In a front-page story, The Buffalo News recently reported on a lawsuit, which was filed by attorney Melissa Wischerath, on behalf of the family of a victim of domestic violence.
The victim in this matter texted 911, for police protection during a domestic violence incident. Police entered the victim’s Buffalo apartment four days after she contacted 911, where they found her dead from the domestic violence assault.
A lawsuit was filed against the City of Buffalo, Erie County, and Erie County Central Police Service. The defendants in the lawsuit are accused of wrongful death, civil rights violations, and negligence.
Victim’s Exchange with 911 and Police Response Time
The victim sent a series of text messages to 911 in the early morning of August 3, 2023. The texts pleaded for police to respond during a domestic violence incident. At 5:16 AM, 30 minutes after the victim’s first message to 911, a 911 call-taker responded that the police were at the victim’s apartment. However, the police did not actually arrive to the victim’s apartment building until 6:00 AM. The lawsuit alleges that when the police arrived, they did not enter the apartment building or knock on the victim’s apartment door.
After receiving phone calls from concerned family members, police returned to the victim’s apartment four days later. When police entered the apartment, they found the victim dead from the domestic violence assault.
Pattern of Slower 911 Response Times for Domestic Violence Calls
While this matter focuses on one victim, the lawsuit has brought to light a pattern of lax response times for 911 calls involving domestic violence. “It’s focused on this one victim, this one family,” said attorney Melissa Wischerath, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the victim’s sister. “But in a broader sense, we’re looking at how victims of domestic violence are treated across the board for police responding to domestic violence calls.”
The Buffalo News went on to cite statistics from the lawsuit. In 2024, the median 911 call response time for “domestic trouble” was approximately 47 minutes. From 2014 to 2020, the median response time was 6.4 minutes for Buffalo police officers dispatched to reports of shots fired, 13.3 minutes for assaults in progress and 14.2 minutes for domestic violence.
Regarding the data, Melissa Wischerath said “What we saw in the data is that if there’s a call coming in for an ordinary assault, it’s going to be responded to up 10 times faster than had that same call come in but was flagged as a domestic. So the police are responding specifically to domestic violence calls at a slower rate than if it had been anyone else.”
The Buffalo News’ report concluded with an excerpt from the lawsuit, stating “Women reasonably seeking police protection from gender-based violence and domestic violence ‘have been blocked, impaired and/or dismissed in their attempts to find access to justice,’ so they frequently become discouraged and abandon their efforts to seek help, according to the lawsuit.”
The Buffalo News Article and More Information
Click here to read The Buffalo News’ full front-page story on this lawsuit. If you have any additional questions, click here to contact attorney Melissa Wischerath.
