Man dies after 111 delay

Under-pressure police failed to respond quickly enough to a 111 call for help, leaving a man to suffer serious injuries he later died from.

When police did finally attend, it was only to make a drive-by check of a known tinnie house where the occupants were told to stay off the street and turn down their music.

The incident occurred on March 19 when Counties Manukau police were swamped with emergency calls. The 16 police cars on South and East Auckland roads received 267 urgent calls for help in nine hours.

Two of those calls came from neighbours of Richard Hamilton, 35, in Perth St, Otara. Mr Hamilton was hosting a 21st party at which he was badly hurt, later dying of head injuries. A 16-year-old youth is facing manslaughter charges over the death. One other person is also facing charges.

A resident in the street rang police at 3.33am, reporting an aggressive argument. The resident rang again at 3.37am to report that a fight had broken out. Both calls were classed as "priority one" by police.

The police standard is to respond to emergency calls within 10 minutes. Yet an officer did not drive down the street until at least 4.12am - after an ambulance had already arrived to take Mr Hamilton to hospital. "It's not good enough," said the resident who made the call.

The resident will not be named for fear of retaliation from those connected with the house used to sell drugs - and from a lack of faith in police to quickly attend if help is needed: "The police have too much to do. Who do you blame? Is it the Government?

"People here are sharpening their machetes. The police won't help us and they are thinking they have to take the law into their own hands."

Counties Manukau police superintendent Steve Shortland said he was happy with the way police had acted and the time in which they responded given the workload at the time.

He said the police had 16 cars responding to 267 urgent calls and 886 priority two calls from 10pm on March 18 to 7am on March 19. Officers also had to deal with large street brawls and police pursuits when the call came in.

Mr Shortland said police were told there was disorder at Perth St, and arranged three incident cars, a dog van, a sergeant's car and a single unit car to gather three streets away, arriving about 4.11am.

The ambulance officers left Perth St at 4.12am and stopped to talk to police on the way. At that stage, an unmarked red car with a police officer in uniform was sent to "recce" the street.

Mr Shortland said the officer stopped to speak to two young men outside the house. "He said turn down the music or we have to come back."

The officer then left, and the police group dispersed.

Mr Shortland refused to discuss whether the arrival of police in the 10-minute priority one time would have stopped the assault which caused the man's injuries.

"I'm not going into that because of the [criminal] investigation. I don't know what time the injuries were sustained."

He said Counties Manukau police would ideally have more than 16 patrol units on the street and a new inspector's position was being created to focus on deployment.

The police district was looking forward to the extra police that had been promised.

Simon Power, National's law and order spokesman, said there was no sign of the 1000 extra police promised by the Government, and it was leaving the police under severe pressure.
 
-HERALD ON SUNDAY