By Kara Hansen Murphey, West Linn Tidings
The West Linn Police Department’s late-night automated phone call last week warning the public of an armed robber drew criticism from some residents.

The call came after Columbia Sportswear matriarch Gert Boyle foiled a robbery at her Wildwood Drive home. The thief leapt from her deck and fled into a ravine after he spotted a police officer responding to a silent panic alarm.

With the suspect at large, police decided to alert West Linn residents using a “reverse 9-1-1” system, capable of sending an emergency automated phone call to all landlines tied into the 9-1-1 database in a specific geographic area.

It was the first time the department used reverse 9-1-1, and West Linn Police Chief Terry Timeus acknowledged it was not without flaws – residents received the warning call several hours after the robbery took place, and at that point police had apprehended a suspect.

However, Timeus said, with public safety in mind, the department had to prioritize.

“It is important to note that a full-blown manhunt was underway,” Timeus said. “While citizen communication is a fundamental value of the West Linn Police Department, deploying (reverse 9-1-1) needed to occur after the other, more significant investigative tools had been utilized.”

In addition, he said, the suspect was still on the run when the call was placed, and it remained unclear then whether additional criminals were involved.

“The West Linn Police Department was primarily concerned that the suspect may not be acting alone, and wanted to continue with the investigation before notifying residents with any updates,” Timeus said.

Residents received a second automated call the following morning letting them know the manhunt was over.

Police later arrested two more men in connection with the case.

But the initial warning, issued at about 11:30 p.m. Nov. 10, not only awoke some residents. It kept them on edge throughout the night.

“How can one go to sleep after that?” Randall Fastabend asked in an e-mail to West Linn’s mayor. “I prowled my house, double-checking doors and keeping vigilant past 1 a.m.”

Fastabend added that at first, he appreciated the “heads up.”

However, after finding the suspect had already been at large for hours and someone was arrested 10 or 15 minutes before he received the call, he questioned whether police used the reverse 9-1-1 system properly.

“The use of it can either ready a populace or terrorize it,” Fastabend said. “The decision to use it needs to be in (competent) hands with a clear set of protocols. The use of it the other night was uncalled for and left, I am sure, many neighbors pacing the floors in a worried state.”

Resident Bev Miller also took issue with the system for several reasons, according to a written complaint sent to the police department.

First, she wrote, “I hate ‘Robo calls’”; second, “I hate being awakened in the middle of the night.” In addition, she said, the next morning’s wrap-up call roused her on her day off.

But she also questioned whether such alerts could confuse and scare elderly residents.

Take her 91-year-old mother, for instance.

“It would scare the skittles out of her to receive a call like this, or any call, at midnight,” Miller wrote. “I have visions of little old ladies all over West Linn, with every light on in their house, all night long, crouched behind a sofa with their husband’s antique shotgun.”

For now, it doesn’t appear residents can opt out of the system, according to the police chief.

“It is my opinion that the benefit of letting people know about the incident far outweighed the few people who were alarmed,” Timeus said. “If a similar situation were to occur in the future, I assure you we would do exactly as we did in this case.”

Posted with permission of the West Linn Tidings.