A CNMI Department of Public Safety press release sparked some questions over the response time of local authorities to a 911 call involving a missing teen swimmer.  The media brief indicated that the CNMI police received a call about a distressed swimmer on April 29 at 1:13pm and arrived on the scene at 1:59pm to interview friends of the swimmer - over 40 minutes later. KUAM followed-up with the police chief recently. 

Chief Clement Bermudes said, "The press release was focused just on the boating safety unit. We inadvertently admitted the time when the first responders showed up because that time was when the boating personnel on land showed up at the beach while talking with the crew that is en route."

"The response time was, I believe, 15-18 minutes. So it was shorter than the 40 minutes. But regardless we are trying to do our best to make sure that we have island wide coverage."

Ultimately, the search was suspended for the teen swimmer after three days.