Monday, April 7, 2008

The power of parents

Email sent to our generic Lincoln Police address from our public web site is reviewed by Clair Lindquist, our Information Technology Unit manager. He responds to those that he can, and forwards others to an appropriate recipient. He forwarded this one to me recently:

"I would like to file a complaint for littering. On March 12, 2008, a blue Chevy Cavalier, NE license #_____ was traveling east at app. 61st and A Street. The time was app. 5 pm. There were two occupants in the car. The passenger who had curly hair age around 17 tossed a soda can in front of my vehicle. I was driving in the curb lane and the other car was in the inside lane."
I removed the license number from this post, to protect the innocent. I ran the plate, looked up the registered owner, and gave her a telephone call at about 8:00 AM. As I had expected, I was speaking to the mother of a high school student. After introductions, I simply read her the email, and asked her if she could help me by making sure the driver of the car was aware that other people are watching.

We had a nice conversation, and she was very happy to take care of the matter. I imagine that later that afternoon a couple of teenagers were probably surprised to find out that the chief of police had called. I learned a long time ago that the power of mothers and fathers is considerably greater than that of the police.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I bet that you looked for any previous incidents at that address, and the RAP for both the teen and the parents, to get an gut-instinct idea of whether a call would have any impact or not. In most families, it would, but in some (say one of these), it probably wouldn't.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad the parents are dealing with this matter.

Some parents would rather argue with you tell you how it is just a piece of trash and to mind your own business.

Congratulations on your 200th post.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of the "good old days" where you were as scared of, and respectful of your neighbors as you were of your parents. Of the days when folks sat on their front porches and not their back decks, and weren't afraid to tell Timmy to quit throwing rocks or taunting the Johnson's dog....

90% of the time, you win in those conversations Chief. However, it's easy to sour to the 10% of the parent population who are absent in their kid's lives, and view this situation (or parent-teacher conferences, calls from the vice principal etc) as the perfect opportunity to "bond" with their kids by standing up for them in the face of complaint or criticism.

Anonymous said...

I have to compliment the LPD Officer who was looking for a loud music vehicle. Here is the tale.

Sunday morning about 4:30 a police car drove into our neighborhood as I had just left my house. I stopped my car and thought I should go back to the house to see if some person may have called to report a prowler, beings I was cleaning my car windows in the dark. I decided to not go back. In the fine fashion of Officer Maxwell (thats another tale), Officer Domanski was right on my tail. I bet he thought I was going to drive off as I did not set my parking break and I rolled a bit after stopping. I have to tell you this Officer is not an ego maniac (I met one of those years ago and he is not with LPD now). Officer Domanski was very kind and friendly, and he is one of those I bet gets promoted some day. Not for being Officer Nicely, but for doing one good job. He did not waste time asking my name like some LPD who I know for a fact know my name and have asked for it any way. Another fine one is "Is that spelled with an O-N Or an E-N"? He explained he was looking for a red car and loud music. Well I have a red car. But no loud music. He was very cautious then he recognized me and that seemed to take the edge off. We explained we were going out (yes some old folks like early mornings) not that he did question that. I am glad he stopped us. First he may have had a car that was just stolen (my car) and perhaps it was the one with loud music. Thomasville has a car that is loud and I have sampled the boom of the bass of this moron at 2 or 3 in the morning. I hope you get him/her but it is not the red Nissan with blue zenon clear headlights. None like them in Lincoln in the shape of mine. Also based on the 1987 sale price adjusted for inflation my little red Nissan would retail at $32.000.00 I get 36 MPG at 80 MPH on the interstate. There is not a part you can name that was not replaced in the last three years. Ok thats it, I am rambling.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Chief- we have power, but not near as much as my parents had. The difference is, I / we would have never tossed the can out of the window in the first place. The reason was- the sore rear end I would have ended up with if my dad found out. If a parent tries that today- we could be arrested. The kid in your example will probably get his I-pod taken away for a week.

Anonymous said...

Cheap is cheap. The "GOT ANY CANS?" guy would have been glad to pamper your "KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL" bumper sticker. The only thing missing here is a tear from the corner of the eye. If you did not watch TV in the mid 70's you have no clue about the tear.

How much damage from the can to your car? I need a dose of Michael Savage

Anonymous said...

Chief, I hope you did an IR and not just an ACI. I'm only sort of kidding. Can I email you some of my followup to take care of?

Anonymous said...

anony. 1:37
Your wrong!!!! The law allows you to discipline your children and yes by spanking them. To many parents are under this misconception that you can't touch your kids. I don't know if this is an excuse because they don't want to or if they heard about so and so got a ticket for hitting their kid. Well as long as you don't make them bleed or break their bones your OK. Spank away and don't make the cops be the parent

Anonymous said...

As a parent I find the police to be a great resource! I have a new driver in my household and despite dishing out $200 for Drivers Ed and more hours than I can count driving around the city together, my son still thinks I'm a moron. I can beg, plead, bargain, punish -but I can't control his actions when he's alone. You know what straigtened him right up? A healthy respect for law enforcement! One night after dropping his girlfriend off at home across town he was driving sloppily down 9th Street because he was tired and got pulled over for suspicion of drunk driving. Wow, was he scared! While the officer could not have been nicer to him, that was all it took for him to realize that the rules do matter and if he doesn't follow them, there will be consequences. Thank you to the officer that treated him so kindly - what a valuable lesson he learned that day! I can assure you if we got a phone call about his behavior it would have impact.

Anonymous said...

We parents do have to step up to the plate and keep our police from doing our jobs. However, I remember the days when Andreason would ride his harley into our neighborhood and stop and talk to us kids. Now I'm dating myself, Andreason is now a retired and still working in a civilian fashion helping those very bad people keep the old cars out of sight. The point is, I still recognized and respected him over 30 years later. AH the good ole days of Belmont!

Along those lines, what ever happened to Hubka?

Anonymous said...

You may choose not to post this, because there may be a juvenile involved. Speaking of parents, kids, and less petty crime, have you considered parking a cruiser over on Roanoke Ct, just to cut down on fuel expenses? It's not that serious (yet), but it looks like a lot of discord at one spot.

I just stumbled across the icon stack when doing a CrimeView search for incidents in a nearby area, clicked on what I thought was one incident, and it exploded into quite a list (one just from today, in fact). I got a bad feeling from the progression of things.