Imagine dialing 911 in a moment of desperation, only to have the operator hang up on you. For countless Houston residents, this nightmare became reality due to the actions of Crenshanda Williams, a former 911 operator at the Houston Emergency Center. Over the course of her employment, Williams systematically disconnected thousands of emergency calls, leaving callers stranded during critical moments.
From March 2015 to August 2016, Williams worked as a 911 operator, but her actions were far from heroic. She routinely ended calls after just a few seconds, often before callers could fully explain their emergencies. These weren’t minor incidents—people were reporting armed robberies, high-speed car races on highways, and life-threatening medical emergencies. In one chilling instance, a caller named Hua Li attempted to report a robbery at a Race Trac gas station where a clerk had been shot. Before he could provide details, Williams disconnected the call. By the time a second operator took Li’s follow-up call and dispatched help, the clerk had tragically died. Another caller, Buster Pendley, was frantically trying to save his wife, who had collapsed due to a blood clot in her lungs. Williams hung up on him mid-call, forcing him to dial again while attempting CPR. Thankfully, a second operator sent help in time, and his wife survived.
In a particularly brazen moment, Williams was recorded dismissing a security guard, Jim Moten, who called to report two cars dangerously racing on Interstate 45 South, where fatal accidents had recently occurred. Before he could finish, she ended the call, saying, “Ain’t nobody got time for this. For real.” When investigators later asked why she hung up on so many callers, Williams admitted she often did so because she “didn’t want to talk to anyone” at those times.
Her pattern of neglect came to light during a routine audit in August 2016, when supervisors noticed an unusually high number of “short calls”—calls lasting less than 20 seconds—linked to Williams. Court documents revealed thousands of such calls between October 2015 and March 2016 alone. The Houston Emergency Center fired her that same month, and in October 2016, she was arrested. In April 2018, after a three-day trial, a Harris County jury found the 44-year-old guilty of two counts of interfering with emergency telephone calls, a misdemeanor. She was sentenced to 10 days in jail and 18 months of probation. The judge also ordered her to attend a decision-making class and write an apology letter.
Williams’ defense attorney, Franklin Bynum, argued that she was struggling with personal issues during her tenure and that systemic problems at the Houston Emergency Center, such as a flawed phone system that dropped calls, contributed to the issue. He claimed Williams was scapegoated for broader operational failures. However, Assistant District Attorney Lauren Reeder emphasized the public’s reliance on 911 operators, stating, “When a public servant betrays the community’s trust and breaks the law, we have a responsibility to hold them criminally accountable.” Despite her attorney’s intent to appeal, the conviction stood as a reminder of the critical role 911 operators play in life-or-death situations.
The case left a lasting impact on Houston, raising questions about oversight and accountability in emergency services. For those who called 911 expecting help, Williams’ actions turned moments of crisis into moments of betrayal.
