A woman who claims she waited nearly 45 minutes for a response to her 911 call says Police are "lying'' over how long they took to come.

Marsha Smith called Police last Saturday night after she heard a burglar try to break into her Warwick home.

And while her husband gave chase, she said she had to place three calls to the Police.

Officers eventually began to turn up at 9.37, she alleged -- 42 minutes after she had first rang.

She said subsequent reported statements by Police about their response time were false.

Mrs. Smith said she rang friends and family after the first call -- and they could verify what time she had first rang.

She said: "I made the first call at 8.55 p.m., the second one at 9.15 p.m.

and the third one at 9.30 p.m. That time I told them I wasn't ringing off, that this is a serious concern, not a joke and that I wanted somebody here right now.

She feared the prowler was still in the area as he had left his jacket and helmet outside the window and she worried he might be back to get them.

"That's why he was still hanging around. I have a nine-year-old daughter -- last time we got broken into we helped Police catch the criminal then but my daughter couldn't sleep in her room for months afterwards.

"What if I was an elderly woman on my own?'' "When I rang the next day nobody answered. The operator picked it up in the end and the Police rang back later.

"I spoke to an Inspector who said the Commissioner would ring back but he never bothered. He should have called to apologise for the lack of service.

"Never once did they say sorry about it or tried to ensure that it would be put right. They should have some respect for people.'' However Police say their computer records show that the first call came in at 9.08 p.m. and that a CID unit was dispatched four minutes later and arrived at 9.27 p.m. -- a full ten minutes earlier than Mrs. Smith claims.

Police spokeswoman Evelyn James Barnett said: "In the response to a second call, which came while the first dispatch was en route, a second uniformed unit was dispatched at 9.36 p.m. arriving at 9.40. After taking a report from the complainant both units left the premises at 9.56 pm.

"Any period of waiting when you are the victim of a crime seems inordinately long and we certainly empathise with the callers' unease while waiting for the officers' arrival.'' She said there had been an unusually high number of burglaries in Warwick that night and that officers had responded as quickly as possible given available resources.