I listen to police radio while I’m online pretty often. Usually local stuff, but Chicago is always active and very entertaining. One thing that surprises me is how many Chicago people call 911 for trivial things that IMHO waste police resources. For example, non-violent domestic disputes, people arguing in the street, roommate property disputes, escort this person from the property, and my favorite, mom calls to complain that teen is being disrespectful. Seriously?
I realize I don’t have all the facts, some of the people calling might have violent histories, but it just seems like some people are quick to involve the cops for the drama of it.
Would you call for any of the situations I listed? Maybe I’m wrong for feeling the way I do.
And, story time! Have you ever called the cops for anything?
I called the cops a few years ago when we heard neighbors arguing, looked out the window and saw him going after her with a broom handle through the open car window. There was an obvious threat to injury there. I don’t know what came of it because we went to bed when we saw the cops arrive. But the next morning only one car was there. I didn’t grow up around violence so it’s pretty shocking to see people act that way.
I’ve called a few times: to report a suspected drunk driver, to report someone passed out on the side of the road, and to report that our garage had been broken in to. I called 911 for the drunk driver, and the non-emergency number for the other two.
My husband has called bylaw a couple of times for things the people renovating up the road were doing (i.e. dumping concrete wash out water on the curb, which leads in to the storm sewer, which goes directly in to the river).
In 1992 my car got stolen from in front of my apartment. I called the police, they took a report, and they found my car a few days later.
I few years ago, a young guy showed up on my front porch at about midnight on a Friday, drunk or drugged and bleeding from what looked like the results of a fist fight. He really wanted me to open the door. I told him to sit down while I called the police. The police arrived in a few minutes and gave him a ride.
Once when someone was driving down our street opening mailboxes. I had had something stolen out of our mailbox (a Netflix DVD) and I was out walking the dog, so I got the license number and called the cops on my cell. My next door neighbor also spotted it and dropped the dime. They caught the guy who was doing it, and nobody lost anything.
I also called the cops one winter night when it was 25[sup]o[/sup] below zero F and a dog was left outside. Those neighbors divorced and he moved away a few months later and took the dog with him.
I called the local non-emergency line a few years ago to report someone with a cage full of puppies for sale (or possibly giveaway). They had a card table set up about 4 feet from a major 4 lane rd, at a busy intersection on a route that gets a lot of mixed traffic. It was loud and hot and not the place to sell anything, let alone puppies.
Don’t know what happened, I had to leave or I would have come home with a cage full of puppies I didn’t really want or need…
Yep. I have no problem dialin6g 911 where the situation warrants it.
I did so just a few days ago. You know those huge steel troughs that attached to a cement truck?
There was one laying in the middle of the BQE.
Recipe for accident at high speeds.
I have also called the FBI on occasion.
Hour was from midnight to 2AM, don’t remember exactly. I was walking back to my place and heard a kid crying in a car. Kid was young enough to be in a child seat. I couldn’t see it well because the car and the residential street were dark. No one was around. I stuck around for a bit but no one came. I called the police station for them to check it out on their patrol through the neighborhood. Probably nothing but they were going to make a patrol anyway and if the kid was still there when they came by, that wasn’t good.
I don’t know if that counts as frivolous. Maybe the parent was going to come back quickly, maybe it was an irresponsible/forgetful parent, dunno.
As for calling the cops to have someone escorted off the property, that might be quite wise if the person is unwilling to leave.
I’ve witnessed fights where both combatants were willing participants and I never for a minute considered calling 911.
I called once when two drivers were battling on the road, hitting each other’s cars, passing and cutting off, etc. They pulled off the road and as I drove by I called 911 with their location and a description of what I’d seen. Never heard the outcome, though.
I call them all the time. Years ago, called because a couple of neighbors were having an outdoors late-night argument that had become so heated I was concerned it might become violent.
I call a few times a year to report cars that have become disabled in driving lanes; this is a serious rear-ending hazard that merits a squad car with lights ablaze parked well back of the disabled vehicle.
I also call regularly to report hazardous debris in driving lanes, and the occasional car crash.
Wife and I were once sitting in a restaurant for lunch when we saw a homeless guy pass out in a snowbank across the street. Called 911; police showed up in a few minutes, ambulance showed up a few minutes later. He got up and entered the ambulance with minor assistance, so I guess he wasnt’ in too bad a shape, but apparently the responding officer felt the ambulance was necessary, so I figured my call was in turn justified as well.
Once I was heading to work at about 1100pm (I worked overnight at the time), headed north up Georgia Ave NW and found myself behind an obvious impaired driver. He was wildly varying speeds, anywhere from a 10 mph crawl to rapidly accelerating up to about 40, drifting between lanes, slowly listing across the double yellow line into oncoming traffic, then suddenly jerking back to the proper side, etc., so I pulled out my phone and called. The 911 operator was very rude, and actually chastised me for using my cell phone while driving and reminding me I could be cited for it. Right about then the guy sideswiped a couple of police cars parked on the side of the road in front of what was then Walter Reed.
Called police at least four times : once for a weird and long to explain situation on a country road that made us suspect rape, once the Canadian police for an actual rape I had been made aware of on the internet, once for a street fight, once because a friend with serious health issues wasn’t answering the phone.
I called the cops one time for a drunk neighbor sitting outside in the snow. Too drunk to get back to his apartment 300 ft away. I knew he could be mean after drinking. So I called the cops and they got him back to his apartment.
But the cops told him I called!!! WTH? I had to deal with a pissed off neighbor for two years until I moved across town.
Another time, long ago, when my boyfriend and I came back to our house and found the door ajar, plus my go-cart sort of slung between the house and a tree with a rope. The police came and checked out the house for us, ignoring the tray of weed on the coffee table, but nearly shooting my cat when he jumped out from behind the bed. We later found out that it was a “prank” played on us by drunk friends.
I think three times:
Once a naked guy was on the street doing exercises, clearly high as shit, then he’d put his underwear on, take it off, and start doing exercises again. I called 911 to report it and the asked for a description and I said “he’s the only naked guy on the block.”
A drunk driving through the alley and plowed his car through my neighbor’s fence.
My wife and I witnessed a shooting (more accurately a shoot at, since the guy missed his target).
A few times. Once when a drunk guy was getting the shit kicked out of him by four dudes in the middle of a street. Once when some dude was being chased by two guys with chains. Then there was the time the guy living above us threatened to kill himself. Shortly after someone threw a back threw the window of the common entrance to our building.
DC 911 operators are the worst. When I called in the shooting and tried to tell her where the guy was running and what he was wearing, she acted like I was wasting her time, like I had called because I saw someone running a stop sign.
I almost called the non-emergency number late one night to report some jerk holding drum practice. Turned out to be Duhbya’s impromptu fireworks display for Presidente Vicente Fox.
I call the non-emergency number…a lot, come to think of it. Never 911.
When there was a motorcycle idling loudly in the neighbor’s driveway for over 90 mins in the middle of the night.
When people were parked on both sides of our tiny street during a high school football game, leaving one lane down the middle. If an emergency vehicle had to come through, it’d be fucked. (they erected signs the next day)
When I found a lost dog. (They found the owner)
When a Stop sign had been knocked over and was lying in the road.