CLEVELAND — Cleveland Police Internal Affairs has found a breakdown in information gathering the day a mother of four was brutally killed.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
Carly Capek was dead inside her home last September, the victim of a homicide.
Her family raised questions about the response.
In the final 46-page Internal Affairs report, findings point the finger at some policy issues.
The report shows every call taker missed relevant comments, stating that indicates a larger problem that needs a closer look.
In listening to the calls, investigators noted call takers were listing information by what, when and who, like policy states, rather than what is actually being said.
Investigators also found the sense of urgency was missing.
As for the response time, a delayed response can not be substantiated.
The report says the dispatch for the call was within the targeted 3 minutes for priority one calls; a direct route was taken by the officer.
The 10-minute response time was comparable to the median response time of just under ten minutes.
The report also shows investigators spoke with the coroner’s office, and Capek had a stab wound that would have been almost immediately fatal.
A call taker was given verbal counseling.
Records show she failed to get the caller’s full name and to display courtesy and professionalism. That if it happens again, she could face progressive discipline.
It was also noted in the report, the two officers who first responded did not use lights and sirens.
One officer explained based on prior experience with the initial information he had on the call about screams it’s usually not super urgent to get there.
After receiving updates, he said they were about 40-60 seconds away and his partner called for backup.
Investigators also discovered one of the responding officer’s body cameras was powered off and not activated for the incident even though it had usable battery life.
Chief Prosecutor Aqueelah Jordan did a criminal review of the IA case. There were no criminal charges for both initial responding officers.
Attorney Terry Gilbert released the following statement about the report:
"The final report confirms that dispatch operators failed in their responsibility to follow policy, by not obtaining critical information, acting rude, and creating confusion, but it didn't go far enough in holding the second district supervisor and the responding unit accountable. The closest unit was supposedly tied up on another (non-emergency call) but then dispatched another unit from the district that did not activate lights and sirens and was traveling less than 25 miles per hour. We have sent the report to OPS for their review, and we intend to follow up with Safety Director Howard, the Community Police Commission, and the consent decree monitor for their review as well. "
