Dropping a Dime, on your neighbor?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
141

My mouth has been hanging open the whole time I’ve read this. Hang on, I’m parched.
Okay. Um. Yeah. Storytime. I was on this construction job at this bank. The super had hired a temp guy. The moment the super left for lunch, the unsupervised temp goes into the future vault, where the super had all his tools, filled up a few cardboard boxes of power tools, put them in his car and left. The super comes back, freaks, calls the cops. This is over $4000 in tools. That’s felony time.

Cop asks around. The roofers say they saw the guy put boxes in his car and leave, but they did not see what was inside the boxes. Cop say, “Nothing I can do. Unless we find the guy with the tools in his possession, witnesses mean nothing, I can’t charge him.” End of story.
Story 2:
I’m inside a convenience store. I come out to see a guy with my brand new copier, still in the box, trying to cram it in the back of his car. I gave him the “I will smack you” look and took it right back (yeah I didn’t lock the door of the van, my bad). They drive off, a Civic with five guys crammed in it. My van keeps up with that all day. I call the cops, 911.

I’m driving behind them, talking to the police, telling them where we are driving. This guy is blowing stop lights to try to lose me, but I don’t quit, I’m a bulldog on your ass now. It’s a slow motion pursuit. I’m steady talking to the dispatcher, we are here, we are passing this. They are coming, she’s talking to them and me, they are on the way.

This goes on 8+ miles at around 45mph. They pull into the sketchy hood, now they are motioning me to follow. I forgot it’s Martin Luther King Day. There’s a lot of people just hanging out on the corner and the car guys are yelling at them to throw rocks at me, but no one does. They pull over, one goes inside. You know what’s coming. So I left, getting the plate number, descriptions, everything. These guys are screwed.

The cops (who have always been prompt and attentive) meet me back at the convenience store to get a statement. Nothing ever happened. They never caught up to the slow moving vehicles even when given constant updates of position. They never pursued the crime because A)no harm done, really B) IT"S ONLY ME SAYING IT, THEY DID NOT SEE THE CRIME.

See a pattern here? Your calls are worse than useless.

Besides which, you have issues. Really. Issues.

I’m glad you aren’t in law enforcement.

142

NadaHappyCamper— Jim Kelly would like you to click here.

143

God damn it. Really. What the fuck?

What if it was Cinco de Mayo and you ended up on Cesar Chavez Ave near the Aztlan club?

Or maybe it could have been St’ Patrick’s day, and you were afraid of a bunch of white guys? Nah.

144

What I don’t understand is how anyone can say with any certainy that my calls are ignored. I don’t recall any of the posters caim to be either a 911 call taker or a police officer. All i see are a lot of people telling me what a bad person I am for obeying the law, or that I am mentally defecient.
After thinking about my most recent post, that wasn’t such a good idea, that would be using the 911 service for a useless purpose which is also a crime now seeing what I just typed it occurs to me that if I am making useless calls to 911 and if they were truly a nusince, since they know my name and telephone number it shouldn’t be too difficult to get my address why don’t they send me a letter or drop by and tell me to cease and desist. Indeed why would they thank me for making the call in the first place, why not just tell me to get off the line so more important people can get thru?
Please someone show me some proof that what I am doing is a useless waste of public resources, or that I am taking valuble time away from more serious calls. I don’t like to waste money and if you can convince me that is what I am doing by placing the calls I will probably stop. Don’t just tell me that the police have to see someone commit a crime to pull them over , they are permitted to pull people over for reasonable cause, and I would wager that a phone call from 1 or maybe more citizens is reasonable cause.
I am also curious as to those who feel that its a waste of time to call cause no one will respond, why what else are the police doing other than answering dispatch calls or cruising looking for lawbreakers
Several of you have accused me of “Trolling,” I am not exactly sure what that is, probably nothing good I can assure you all i am trying to do is figure out what there are so many people who look for reasons to do nothing, rather then stand up for what they feel is right,. Follow the crowd as it were.
I realize that my grammer ,punctuation syntax is less then good, I don’t make any claim to being an English Major. I do the best I can,.

145

They don’t call or send letters anymore… they beam the messages directly to your brain. You aren’t wearing a tin foil cap are you?

I’ll take that wager.

Posting absurd responses to a message board to see just how many people you can get to “bite” and respond like you are serious when you obviously are not. You have been on this message board since 2001 and don’t know what trolling is… Do we need to explain LOL to you?

146

Again, NadaHappyCamper— Your Chief of Police would like you to click here.

147

Post #75, although that is the British equivalent (999).

148

“Trolling” is basically stirring the pot for the sake of stirring the pot. Basically, you’re just posting stuff to stir up trouble, but you don’t really believe in what you’re posting. A definition can be found here.

I will admit, I thought your post may have been trolling, myself, as the viewpoint you espouse on traffic violations and calling 911 is, shall we say, way outside the mainstream. I thought the OP may have been just fucking with us. But, it seems to me you may actually be for real. I’m not 100% convinced, but if your OP is completely sincere, really, take a step back and think about it.

149

Actually there has been a reply from a 999 operator, but I’ll chime in here from the US side of things. I am a 911 Coordinator, I run a 911 center; I’ve done this for a while, and know what I’m talking about.

