The point is that the cops don’t know if she’s a sky bunny or a liar who actually was involved.
The situation is akin to a three year old calling 911. Until the police make a visit to the residence, they don’t know if the kid is being abused, if Mommy “won’t wake up” or the child is just experimenting with what he’s learned about 911 in pre-school. Even if the kid does this repeatedly, it has to be checked out every time. Same goes for adults who aren’t quite in touch with reality for whatever reason.
I contest the idea that people involved are likely to use psychic visions as a pretext for calling the police. Does it happen? Sure. Does it happen with enough regularity that real police work should be sidetracked to chase down ‘leads’ based on fantasies? I don’t believe so.
Blah blah blah exceptions blah blah blah. If Barney Fife has nothing better to do than check out a corn field full of missing children, go for it. But a NYC Precinct has a lot more to do than follow up every call.
This could be broader than the finer point of supernatural vs. rationality. How about:
The individual tip-receiving officer or 911 call operator should not use any judgment in determining the veracity of a tip/call. Every call should be treated as equally valid. The decision to proceed further in an investigation should occur only after the investigating officer has devoted time and resources to a preliminary examination of the claim.
Quite possibly, yes. A lot of people aren’t real smart. You seem to me to be letting your distaste for all things woo get in the way of your judgment.
Anonymous tipsters (be their tips ultimately useful or totally useless) are often going to give a story that is totally unverifiable without putting in some effort. You are not, as a police officer sitting at your desk, going to be able to tell unless something about the story is inherently implausible.
If you, the tipster, have some real inside information, but the reason you have that information is somewhat questionable (you were slightly involved, you were trespassing when you saw what you saw, or whatever) what do you say to police? Well if you are not real smart and you think that the police actually believe in psychics (it’s on TV so it must be true, right?), then why not say that your tip came to you in a psychic vision? You reason that it’s a good excuse that the police will believe (yeah, right) and that it totally avoids having to give any explanation as to how you know what you know.
This sort of possibility cannot be discounted by police. Despite the distaste you may have, and contrary to what you say, all else being plausible police cannot discount “psychic” tips. The “psychic” angle could as easily be an indication that the tipster has real information and is offering a cover as an indication that they are a flake.
May I point out that the police weren’t acting ONLY on the basis of a “psychic’s call?” There was a recent Sheriff’s report about the residence involving a suicide attempt by an AWOL soldier who is now in psychiatric care.
Imagine: You’re a police officer. You get a phone call with details about bodies at a specific address. You look it up on your computer to see some police-coded thing that says: “Mentally ill AWOL soldier + lots and lots of blood”. Chances are very good that you will send some officers to the residence to follow up.
“Trucker Joe Bankson told the Houston Chronicle that his son Joe is a convicted sex offender, but said he hadn’t lived in their home for more than a year.”