Search for Parker Wells was delayed by 911 issues: Calgary police

The City of Calgary says 911 operators broke rules leading to a delay of almost an hour before the alert went out for Parker Wells, a missing 11-year-old with autism who was non-verbal.

The boy’s disappearance in July sparked a massive search by civilians and police that went on for two weeks until his body was found in a system of pipes under the city’s Deerfoot freeway.

The city’s head emergency management said when the initial call came in from a day home on the morning that Parker disappeared, the 911 operator did not flag it as an emergency because the day home did not want to officially list Parker as missing.

Iain Bushell said regardless of what the day home wanted, the 911 operator had enough information to alert police.

He said minutes later, a 911 supervisor reviewed the call and didn’t take action, and it was only after the day home called back to officially report the boy missing that an alert to police went out.