Fort Worth man says dispatchers wouldn't send police to burglary

By Bill Hanna

billhanna@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH -- Shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday, Leroy Reber was awakened by a text message telling him that the burglar alarm had gone off at his business, DFW Wholesale Security, on West Berry Street.

From his home computer, he pulled up video feed from security cameras that showed a burglar walking around the outside of the building, trying to find a way in.

Then he saw the burglar repeatedly back a minivan into the corner of the business at 1809 W. Berry St.

Reber called Fort Worth police but was told they couldn't respond because he had not paid his $50 annual alarm permit fee.

"The dispatcher said, 'No, we can't send. We can't dispatch to that,'" Reber said. "I told them someone was there at that moment committing a crime and they still said 'no.'

"I just don't understand why they wouldn't respond when I knew there was a burglar at my business at that moment."

Since November 2003, the city of Fort Worth has had a "no permit, no response" policy for private security systems. The City Council set the permit fee at $50 annually. The council also set a fine of $50 to be imposed after five false alarms.

At the time, Fort Worth officers were responding to more than 65,000 false residential and commercial alarms a year, which were about 99 percent of calls, police officials reported.

Police were investigating Reber's situation, police Maj. Paul Henderson tweeted Monday morning.

"Obviously we are looking into this," Henderson tweeted.

Later Monday, officer Daniel Segura, a police spokesman, said dispatchers typically act on the information provided by callers to determine if a crime is taking place.

"In cases where there is a crime in progress, then that call takes priority for dispatch and responding officers to rapidly act," Segura said in an e-mail responding to a reporter's questions.

Asked if police received information from Reber that he had a live video feed of the burglary in progress, Segura responded, "Not to my knowledge."

But, he said, "We are verifying all the details in reference to this call to ensure our community that all guidelines were followed."

According to Segura, at 4:08 a.m. police officers were "flagged down by someone reporting their store being broken into."

When Reber and those officers arrived at the business, they found that the burglar had not stolen anything. But he caused about $10,000 damage to the exterior of the building, Reber said.

"He couldn't get through my security gates," Reber said. "Two Plexiglas windows were broken out, and the corner of the building got knocked off the foundation by the van. The building took a beating."

From looking at the video, Reber said he believed it would have taken the burglar another five minutes to get inside the store.

"When the whole back of the minivan got shattered, he probably got spooked," Reber said. "He probably wondered if he was going to be able to get out of there."

It was the fourth time Reber's business has been burglarized since it opened in 2007. Reber said the store was hit by burglars three times in 2008.

Segura reported that the alarm permit for the store's address expired on Nov. 30, 2011. There had been four false alarms there since April 2008, Segura said.

"I understand why they have alarm permit because of false calls -- but this wasn't a false call," Reber said. "There was a burglary in progress, so I don't understand why they didn't respond."

Bill Hanna, 817-390-7698

Twitter: @fwhanna

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