911 dispatch issues: When APD will and won't show up

AUSTIN (KXAN)— A sudden smack, and the next thing Mo Maca knew, her car was spinning uncontrollably into the middle of the road.

“I was just shocked,” Maca said.

Maca, in town for work, said the scary accident left her rental car inoperable. When she called 911 for help, she said she received conflicting information on whether an officer would show up to help.

The accident happened in the Arboretum area next to Chase Bank.

“I jumped out immediately, took pictures,” Maca said. “You could clearly see the car just in the middle of the road.”

Though the car didn’t appear to be significantly damaged looking at it from afar, Maca said she couldn’t drive it and needed a tow. Her back tire was dented.

Maca said the 911 call didn’t last long.

“She [the 911 operator] said, ‘Are you injured?,’ I said, no. And she said, ‘Well, do you need tow?,” I said, yeah. She said, ‘Okay, the cops are going to be there like 3-4 hours.”

Not even 10 minutes later, Maca said the circumstances changed when the other driver also decided to call 911.

“I can hear her walking over telling the dispatch lady on the phone, “Oh, it was not serious,'” Maca said.

Maca told KXAN after some back and forth, dispatch said they would still send someone out. But then shortly after, she said she got a call back from a 911 dispatch supervisor.

“Telling me, ‘We’re not sending a police officer. You are in a minor accident,'” Maca said.

The city of Austin changed its emergency response protocols back in 2021 because of staffing issues. It said all non-emergency calls should be reported to 311 or online. That would include crashes that don’t require a tow. Maca said hers did.

“Thinking back, I kind of wish I did say a little more, just to make sure somebody showed up,” Maca said.

Maca was more concerned about not having an officer show up, because the car she was driving was a rental. But she was able to get a 311 report filed hours after the accident.

KXAN reached out to the city and APD to ask about the back and forth and confusion and are waiting to hear back.