Netflix’s ‘The Perfect Neighbor’ Shows the Dangers of America’s 911 System

It’s rare that a documentary—much less one with shaky, sometimes sideways video footage—becomes the number 1 streaming hit in the nation, but Netflix’s The Perfect Neighbor makes for especially compelling viewing. Comprised almost entirely of video surveillance, doorbell, and police body-worn camera footage, the film chronicles months of escalating tensions between Susan Lorincz, a middle-aged white woman, and her mostly Black neighbors in an Ocala, Florida community.  Over the course of a year and a half, we repeatedly see police officers responding to Lorincz’s 911 calls about children playing in a grassy lot next door, claiming they are disturbing her. Officers—always in pairs, often the same ones—then trudge across the street to speak with neighbors, who call Lorincz the “Karen lady” for relentlessly complaining, throwing toys, hurling racist epithets and—in one especially bizarre scene—accusing fourth and fifth graders of stealing her truck. This Hatfield v. McCoys drama ends tragically on June 2, 2023, when Lorincz shoots and kills Ajike “AJ” Owens—a Black mother of four who crosses the street to discuss the latest contretemps—by firing a gun through her closed front door. The Perfect Neighbor offers a valuable case study of the deep flaws in our nation’s 911 systems. Unlike viral incidents we’re unfortunately accustomed to seeing—in which responding officers escalate the situation and end up killing someone—in this case, responders showed admirable professionalism and restraint. They point out the obvious: that Lorincz doesn’t own the lot, that children have a right to play outside, and even acknowledge that Lorincz is being difficult and unreasonable. The video shows the officers avoiding punitive actions (to the point that some viewers have argued they showed undue consideration to Lorincz after her interrogation, raising legitimate questions about whether a Black defendant similarly accused would be similarly treated.) Yet the fatal outcome in this case stems directly from what my years of research on emergency response systems suggests is a fundamental flaw in 911—what I call “mismatched dispatch.” The mismatch arises from the fact that, by and large, 911 allows for only three choices of responders: police, firefighters, or emergency medical services. Police are the default responders in over 65% of all 911 calls, and my research has found that only about 30% or less involve a crime or other public safety emergency. This means that in a majority of the 240 million annual calls to 911, armed police are responding to situations for which they are not truly needed nor adequately trained.  The Transform911 Blueprint—a set of recommendations developed via consensus in partnership with over 130 national experts offers a new model, one that improves health and safety by prioritizing the right response for each call, rather than defaulting to law enforcement. What might have happened, had someone trained in conflict mediation been dispatched to Susan Lorincz’s first 911 call—or the third, or sixth—to sit down with all the parties and discuss reasonable parameters for the kids’ outdoor playtime? Or a social worker dispatched to speak with Lorincz about her problematic behavior that was creating conflict in the neighborhood?  Sometimes a lack of a preventive intervention can be just as fatal as an overreaction. The Perfect Neighbor lays bare for all to see just how problematic our traditional model of emergency response—one that expects the police to solve all manner of social ills—can be. Over the past five years, 911 response has—thankfully—begun to stretch, coming closer in line with the Transform911 Blueprint. Since the killing of George Floyd, more cities and towns are addressing mismatched dispatch by deploying social workers and mental health clinicians to resolve calls that better meet people’s needs—allowing the police to focus on crimes in progress and true threats to safety. Largely with support from law enforcement, expanded dispatch models have been successfully implemented in Albuquerque, Atlanta, Dayton, Denver, Durham, Seattle, and elsewhere. Yet, as we see in The Perfect Neighbor, an often overlooked, but hugely consequential area of this work must involve dispatching experts in conflict and dispute resolution. Because 911 is funded primarily through local tax dollars, we as community members must insist that our emergency response budgets include mediation, mental health, and other specialized services. Locally and nationally, we must also urge our policymakers to establish minimum standards for emergency dispatch that require availability of such responses. Likely due to the audacious nature of this transparently racist, preventable tragedy, The Perfect Neighbor has garnered a large audience. Let’s not squander the attention this film has generated—or allow Mrs. Owens’ death to go in vain. We must reject the idea that police alone can resolve every problem simply because a call is made to 911. Instead, the future of emergency response should be one in which 911 is the gateway to a more comprehensive set of professional public health and conflict resolution responders focused on the kind of community conflicts and social ills that so often precipitate a 911 call. Only by adopting this more nuanced approach can we prevent future tragedies and serve communities’ true needs.