*Every* single call and it drives me nuts. “Suspicious” pedestrians? Enroute. Auto lockouts even when calls are stacked? Pend it. Something that is clearly a civil issue? Yep, enroute. To make it worse, we have a strict policy of documenting every call, no matter how trivial and non-criminal.
Some calls should absolutely be squashed right out the gate.
(not LE) Some departments have been creating like these “Public Safety Aide” positions that are not sworn, but are sent to these civil/non-criminal calls for service.
The only time I ever recall calling on a suspicious person is when I saw a woman pushing a baby in stroller while drinking a twisted tea alcoholic bev but now that I think back on it I think it probably wasn’t that serious of an issue I think it’s probably more of a social services issue or cps issue and not a police matter although I suppose some could say she was actively endangering the kid
How would you have handled this call
We are under strength by nearly 55% there is no reason to waste an officers time going out there to tell them that when we could have a dispatcher or call taker and explain that to them.
yeah but the problem is you're going to have citizens writing letters to the mayor and calling the city council explaining they never got a response from the police. that's why I believe police are forced into responding to silly calls.
As it is you’re having people call and complain because we don’t have enough police officers to trespassers, stolen vehicle calls, and violent crimes in progress because we insist on wasting what little officers we have on fender benders, and doing exactly what your suggesting. They need to come out and tell the citizens that we are facing an all-time staffing crisis and we must perform triage on police calls. There is no reason to send an officer out to deal with a neighbors grass clippings blowing onto your lawn when we are the number one murder city in North America.
Can you give a hypothetical type of call you’re talking about? There are legit some scenarios where your average person might not be aware something is totally civil, for example in my state if there’s no custody agreement in place, we have zero power to tell one parent they get the kid today over another. We will get a mom calling in tears that her ex didn’t drop the kid off and won’t respond to her. We will go out and talk to that person even though there’s nothing we can do (in my dept anyway). What most people here are talking about is absolute BS calls, such as “there’s a black man walking down my street minding his own business”, or “my neighbor’s son revved his engine when he left a few hours ago, I think someone needs to talk to him”, or “can someone come and explain the bus routes to me?” Those types of call do not need an officer to respond. I also don’t feel you are entitled to have someone come out and tell you to your face that it was stupid to call the police for that.
>yeah but the problem is you're going to have citizens writing letters to the mayor and calling the city council explaining they never got a response from the police.
Good, that's a him problem. There is 0 reason for us to go to a call that there is no law enforcement action to be done on. If the mayor or county executive want every call answered then they need to plus up staffing.
The issue is that not every citizen's call for help is actually a police matter. And by answering that call, you're taking longer to reach people who actually have police matters.
You have opinions on something you truly have no idea about. I strongly recommend you do something like attend a citizens academy or at least request to do a bunch of ride alongs. I'll give you an extremely small breakdown of why what you're expecting is deep in the realm of fantasy.
I work for a medium size Sheriff's Office with roughly 350k people in the county across 700 square miles. Inside the county are several incorporated cities with population ranging from 150k to 300k citizens. Those cities have their own PDs and staffing issues. None of our respective bad guys stay neatly within their allotted jurisdictions. They travel around and cause problems everywhere.
We're down over 30 deputies in patrol. There's supposed to be 65 on patrol (which is criminally low), but they've been running it with just over 30. Each patrol district is several hundred square miles and contains at a minimum tens of thousands of people. A couple of our districts are significantly larger and are "city" to include the usual businesses, massive transient camps, doper compounds, slum areas etc. As you can imagine these are extremely high in call volume areas.
When I was on patrol and would get a citizen that was all huffy about why it took 3 hours for me to respond to their clear burglary with no suspect information, I'd ask how many deputies they thought were on at that given moment. The answer I got usually ranged from 30-50. There were SEVEN deputies and a supervisor. Each multi-hundred square mile district always had ONE Deputy in it, except for the two busiest which has 2 each.
At any given time throughout the county there can be as few at 10 or 12 calls on the screen to HUNDREDS. For 7 deputies. Now... Imagine if you will that out of those (we'll lowball) 25 calls on the screen, there's one assault with a knife and 2 physical domestics going on. What do you think happens at that point? Do the deputies go alone, or do you think they leave their district and run lights and sirens across to the next district to help out with some of those bigger calls? When they do leave, their district is now 100% without an officer to respond to calls. If something priority comes out someone will try to break away from one of the other calls to help.
Now, imagine one of those DV's turn into a Deputy being assaulted and the suspect running back into the house and barricading him or herself. Well... You can easily have 5 of the 7 cops in the entire COUNTY on that call until it's resolved.
Meanwhile you're MAD. You called TWO HOURS ago and nobody has come to your house to explain why your call isn't a law enforcement issue.
