The 911 dispatcher who took the call from the suspected firebomber of the Governor’s Residence within an hour of the attack should have escalated the call, but didn’t, Dauphin County officials said.
Chief Clerk Eric Hagarty said the county learned the 911 dispatcher “did not appropriately escalate the call in accordance with county policy,” though county officials declined to provide the policy in question.
“Although this error in judgment on the part of the operator did not result in any further harm to anyone, we take the mistake extremely seriously and it is being addressed internally according with our human resources policies,” Mr. Hagarty wrote in an email Friday.
Emergency response experts told PennLive details of the call, along with the apparent absence of a police response, were concerning.
The caller identified himself as Cody Balmer, named Gov. Josh Shapiro, and mentioned Mr. Shapiro had a “banquet hall to clean up” and said he would “confess to everything that I’d done.”
The full audio of the call, which the county released on April 18, revealed the dispatcher did not ask Balmer any follow-up questions as Balmer rambled on for over a minute before seeming to hang up.
The failure to flag the call was one factor in law enforcement’s flat-footed response to the violent attack. Balmer was finally taken into custody more than 12 hours after making the call, and only after he repeatedly attempted to surrender to police. Balmer’s ex-girlfriend also twice called state police and identified Balmer as the firebomber.
Two criminal justice experts sharply criticized the response.
“You have the Governor’s Residence set on fire, it’s probably the biggest thing happening that night, and you have this guy mentioning the governor,” said Brian Higgins, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former police chief in Bergen County, N.J. “Why was there no connection made there?”
Chalon Young Pfeifer, a law professor and criminal justice expert at the University of Pittsburgh, called the seeming lack of follow-up “inexplicable.”
“You have an arson and attempt to harm the governor, someone confessing to it, and other individuals naming the same person,” Ms. Pfeifer wrote in an email. “If the police response can’t protect the governor, what does that say about the protection of civilians?”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks during a news conference at the governor’s official residence about a suspected arson fire that forced him, his family and guests to flee in the middle of the night on the Jewish holiday of Passover, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pa.
Isaac Elster
Gov. Shapiro ‘more determined than ever’ to break political division in wake of arson attack
Ms. Pfeifer and Mr. Higgins said best practices would have included the dispatcher asking Balmer what he was confessing to, flagging the unusual call up the chain of command, calling Balmer back if he hung up and tracking the location of the phone he used so police could find him.
“He said he wanted to apologize; the dispatcher should have asked why. He said ‘You all know where to find me;’ the dispatcher should have asked where. He said he would confess to everything he’d done; the dispatcher should have asked what he had done,” Ms. Pfeifer said.
Mr. Hagarty noted first responders are often responding to fast-paced crises and doing the best they can with the information they have.
Dauphin County’s emergency call center handles an average of over 1,250 calls a day, according to the county website. All of the county’s dispatchers receive certified training by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Hagarty said.
According to the statewide organization’s guidelines, 911 dispatchers are expected to control the conversation and assign an appropriate response to the incident, among other things.
The county is not the only entity reckoning with how it handled the high-profile arson attack. Following the incident, Pennsylvania State Police announced it hired a former police commissioner to lead an independent review of the agency’s response.
Fumbling the response to a 911 call can end tragically. Sometimes the caller confesses to a crime beforehand and there is still time for law enforcement to stop them. Other times, the caller might go on to commit another crime later on.
In 2023, police officers in Philadelphia failed to respond to a call about a fatal shooting. The next day, there was a mass shooting in the same neighborhood — likely by the same gunman — that left four people dead.
“The positive side is, no one was harmed because of this delay. It didn’t lead to anything else,” Mr. Higgins said of the response to Balmer’s call. “But we would never want this to happen again.”
Here is the county’s full statement:
“The recent attack on Governor Josh Shapiro and First Lady Lori Shapiro was reprehensible, and the increasing level of violence we are experiencing locally and nationally – political, ordinary, or otherwise – must stop. It will ultimately be up to investigators and our justice system through the course of due process to determine what the motive was behind the attack, how exactly the alleged perpetrator gained access to the Governor’s Residence, and his whereabouts until being taken into custody following the incident.
As anyone can imagine, the immediate response to any sort of crisis such as this one was inherently fast-paced with first responders doing the best they can with the information they have. But as with any tragic event, it also presents an opportunity for officials at all levels of law enforcement to review the actions taken in the immediate response in an effort to identify opportunities to improve. Following the incident, we have since learned that one of our 911 telecommunicators, all of whom receive certified training approved by PEMA, received a phone call from the alleged perpetrator after the attack and did not appropriately escalate the call in accordance with County policy. Of course, everyone is beyond grateful that the Governor and his family are safe and an already harrowing event did not turn out to be even more horrific. Although this error in judgment on the part of the operator did not result in any further harm to anyone, we take the mistake extremely seriously and it is being addressed internally according with our human resources policies.
We will not be commenting further on this personnel matter specifically.”
First Published: April 28, 2025, 9:05 a.m.
Updated: April 29, 2025, 9:23 a.m.
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2025/04/28/shapiro-mansion-arson-suspect-911-call/stories/202504280042
