Follow-up on Theft Post

[cynickalone.livejournal.com]

This post is a follow-up on this one from yesterday.

I received a response from the city of Somerville (Tom Champion, speaking from his conversation with Deputy Police Chief Upton) regarding why I was asked to hang up from my 911 call to dial the "non-emergency" line.

When I placed the 911 call, the woman asked whether I was just getting home. My response was "I'm already in the house." Not the most eloquent of responses I admit, but it was 3:45am. And apparently that, coupled with "the fact that [I was] calm on the phone" implied that it wasn't an emergency. That begs the question: how should I have been acting if there was a break-in in progress to *my* apartment, and the perpetrator(s) are in another room?

Note to self: scream at the top of your lungs and drop a couple F-bombs when you're on the phone with 911 and being robbed. If you don't scare the 911 respondent, you might scare away the robbers.

Comments

[thespian.livejournal.com]

sounds like a particularly bad judgment call.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

you mean by the thief right?

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

No, it sounds like the thief made a great choice of towns to operate in.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Your tone of voice implied something to the 911 operator, and, based on that, she just decided it wasn't an emergency? Wow. What, are they issuing them crystal balls, now?

[cynickalone.livejournal.com]

It was interpreted as such, anyway.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Yikes. I hope they will address this in training. Perhaps having them ask whether the incident being reported is currently in progress (if the person hasn't said) should be required before they refer people to the non-emergency number?

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

@icecreamempress. "I hope they will address this in training."
Exactly right: That's why it was so helpful of cynickalone to follow through on this episode. "Did you just get home and find this out?" is not the most efficient question to ask in order to elicit a response like "It's happening right now!" or "No, it isn't my car and the break-in is still in progress." or "Hey, I'm watching these guys out the window, and if you get on your damn horse, you can catch them."
The complicating factor here is that the vast majority of vehicle break-in calls ARE made well after the fact -- so jumping to that conclusion doesn't require much of a leap.
That's not an excuse, merely a partial explanation of how this played out.
We've seen a lot of very good police work here in Somerville in recent weeks (that Porter-Davis area sexual assault arrest was the result of a really smart, aggressive and well-coordinated multi-jurisdictional effort), but there is always room for improvement. This is a teachable moment, and our police commanders will use it as such.
So thank you to cynickalone both for making the extra call to 311 and for being so public-spirited, calm and rational throughout all of this.

[ron_newman]

And thank you Tom, both for following up on the 311 call and especially for reporting back here!

[cynickalone.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you, Tom! You've been so great through all of this. Much appreciated.

[melmybelle123.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm shocked that the department admitted this. Really inexcusable.

[smammy]

But wait, wasn't it a car across the street that was being burgled? Seems to me that if you were already in the house, then you were in no danger. (Still, they probably should have asked you if the crime was still in progress.)

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

911 is for reporting crimes in progress, not just when someone is in danger.

[seltzer92.livejournal.com]

i had a similar experience when i called the police to complain about a huge loud party at midnight when i lived in dorchester.

the dispatcher asked me if i would be willing to step outside of my home and speak with an officer about my complaint(which is right across the street from the party house.

i asked her if she was crazy because this would immediately reveal the identity of the person making the complaint, ie me.

i was very angry. if i had been thinking correctly i would have immediately asked for the identity of the dispatcher or the officer making the request. i cant believe they would put peoples safety at risk like that.

what made me even angrier was that the party was not shut down by the police. they didnt even bother to ask them to turn down their music. probably because i refused to step outside.

[squirrelitude]

That's actually not at all similar in any way, apart from making the police look bad.

[cynickalone.livejournal.com]

Not to mention it's not even Somerville.

[leko.livejournal.com]

I've had the police ask me to do the same thing for noise complaints. It does seem like it's an artificial barrier they put in place for some reason. Like if you're not willing to go outside and talk to the officer about the obvious source of the noise then they won't do anything about it.