If you drive a lot as a vocation and work a specific area you tend to know directions and locations as a matter of general work knowledge. Like any job related wisdom.
I know little about the workings of computer networks and would look upon the automatic infromation regular comp net folks know as something special. Police, locations and directions are all part of a day’s work, as would knowledge of dead ends, typical running escape routes, ways to cut off a foot chase and other facts built up over time.
Pre GPS and Google Maps, I used to have to get driving directions from customers prior to my appointments. The number of people who do not know their cardinal directions astouned me. I was fortunate in that my dad was a stickler for me learning my directions, street signs, landmarks, etc. at an early age. I hate to even think about how emergency dispatchers could ever figure out where to send help.
Or, if that’s too Creationist for you:
“Juan (de Fuca, of course) Crashing Mighty Slowly Under People”
But it still takes some work for a non-native like myself. The mnemonic runs south to north, and each letter stands for two streets, so you have to just know that Pike comes before Pine…
Some people have an innate sense of direction, and some people don’t. It seems unlikely to me that every cop has it. There have been polls on this very board showing that less than half the population has it.
I know I don’t. I still need to orient myself, except at places where I’ve specifically oriented myself in the past and memorized which direction is which (like, at my house). And, no, doing so while driving is not possible because it requires me to look behind myself and and doesn’t work at all times of day. And I generally have to be in a fixed position.
However, if I understand correctly, cops don’t use the cardinal directions. They are just referring to street directions, which makes simplified assumptions that all streets are perfectly straight, follow compass directions, and only make 90 degree turns. That’s much more easy to both construct in your head and therefore memorize over time. If I’m going “north” on highway 6 and turn left on Spring Avenue, I’m now going “west,” not counting any of the curves on highway 6 that may mean you are now going, for example, closer to cardinal northwest.
But, even then, I would expect that some people can’t handle even that simplification without significant thought that would distract them while driving. It would be far less distracting to look down at a compass.
Saying people can just learn a sense of direction is like saying that people can learn perfect pitch.
This is incorrect as Washington is very much laid out in a grid. All the lettered streets go east-west and all the numbered streets go north-south. The avenues (e.g. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York…) cut across the city diagonally (sort of). If a cop says he’s going west on M street he will be on his way to Georgetown. North on 16th and he’s basically heading towards Philly.
DC was planned and laid out by Pierre L’Enfant who for the most part did a very nice job.
The point you may be hung up on, however, is that the police do not need to be providing a specific compass direction. They are trying to communicate the location and direction of a target vehicle. They do not even have to be technically correct, as long as the information they provide corresponds to the idea that all the other police and emergency workers understand.
There is a street in Detroit, (Outer Drive), that (literally) winds its way from South of Dearborn in the Southwest, up the west side of Detroit, turns East to travel a bit south of the Northern border, then turns South to run along the Eastern suburbs. Throughout its path, it takes frequent turns. Rather than knowing the specific direction that it is pointing at any specific point, most drivers, (and, I presume, the police) simply refer to it going North or South on the west side, East or West on the North side, and North or South on the east side. Having driven the route for more than a day or two, even those police who are directionally challenged are going to recognize the convention regarding which direction they should call out at any specific location.
If he is between Evergreen and Schaefer and he is pointing toward Schaefer, then the convention is that he is going East. (And a policeman who is still checking maps to find out the streets he is patrolling when he is out on the beat is going to find himself at a desk or out of a job pretty quickly.)
I have a friend who was a non-emergency dispatcher. He said that many people knew which way was city-bound or out-bound. Some knew North or South. The rest you had to figure out from things like Left, Right.
In a large city like Indy, they break the city down into several layers of zones. Within a precinct, you will have cars assigned to specific boundaries. Otherwise, the radio traffic would be horribly busy.
Do a ride along some time. Just sign the waivers, and they make you wear a dress shirt and tie. Most cities encourage these. Your bucket list should include being in a high speed pursuit ending in a pit maneuver, ideally in the car with the red/blue lights.
Like some other posters, for some reason I always have an accurate sense of direction.
BTW - does everyone here know how to look at the big dipper, and align its corner spout with the leading star in the small dipper, to find Polaris - the North star? You really should have this memorized - it has saved many lives.
I once hired three truck drivers and used them for about a month before I began to realize none of them could read a map. Could hardly read the signs, but definitely, not a map. We sent them from Pittsburgh to Richmond, Va to pick up some furniture, and they wound up in Cleveland, truck impounded for wrong license, had to bail them out.
But, if it was daylight, and you told them to go north to Erie, or south to Washington, they’d get there just fine.
I think it’s because they can easily simplify the complicated curvy roads into a simple grid (like the london underground map), so on a particular road a person can only go east/west or north/south (that’s why they say which street they’re heading on to instead of " suspect went north north northeast on roundabout") atleast that’s my wager
