after the event and has just returned this week. The two officers, Edsel Osborne and Brian Brazile, managed to receive information about the boy’s whereabouts contrary to Smith’s claim of electronic failure when looking for the car in question.

The body cam review indicates the officers drove their cruiser around the parking lot for about 11 minutes before calling the case to a close. The footage also showed that they did not check all of the parking lots. Instead, they quickly skimmed past some during the search.

As a result of the teen’s death and how he died, Cincinnati Police Chief Elliot Issac ordered an investigation to uncover why the dispatcher could not help him.

Harry Black, city manager, responded to inquiries about why the incident was allowed to take place. Black stated improvements to the 911 facility are needed. He elaborated they were not up to standard, technology, and staff wise.

The city manager confirmed that when a call is made to 911, there are no exceptions and “somebody must always be there to answer the call and to answer the call in the right way.”

Written by Brielle R. Buford
Edited by Cathy Milne

Sources:

Fox  News: Body camera footage shows police never got out of cruiser to check for Ohio teen crushed by minivan seat
Fox News: 911 dispatcher who answered call from boy crushed by minivan seat complained about job days before incident
ABC News: Ohio teen crushed in minivan remembered for his ‘great courage’
MSN: Cops searching for teen crushed in van never got out of cruiser

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Raymond Wambsgans’ Flickr page – Creative Commons License

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