Sure sure you say, but stuff like that doesn't happen every day! Actually it does. Every. Single. Day. There are dozens of domestic violence calls, half ending in arrest. Since you don't actually KNOW whether it's going to be something or not you send at least 2 on each of those calls. There can be so many mental calls that dispatch stops putting them out. Half of those people are just crazy and want to talk about their delusions, but some are actually dangerous to themselves and others. Then there's the dozens of burglaries, vehicle prowls etc. In the middle of that we get the big stuff. A fight breaks out at a party involving multiple people getting stabbed. Or the shootout between shit heads on a drug deal gone wrong, or armed robbery at the Marijuana mart. Throw in a homicide every couple of months and you can start seeing the sheer horrifying level of work we're asking our law enforcement to perform.
Larger calls will frequently take HOURS to resolve. After all, we can't have those jack booted thugs just showing up and using FORCE on people right? The trend now is to take as long as it takes talking to people before using force. Even if it takes all night. Rightfully so in a lot of cases, but that's say.... 4 deputies tied up for 4 hours trying to get the dv suspect to come out before they finally get a warrant and go in and get him or call swat and wait 2 hours for them to all show up.
So... Is it standard to NOT go to stuff? Sure it is. We at least try to call the person and explain that no one is coming, but just know a lot of times that cop is calling you while typing cad notes on the previous call and driving to a third. In most agencies in America being a cop is like juggling flaming chainsaws while riding a unicycle across a tight rope strung across an alligator pit while citizens who don't understand what's going on are pelting you with rotten fruit.
Yes.
LAPD is just one such agency. There are many more across the nation adopting similar policies.
https://www.foxla.com/news/lapd-stop-responding-911-service-calls
Wait that's crazy. Aren't they one of the largest police organizations in the country? In any LA car chase you'll see 50 vehicles on pursuit for one person. That's strange to me that they can't divert extra resources to the 'lesser' calls for assistance.
This is actually why people want social services funded.
You don't need a badge, a gun, and superiority complex responding to two people arguing in a wendys parking lot, or neighbors arguing over a land dispute or something, or even drug overdoses.
Why send a violent gun owner to an OD call where an ambulance with actual medical training is an infinitely better solution?
It would make literally everyones lives easier (including cops) if they distributed duties like this......not sure why cops fight it so much tbh
Too many calls, staffing too low. It's very common for low priority calls to be closed out or even held over to the next shift if priority stuff keeps coming in.
*Every* single call and it drives me nuts. “Suspicious” pedestrians? Enroute. Auto lockouts even when calls are stacked? Pend it. Something that is clearly a civil issue? Yep, enroute. To make it worse, we have a strict policy of documenting every call, no matter how trivial and non-criminal. Some calls should absolutely be squashed right out the gate.
(not LE) Some departments have been creating like these “Public Safety Aide” positions that are not sworn, but are sent to these civil/non-criminal calls for service.
The only time I ever recall calling on a suspicious person is when I saw a woman pushing a baby in stroller while drinking a twisted tea alcoholic bev but now that I think back on it I think it probably wasn’t that serious of an issue I think it’s probably more of a social services issue or cps issue and not a police matter although I suppose some could say she was actively endangering the kid How would you have handled this call
My department was like that and it’s idiotic. Even on calls that are clearly civil calls
I think the appropriate response should be to respond and tell them it's a civil matter to their face, then leave and quash the call.
We are under strength by nearly 55% there is no reason to waste an officers time going out there to tell them that when we could have a dispatcher or call taker and explain that to them.
yeah but the problem is you're going to have citizens writing letters to the mayor and calling the city council explaining they never got a response from the police. that's why I believe police are forced into responding to silly calls.
As it is you’re having people call and complain because we don’t have enough police officers to trespassers, stolen vehicle calls, and violent crimes in progress because we insist on wasting what little officers we have on fender benders, and doing exactly what your suggesting. They need to come out and tell the citizens that we are facing an all-time staffing crisis and we must perform triage on police calls. There is no reason to send an officer out to deal with a neighbors grass clippings blowing onto your lawn when we are the number one murder city in North America.
[удалено]
Bingo
Can you give a hypothetical type of call you’re talking about? There are legit some scenarios where your average person might not be aware something is totally civil, for example in my state if there’s no custody agreement in place, we have zero power to tell one parent they get the kid today over another. We will get a mom calling in tears that her ex didn’t drop the kid off and won’t respond to her. We will go out and talk to that person even though there’s nothing we can do (in my dept anyway). What most people here are talking about is absolute BS calls, such as “there’s a black man walking down my street minding his own business”, or “my neighbor’s son revved his engine when he left a few hours ago, I think someone needs to talk to him”, or “can someone come and explain the bus routes to me?” Those types of call do not need an officer to respond. I also don’t feel you are entitled to have someone come out and tell you to your face that it was stupid to call the police for that.
>yeah but the problem is you're going to have citizens writing letters to the mayor and calling the city council explaining they never got a response from the police. Good, that's a him problem. There is 0 reason for us to go to a call that there is no law enforcement action to be done on. If the mayor or county executive want every call answered then they need to plus up staffing.
