Debra Stevens’ drowning, “callous and uncaring” dispatch call No. 4 story of 2019

Public perception of the Fort Smith Police Department was damaged after one of its dispatchers spoke rudely to a drowning woman.

Former police dispatcher Donna Reneau in her last shift with the Police Department on Aug. 24 told caller Debra Stevens to “shut up” and that she didn’t know why she was “freaking out” before Stevens drowned inside her vehicle during flash floods in the 5800 block of Kinkead Avenue. Amid heightened public scrutiny from residents in both the city and across the United States, Fort Smith police conducted an internal review, which cleared Reneau of wrongdoing but also highlighted several gaps in their dispatch services.

Stevens after calling 911 around 4:38 a.m. that day, told Reneau she was delivering newspapers when floodwaters swept her vehicle off the road. Reneau, who was on her final shift as a dispatcher at the Police Department when she took Stevens’ call, remained calm for the first several minutes of the 23-minute phone call but gradually became more coarse in her tone when Stevens became frantic as the waters rose inside her vehicle. At some points during the phone call, Reneau told Stevens the incident would teach her not to drive in the water and that she didn’t see how Stevens didn’t see the water.

The phone call ended with Stevens repeatedly screaming “I can’t breathe” and then trying to talk under water. Reneau is heard saying, “Oh my god. Did they find her? She’s under water now.”

Officer Bill Hardin and two firefighters tried to rescue Stevens from her submerged vehicle but couldn’t because of the strength of the current, according to the police report.

“We want to save lives. That’s what we’re about, and when we’re not successful in doing that, it hurts — it hurts to the core,” then-interim Police Chief Danny Baker said at an Aug. 29 news conference about the incident.

Baker received harsh criticism from the public after the news conference, in which he said he didn’t observe anything in the phone call that would have led to Reneau getting fired or a criminal investigation into her actions. Baker did not defend Reneau’s remarks in the phone call, adding that he said he could “completely understand” public concern over the incident.

The story was picked up by national news outlets including CNN, USA Today and The New York Times and at least one news outlet in the United Kingdom. The Police Department received death threats in the following days, according to police spokesperson Aric Mitchell.

Baker in a Facebook post two days after the news conference said it “would have been easy” for him to blame Reneau for the entire incident, especially since he was one of three candidates in the running for the full-time police chief position at the time.

“From what I can tell, that has been my ‘sin’ in this: that I didn’t publicly denounce the dispatcher as an evil person deserving of death,” he said.

Reneau’s call with Stevens contrasted her five-year career at the Police Department, in which she rose through the ranks as a dispatcher trainer and earned praise from her superiors. Police Maj. Dean Pitts in 2014 even said Reneau had “demonstrated an aptitude for call handling, communication with the public and has grasped the complex computer programs and procedures for carrying out her duties.”

Police in their review of their dispatch services following the incident cleared Reneau of criminality. They also confirmed she would not have been fired from the incident, citing their interpretation of City of Fort Smith human resources policies.

However, the internal review still listed several shortcomings of the Police Department dispatch center. These included a lack of specific call designation for vehicles stranded in floodwaters and policies prohibiting rudeness from non-sworn personnel.

Pitts in the review recommended both of these gaps in protocol be corrected for the Police Department going forward. He also recommended measures that could improve the mental health of dispatchers, including increased staffing and supervision.

“It’s hard to get dispatchers, it’s hard to keep dispatchers, because it’s such an unbelievably stressful job,” Mitchell said. “We’re looking at things like that — things that will help them cope with the stresses of the job.”

Known as “Debbie,” Stevens was described as kindhearted by those who knew her. She was involved in the preschool ministry at East Side Baptist Church and worked with At-large City Director Neal Martin while he campaigned for office.