A veteran dispatcher with the Long Beach Police Department was being praised last week for her quick-thinking actions which controlled a robbery in progress and led to the arrest of both suspects involved.
At approximately 8:11PM on Thursday, September 13, dispatcher Lily DeMasi received a 911 call from an individual reporting a robbery inside of an electronics store on Pine Ave. and Willow St. DeMasi was attempting to get more information when the caller had to end the conversation because the suspect approached.
DeMasi called the business number back, but the suspect answered the phone. Police say that the dispatcher did something very clever—she posed as a customer and began asking questions to in order to keep the suspect on the line and distract him while police were arriving.
When police got there, one suspect was immediately taken into custody at the business and a second suspect fled into the neighborhood on foot. A K-9 unit and police helicopter responded to assist in the search for the outstanding suspect. As soon as it was announced over the microphone that the K-9 would be deployed to search for him, the suspect surrendered and was taken into custody. The suspects are only being identified as adult males at this time.
Police say that DeMasi’s phone call in which she pretended to be a customer—coupled with information garnered from the use of a land line, which sends location information directly to the dispatcher—assisted police in apprehending the two suspects in a timely manner.
“The LBPD commends Lily for her great work that led to the capture of the suspects while keeping the community safe in this situation, and thanks all of our hardworking dispatchers for the incredible work they do every day,” said Lisa Massacani of the LBPD.