ALFRED, Maine - The head of the Maine State Police has personally apologized for his agency's delayed response to a 911 call last week reporting an intruder at a York County daycare center.
Col. Robert Williams also says an investigation is being launched to find out why it took more than two hours to respond, and to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Col. Williams summoned reporters to the Maine State Police barracks in Alfred Wednesday morning to make one thing clear: "It's pretty simple. We failed."
The Maine State Police, he says, failed to uphold its obligation to the public.
"We could run from it, we could hide from it. It's pretty clear: We were two-and-a-half hours, or a little over two hours, responding to it," Williams said. "It happened and it's not a proud moment for us. But we're here today to apologize for that and assure people it won't happen again."
Shortly after noon last Friday, two female workers at "Little Hands, Big Hearts" daycare center in Dayton - which is about 10 miles from the Alfred police barracks - heard noises from the second floor, which was supposed to be empty.
A staff member's first action was to call her boss - daycare owner Julianne Dolbec, who was in Vermont at the time. Dolbec takes up the story.
"I think her biggest concern when she first heard of the situation was, 'Hey Julie, were you expecting company?' And I'm like, 'No, I'm four hours away.' Then she said, 'All the kitchen cupboards are open, the closets are open, I heard the door slam.' "
Then, according to reports, she saw a man running away from the house. When she heard this, Dolbec says she texted a sheriff's deputy, who's a personal friend. He then advised her to call 911.
That was just before 12:30 p.m. Dayton is a community where 911 calls are answered by the State Police, but it was close to 3 p.m. before a trooper turned up. Col. Williams says the officer originally called upon could not go because he was tied up in a car chase that became a drug bust. But, he says, there were other resources at their disposal.
"We have a call-sharing agreement with the Sheriff's Department, and we regularly back each other up," Williams said. "They would have responded if we called. This was a case that we just didn't use the resources at our disposal timely - that all there is to it."
Dolbec says she accepts the apology. "I think they know they messed up and they're going to take care of it."
Col. Williams says no disciplinary action has been taken yet, but the agency is far from done with the matter. Over the next couple of weeks, he says three members of the state police will conduct what's known as an "after action review" to try and find out what went wrong,
"We're going to gather all the facts and analyze them. My first interest is putting a plan together so this doesn't happen again. Whether we discipline anybody isn't going to change the outcome of what happened. And it's not going to change what happens in the future, other than to that individual. We want to make sure that, as an agency, we're responding a timely fashion."
Meanwhile, last Friday's alleged break-in at the daycare - in which nothing was taken and nobody was hurt - also remains under investigation by the state police.