The brutal killing of 81-year-old Laverne Jansen on March 19 in her Price Hill apartment never received the priority police response it deserved, despite a neighbor's fearful, 20-minute-long call to 911.

Police should determine how a case that had all the appearances of a home invasion could have been coded a low-priority call.

A thin, six-foot-tall male knocked on the victim's door, ordered her to lie down on the floor and keep silent, then closed the door. Across the hall, a neighbor watching through a peephole called 911 at 2:12 p.m. Yet police were not dispatched for another four minutes, and the run was coded "unknown trouble," a low-priority call. It was never upgraded, even after the neighbor, still on the phone with 911, reported the male leaving at 2:26 with a white plastic bag and walking fast up Clevesdale Drive. Police didn't arrive on the scene until 2:32 - 16 minutes after dispatch and 20 since the neighbor's call started. The killer got away and is still at large.

What other miscommunications occurred between call taker, dispatcher and responding officers? This case suggests there are serious deficiencies at dispatch in transmitting the degree of danger precisely to cops. The rule should be to err on the side of safety. Any failures to follow procedures should be punished, and CPD needs to reevaluate its 911 command and control system.

Police Chief Tom Streicher said officers who found Laverne Jansen beaten to death feel "sick to their stomachs" about it. So do we. It's the same sinking feeling we experienced after a 911 call taker and dispatcher bungled CPD's response in the December 1997 double slaying of Police Officers Dan Pope and Ron Jeter. The city tried to fire the two civilian 911 workers, but a labor arbitrator ruled the city had to rehire them. Life-and-death 911 calls demand a higher degree of accountability. Any screener not up to it has no business in the job.

Anything less undermines public trust, at a time when the city seeks citizens' help against crime under Community Problem-Oriented Policing. Jansen's neighbor did her part in calling 911. The dispatch team failed to do its part, with horrible results. Police need to find Jansen's killer, and root out flaws in communication that led to the too-late response.