Here are a couple masterful jobs on ridiculous police calls in the past couple weeks. I have made very minor changes to redact identifying personal information, but otherwise, these are straight from the police blotter (click to enlarge):
Calling the police because a kid was climbing a tree?? It reminds of a recent event when I was approached by a 10 year old neighborhood kid who wanted to borrow my phone to call the police because when he walked by a certain house, the couple of boys there would shout and call him names. I explained that one didn't call the police on such a matter, that he needed to learn how to handle certain minor situations on his own, and that he should quit walking by that house or just ignore the other kids. I'd rather free the police up for bigger matters.
I'm not exactly sure when or where it all went wrong and people began to get involved in other people's business so much. I guess we were just lucky to survive all of those tree climbings and riding of bikes without helmets not to mention our mothers using lard to cook with.
I think the news media should have been notified to take a picture of the child in the tree since he was outside playing instead of stuck inside watching TV, playing a video game or on the Internet. His mother might be a good candidate for parent of the year.
Chief, You forgot the one regarding the 7yr old who wouldn't eat his mash tators. Or the boy who kept pushing the crosswalk button stopping cars. Couple of my classics.
Chief, What makes this so bad is that officers aren't given enough discretion on these types of things that they HAVE to do a report. This clearly could be HBO'd but instead we're wasting valuable time sitting at a monitor writing this sensless mumb jumbo
Yeah, I hear you. The devil is in the details. You sure don't want someone blowing off a legitimate child neglect, and sometimes stuff that seems pretty petty to us matches up with other information HHSS has in their database. It's not an easy distinction to write a policy around. Common sense works 90% of the time, but 10%....
1 adam 12 see the man "a tear in my beer" at the bar 10-4
I would like to see a TOP TEN odd call list of the calls that the dispatchers have got in the last few years, I know they read this too so post away dispatchers
How about where JC at a certian trailer court by 27th and Cornhusker called in to report he 'had been raped by the President of the United States' dispatcher also noted Van Halen's 'Jump' was playing in the background during the call.
I remember a few years back when a lady called reporting that Aretha Franklin had stolen her "looks" and voice... Needless to say Officers were sent and showed her some R-E-S-P-E-C-T...
I got sent to a call where a man had heard a song on the radio he had written several years ago. He said it went a little something like this... "Do a little dance, make a little love, lets boogie tonight." He said they changed a few words but the song was his and he wanted royalties. I'm sure I did a theft report so I wouldn't be in trouble on Monday morning. Now that I think about it I may have even gotten follow up.
Calling the police because a kid was climbing a tree?? It reminds of a recent event when I was approached by a 10 year old neighborhood kid who wanted to borrow my phone to call the police because when he walked by a certain house, the couple of boys there would shout and call him names. I explained that one didn't call the police on such a matter, that he needed to learn how to handle certain minor situations on his own, and that he should quit walking by that house or just ignore the other kids. I'd rather free the police up for bigger matters.
ReplyDeleteI'm not exactly sure when or where it all went wrong and people began to get involved in other people's business so much. I guess we were just lucky to survive all of those tree climbings and riding of bikes without helmets not to mention our mothers using lard to cook with.
ReplyDeleteI think the news media should have been notified to take a picture of the child in the tree since he was outside playing instead of stuck inside watching TV, playing a video game or on the Internet. His mother might be a good candidate for parent of the year.
Is euro Spanish for I-Pod?
ReplyDeleteChief, You forgot the one regarding the 7yr old who wouldn't eat his mash tators.
ReplyDeleteOr the boy who kept pushing the crosswalk button stopping cars.
Couple of my classics.
Chief, What makes this so bad is that officers aren't given enough discretion on these types of things that they HAVE to do a report. This clearly could be HBO'd but instead we're wasting valuable time sitting at a monitor writing this sensless mumb jumbo
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 11:13-
ReplyDeleteYeah, I hear you. The devil is in the details. You sure don't want someone blowing off a legitimate child neglect, and sometimes stuff that seems pretty petty to us matches up with other information HHSS has in their database. It's not an easy distinction to write a policy around. Common sense works 90% of the time, but 10%....
1 adam 12 see the man "a tear in my beer" at the bar 10-4
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a TOP TEN odd call
list of the calls that the dispatchers have got in the last few years, I know they read this too so post away dispatchers
This post made me a little nostalgic. I grew up next to crazy neighbors like these...
ReplyDeleteHow about where JC at a certian trailer court by 27th and Cornhusker called in to report he 'had been raped by the President of the United States' dispatcher also noted Van Halen's 'Jump' was playing in the background during the call.
ReplyDelete"Is euro Spanish for I-Pod?"
ReplyDeleteNow that's funny, I don't care who you are.
"Whether you want to admit it or not, we're in the middle of a recession. What happens in a recession? Crime goes up.
ReplyDeleteComments?
I remember a few years back when a lady called reporting that Aretha Franklin had stolen her "looks" and voice... Needless to say Officers were sent and showed her some R-E-S-P-E-C-T...
ReplyDeleteI got sent to a call where a man had heard a song on the radio he had written several years ago. He said it went a little something like this... "Do a little dance, make a little love, lets boogie tonight." He said they changed a few words but the song was his and he wanted royalties. I'm sure I did a theft report so I wouldn't be in trouble on Monday morning. Now that I think about it I may have even gotten follow up.
ReplyDeleteSo if the dad didn't want to "press charges" who called the cops?
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, what happens in a recession stays in a recession...
ReplyDelete