Tulsa Man Claims He Was Put On Hold During 911 Call

A Tulsa man said a group of men followed and harassed him Saturday night in the Riverview neighborhood just south of downtown. He claims he called the police and got put on hold.

Nearly every weekend, Brandon Boyd walks from 18th and Boulder over to 16th and Main; but on Saturday night around 11:30, he said the walk was different.

"I started seeing them right probably at this next driveway,” Boyd point out.

He said a car started following him and the men inside yelled offensive, anti-gay slurs at him.

"More than one person was yelling out the window," said Boyd.

He said he cut across a field to avoid them, but the car followed and even cut him off a few times. Boyd said he then ducked between two cars at a nearby apartment complex.

“And at that point is when I called 911,” he said. “And I was on hold, and I stayed on hold for many, many minutes."

Boyd said he heard a recording, something like "Please hold, we're connecting your call..." for at least five minutes.

He decided to run to a nearby bar and it wasn't until he got there that someone answered.

"I mean, anything could have happened. I could not be here to tell the story," Boyd said.

But according to supervisor Kim Faxon, nearly all the calls at Tulsa's 911 dispatch center are answered instantaneously.

She said she doesn't know the specifics of Boyd's call, but said there are nine emergency 911 lines and people are only put on hold if all nine lines are full.

Faxon said it's possible, but it rarely happens – maybe only a few times a year.

"That is not the norm,” she said. “That is absolutely not the norm."

The dispatch center said a majority of the 911 calls they receive are not real emergencies.

They ask people to avoid calling 911 with non-emergencies so that those phone lines can stay open for true emergencies.