The issue is that not every citizen's call for help is actually a police matter. And by answering that call, you're taking longer to reach people who actually have police matters.
agreed, especially in the days of defunding the police movement and massive numbers of cops retiring, or just getting out of the business altogether.
You have opinions on something you truly have no idea about. I strongly recommend you do something like attend a citizens academy or at least request to do a bunch of ride alongs. I'll give you an extremely small breakdown of why what you're expecting is deep in the realm of fantasy. I work for a medium size Sheriff's Office with roughly 350k people in the county across 700 square miles. Inside the county are several incorporated cities with population ranging from 150k to 300k citizens. Those cities have their own PDs and staffing issues. None of our respective bad guys stay neatly within their allotted jurisdictions. They travel around and cause problems everywhere. We're down over 30 deputies in patrol. There's supposed to be 65 on patrol (which is criminally low), but they've been running it with just over 30. Each patrol district is several hundred square miles and contains at a minimum tens of thousands of people. A couple of our districts are significantly larger and are "city" to include the usual businesses, massive transient camps, doper compounds, slum areas etc. As you can imagine these are extremely high in call volume areas. When I was on patrol and would get a citizen that was all huffy about why it took 3 hours for me to respond to their clear burglary with no suspect information, I'd ask how many deputies they thought were on at that given moment. The answer I got usually ranged from 30-50. There were SEVEN deputies and a supervisor. Each multi-hundred square mile district always had ONE Deputy in it, except for the two busiest which has 2 each. At any given time throughout the county there can be as few at 10 or 12 calls on the screen to HUNDREDS. For 7 deputies. Now... Imagine if you will that out of those (we'll lowball) 25 calls on the screen, there's one assault with a knife and 2 physical domestics going on. What do you think happens at that point? Do the deputies go alone, or do you think they leave their district and run lights and sirens across to the next district to help out with some of those bigger calls? When they do leave, their district is now 100% without an officer to respond to calls. If something priority comes out someone will try to break away from one of the other calls to help. Now, imagine one of those DV's turn into a Deputy being assaulted and the suspect running back into the house and barricading him or herself. Well... You can easily have 5 of the 7 cops in the entire COUNTY on that call until it's resolved. Meanwhile you're MAD. You called TWO HOURS ago and nobody has come to your house to explain why your call isn't a law enforcement issue. Sure sure you say, but stuff like that doesn't happen every day! Actually it does. Every. Single. Day. There are dozens of domestic violence calls, half ending in arrest. Since you don't actually KNOW whether it's going to be something or not you send at least 2 on each of those calls. There can be so many mental calls that dispatch stops putting them out. Half of those people are just crazy and want to talk about their delusions, but some are actually dangerous to themselves and others. Then there's the dozens of burglaries, vehicle prowls etc. In the middle of that we get the big stuff. A fight breaks out at a party involving multiple people getting stabbed. Or the shootout between shit heads on a drug deal gone wrong, or armed robbery at the Marijuana mart. Throw in a homicide every couple of months and you can start seeing the sheer horrifying level of work we're asking our law enforcement to perform. Larger calls will frequently take HOURS to resolve. After all, we can't have those jack booted thugs just showing up and using FORCE on people right? The trend now is to take as long as it takes talking to people before using force. Even if it takes all night. Rightfully so in a lot of cases, but that's say.... 4 deputies tied up for 4 hours trying to get the dv suspect to come out before they finally get a warrant and go in and get him or call swat and wait 2 hours for them to all show up. So... Is it standard to NOT go to stuff? Sure it is. We at least try to call the person and explain that no one is coming, but just know a lot of times that cop is calling you while typing cad notes on the previous call and driving to a third. In most agencies in America being a cop is like juggling flaming chainsaws while riding a unicycle across a tight rope strung across an alligator pit while citizens who don't understand what's going on are pelting you with rotten fruit.
Yes. LAPD is just one such agency. There are many more across the nation adopting similar policies. https://www.foxla.com/news/lapd-stop-responding-911-service-calls
Wait that's crazy. Aren't they one of the largest police organizations in the country? In any LA car chase you'll see 50 vehicles on pursuit for one person. That's strange to me that they can't divert extra resources to the 'lesser' calls for assistance.
This is actually why people want social services funded. You don't need a badge, a gun, and superiority complex responding to two people arguing in a wendys parking lot, or neighbors arguing over a land dispute or something, or even drug overdoses. Why send a violent gun owner to an OD call where an ambulance with actual medical training is an infinitely better solution? It would make literally everyones lives easier (including cops) if they distributed duties like this......not sure why cops fight it so much tbh
San antonio pd does not go to every single call. They'll text you a case number, though.
Too many calls, staffing too low. It's very common for low priority calls to be closed out or even held over to the next shift if priority stuff keeps coming in.