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CALL 6: Indy police officers and firefighters left waiting hours for DPW crews after wind storms

Posted at 6:17 AM, Oct 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-23 13:21:49-04

INDIANAPOLIS – Seconds count when an emergency strikes, but if you needed an officer Saturday night the nearest one might not have been able to respond to your call because many were left waiting for crews to clean up from the storms.

Thousands of calls flooded the 911 center on Saturday after severe storms uprooted trees and took out power lines among other damage from the high winds through Marion County.

Because of the widespread damage, many police officers and firefighters were stuck blocking traffic after trees fell across roads – some waiting hours for crews to come to clean up the mess.

Blocking traffic is common after a storm, and in Marion County, the first responders are expected to safely block those roads until the Department of Public Works can get a crew to the scene and clean it up. But during Saturday’s wind storms, Call 6 has learned that some police officers were stuck blocking those roads for hours on end, which left them unable to respond to other emergencies in the county.

The reason?

Call 6 has learned that the Department of Public Works only had two forestry crews (seven people) working the entire county. 

Officials with DPW say they also had crews on-call, and as the damage reports began piling up, they called in those crews throughout the night. Four additional forestry workers and one dispatch operator were called in between 7-8 p.m.

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