New Orleans 911 operator accused of deliberately hanging up on callers

• A New Orleans 911 operator has been accused of deliberately hanging up on callers in apparent need of help.
• Precious Stephens, 25, is now wanted by the New Orleans Police Department.
• She faces charges of malfeasance in office and interfering with an emergency communication.

A New Orleans 911 operator has been accused of deliberately hanging up on callers in apparent need of help - and now she is wanted by police.

Precious Stephens, 25, faces charges of malfeasance in office and interfering with an emergency communication, according to the New Orleans Police Department, which has obtained a warrant for her arrest.

Authorities said Thursday that Stephens worked as a 911 operator with the Orleans Parish Communication District, and she was reported to police in late August.

"She is wanted for allegedly disconnecting 911 calls deliberately without obtaining necessary emergency information or relaying such emergencies to the other dispatchers for aid," the police department said of Stephens in a Facebook post.

Stephens has not been arrested as of Friday morning.

The Orleans Parish Communication District told Insider in a statement that Stephens had been fired.

The district said that on Aug. 24 it conducted a routine investigation of a randomized set of emergency calls received by the agency.

"During the course of this routine investigation, Training and Compliance staff recognized apparent anomalies relating to calls taken by this former employee during their shift on Friday, August 20, 2021," the district said.

The district then determined that "the former call taker allegedly broke OPCD's established guidelines and protocols by disconnecting a large number of emergency and non-emergency calls without providing service or response to the callers during the former employees shifts" on Aug. 20 and Aug. 21.

"Once these events were discovered, the call taker's employment with the Orleans Parish Communication District was terminated and the New Orleans Police Department was notified," the agency said.