From: markz@ssc.wa.com (Mark Zenier)
Newsgroups: seattle.general
Subject: Re: How do you get fast police action?
Date: 17 Aug 92 18:21:20 GMT
Distribution: seattle
Organization: SSC, Inc.,  Seattle, WA
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

ngrjn@milton.u.washington.edu (V Nagarajan) writes:
> The person who answered the call asked if I 
> witnessed the breaking in or the burglary.  I said no. "In that 
> case there is nothing we can do Sir," she assured me, "We are 
> all quite busy here. It'll be at least 2 hours before an officer 
> can get a hold of you, that is, if you wish to speak to an 
> officer." I explained to her that there was still another box 
> sitting in the car and that the thief might come back for it.

> I am wondering if I should have taken the other box for safekeeping
> till the morning. Would it have been bad judgement? 

Yes, very bad.  It would put you in the position of proving you
weren't a car prowler, in the face of very strong evidence.  The
best thing would have been to get the dispatcher to look up the
license plate and then have the dispatcher call the registered owner
to tell them their car was prowled.  Or go knocking on the doors in
the neighborhood.

> How could I have
> got the cops interested? Tell them that I suspected that there 
> was drugs in the box still left in the car so at least that one 
> box could have been saved from being stolen?

As a scanner listener, I've heard such things.  Like the report of
a homosexual rape of juvenile, which really was just a car prowl.
I've also heard about the crime of False Reporting.  If the officers,
having been pulled of something more important, don't catch anybody, 
they have your name and number and they will come after you.

This is just a crime against property.  At 4 in the morning, after 
a weekend night, the police have more important things to deal with.
Usually several fights/shootings/knifings.

Some things to know about how the Seattle police operate.  

The town is divided up into 4 precincts, and each precinct is divided 
into two or three sectors.  Each sector has a baseload of about 6 patrol
cars assigned to districts, although staffing of the street patrol will 
vary by time of day, day of week, and the prediction of any thing 
special happening.  Also active, when things are going to be busy, are
the Community Police Team, the anti-gang taskforce, the anti-crime
taskforce, and the emergency response team (swat).

The patrol runs in three shifts, that change around 4 am, noon and 8 pm.
(I think they are staggered within a precinct, by sector.)

Calls are sorted by priority.  And handled by cars in the sector where
the crime occured.  Preference is given to the car for the district, but
they are busy, any car is used.  With the closest free cars getting it.  If 
one sector is busier than other, cars from the adjacent districts in the 
adjacent sector may be assigned.  If things get really busy in a sector,
cars may be assigned from other sectors or precincts to pick up the slack.

Any event that looks like the a suspect will be dealt with will have
two or more officers dispatched.  Either as a two person car or two one
person cars.  This means that if 3 or 4 things are happening in a sector, 
it gets saturated.

Threats to life are given a higher priority than threats to property, and
social service calls like filling out the paperwork for runaways get
even lower priority.  (Some of the last aren't handled by police officers, 
if a Community Service Officer is available.)

My Opinion:  Get the former owner of the TV and VCR a brain transplant
for being stupid enough to try to store somthing that valuable in a car.

Mark Zenier  markz@ssc.wa.com  
Newsgroups: uw.general,seattle.general,uw.announce,rec.music.indian.classical