By your own admission you don’t call everyday. You aren’t calling enough to justify the time to track down all of that information. They thank you for the call because that is the quickest way to get off the phone. Trying to explain the rules to everyone takes time and opens up the possibility of the person calling arguing that they are justified in calling because something bad may happen.

There are a finite number of 911 lines going to any given center, and a finite number of call takers at each center. You are using those resources to report what is basically a “he said/she said” situation.

One random person calling in a report of an isolated incident is not reasonable cause. Unless the officer witnesses unsafe driving themselves they can’t do anything about it.

I don’t know, maybe they are following up on other legitimate reports by tracking down suspects and information on crimes against people (crimes that *have *happened, not just might happen).
I am curious though as to what you expect the response to be when you call. Do you expect them to flood the area with police to track down the person? Do you think they will write them a ticket if they are found? Or are you just hoping that them being simply stopped based on your complaint is going to make them realize they are a horrible driver?

150

As he stated before… he hopes they get a “time out.”

Post 80 if someone needs a cite.

151

Three entries from my local 911 dispatch center press log from yesterday, something similar may be available for your area. Please note, NadaHappyCamper, that the police require a signed complaint from the citizen witness, to actions the police did not observe themselves, in order to do anything.

If your local police have not been asking you to sign a complaint they haven’t been doing anything with your calls except humoring you to get you off the line.

PR means person reporting.

152

Driving while talking on a cell phone has only been a primary offense in the state of Washington for about 60 days. What on earth did NadaHappyCamper do with his time before then? Oh, right, report people for improper lane changes.

153

You’ve continued to ignore the unfortunate truth that your calls do nothing.

154

needscoffee; I am pretty darn sure that I didn’t post that I report every improper lane change only when I see an aggressive driver, or an erratic driver tthen I feel its my duty as a citizen to alert the proper authorities I certainly don’t expect the police to chase down and ticket a driver simply because I made a report, BUT my report will alert them that there is a malfeascent operator out there, and it may actually do some good, it most assuredly does no harm accept in the minds of childish people who aren’t ready to accept the responsibilies of being an adult. It actually appears to me that many of the board members involved in this thread would rather look the other way at crimes that they feel aren’t important or serious. When I made the OP I felt there would be a more even distribution of pros and cons, not so it looks like the cons are winning:smack: “I hate it when that happens.”
According to “Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary:”
Emergency: 1;a sudden, urgent, usually unexpected ocurrence or occasion, requiring immediate action
2; a state, esp. of need for help or relief created by some unexpected event.
Let me try a differnt perspective . A person is walking down the street, they see an out of control vehilcle headed toward a group of people being entertained by a sidewalk Buskar unaware of the danger thats approaching. Wouldn’t a responsible citizen try to warn those people anyway they can? Of course, you would,even though you don’t know for certain that the vehicle is actually going to hit the crowd, perhaps the driver will regain control Before an accident occurs. Perhaps the crowd is so enraptured by the performer they don’t hear the warning and they get creamed splatterd, at least someone made an effort at trying to help. That, to me is an important part of being a good citizen, trying to help when the oppertunity arises.
I don’t see into the future, I don’t know anyone who can, I don’t know if my calls are taken seriously or if everyone is laughing at me . I don’t know if the police actually do anything about the calls or not. I don’t much care if people think I’m a tattletale, snitch, goody 2 shoes, or crybaby. My tax dollars go to the funding of the 911 system, and I am by Grok going to use it.

155

If you’re not willing to listen to what everyone has been telling you, go away.

911 is not the appropriate way to report scofflaws. It is for emergencies only, and your calls are not emergencies, and you may be tying up a phone line and delaying help for someone who has a genuine emergency. It is just that simple.

156

Darth, sorry if you took offense to the Martin Luther King Day thing.

Fact is, it was Martin Luther King Day. I don’t know what that means where you live, but here, every black guy takes Martin Luther King day off, as well they should (although I have seen employers take it badly).
That means everyone was milling about who would normally be working. I thought it was a shame to honor Rev. King by stealing a copier, that’s the only reason I remember what day it was. It dawned on me when I rounded the corner and saw 50+ people hanging around on the street.

So, yeah, Cinco de Mayo would be a bad day to chase homies into the barrio.

157

Sure. “Out of control” being the key phrase here. What you’re doing is more like going up to the crowd and interrupting their show to tell them a driver in a car down the street is on his cellphone and/or changed lanes without proper use of his turn signals. To which that crowd is going to dismiss you as a lunatic, and probably be pissed off at you for taking them away from enjoying the street music.

It’s a matter of degree, here. Many (perhaps all) in this thread have said it’s completely appropriate to call in reckless driving. I don’t think anybody here is disputing we have a civic duty to report a drunk driver or someone who is posing a clear and immediate danger. Minor traffic infractions–if you really are calling in for them (it’s not completely clear from your posts)–do not fall into this category.

158

This. Junior modding is something kayaker does not abide.

159

So call 911…

160

I saw a driver who was turning right at a red light. California law requires a turn signal for at least 100 feet before turning. This guy signaled for only about 80 feet!

Then, he slowed to about 1 or 2 MPH before making his turn. He did not come to a full stop at the red light before turning!

My 911 finger was getting really twitchy!

People like that are almost certain to ram through a crosswalk full of nuns and disabled children!