Sometimes I have to wonder if the police here even care

[The Straight Story]

Some weeks back I was down the street - a police officer was there, had to do with a break in. Several neighbors were with me and we knew the kids who had did it. They have a history of mischief - from throwing rocks at my house (caught them), to running round the roof of my one neighbor's house (the one they broke into).

We let the cop know all this and more, he said that was past history. That we needed to call them more often when we see things, etc (we usually handles things here internally, and tried to with the mother of the kids but she got mad and accused my friend who confronted her with racism and that her kids would not do such things).

Fast forward. About 2 weeks ago I posted about some guy going door to door selling the local paper, except he was only knocking on doors where there were no cars in the driveway. Got a partial plate, called the police to report it (found out later from our local paper this was a known scam, and he should have shown ID - I know he didn't because he stopped at my X's home and she was there. They are working on the story).

NOW - Wednesday a faded gold mercedes pulled up in front of my old house. No one lives there, the family that bought it was not planning on moving in until next year. So I write the plate # down. The guy goes into the house, comes back out and gets a blanket from his trunk and lays it out on the back seat. Then he sees me.

Walks over and asks me if this is a good neighborhood, is thinking about buying the house, etc.

Long story short, he and his buddy who was in the back of the house earlier made some small talk and then left.

I walk over there, door is unlocked. A lot of aluminum siding is in living room, there is a compressor and such (mostly copper) sitting in kitchen.

Later on I call the police. The young cop that shows up does not even get out of his car and shrugs it all off, did not even want the plate info. Now we have had a LOT of break-ins around here, especially when homes have no one in them (I confirmed that in a subsequent call to the county auditor, people posing as buyers or maint. folks stealing copper/etc, he was more interested than the police).

So I called the bureau of motor vehicles, the plate was a dealer plate. So I got the dealer info and contact info (something the cops should have done IMHO).

It is a big dealership south of here (Columbus) in a small town. Called and talked to the guy in used cars and asked if they had any mercede's for sale. Nope. Have any in the last year even? Nope.

Called the same guy back later, told him why I called. He looked into it, and the HR dept called me.

Whether or not these guys were legit the plate should not have been on that car. The suspects (if you will) were both black men, and none even work there. Sometimes they give out loaner vehicles if someone needs work done, but even then they would not have an older (or any) mercedes to loan them.

HR, at this time, considers it a stolen plate.

Which is good for the guys in the car - break in and steal something, someone reports the plate, there is no name but the dealer name (and the dealer tracks who signs them out, from employees to customers).

The ONLY reason I am able to keep the police interested in this is that I called an old friend there and she is going to follow up when able. They didn't get the plate info from me or a description of the car, etc.

In summary - we have had a lot of crime here (87 houses here) and on most occasions it involved abandoned homes or people not at home. People here I know are keeping an eye out and reporting odd behavior, and the cops are not even writing down the most basic info when called.

This cop who came out was a jerk until I started giving it back to him (I am ex cop, one of the guys from your own substation told us to call more often to record things, how do you think IA would react if I called them, etc).

What does it take to get the cops here to at least write down basic info?

Don't they have any detectives there?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. Report it to their commander

or bring the matter up with your Councilman

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. I reported an assault this year and the watch commander laughed out loud

Then he took copious notes, grilling me about everything. When a detective called two weeks later he had no idea what had happened. The notes were not there. This is downtown Los Angeles and the watch commander didn't even know about the rent-a-cops that patrol in several regions of the area. Between incompetency and bad attitudes, the cops don't even need to abuse their powers to get my attention.

[Speck Tater]

2. I'm assuming you live in rural Mexico. Nothing like this could EVER happen in America.

:sarcasm:

[booley]

3. Get Publicity?

Take what you learned to the local news.

It's amazing how quickly an organization (private or public) will "correct the matter" when they get embarrassed on the news)

[ConnorMarc]

8. This Is True

I now walk around with numbers to all local and national media contact numbers.

Call the media on them and make a big deal out of it...it WILL get corrected with a quickness.

[ret5hd]

5. Video/audio of everything.

Cops, suspects, etc.

[Doremus]

6. More and more it seems people who live in big cities are basically on their own.

I don't know where you live but in Cleveland, near where I live, they recently stumbled across a serial killer, basically by accident. Not from lack of reports about him, because there were many, but because nobody could get off their duffs long enough to investigate him. He killed with impunity for YEARS.

If I lived in a large city I would consider myself on my own and plan accordingly. Nothing right about that but reality is a bitch. Your investigative work is a form of self-protection. Keep screaming until somebody listens.

[timeforpeace]

7. Don't let them treat you like you're some kind of nut. Go over their heads.

[ThatsMyBarack]

9. K&R....

:kick:

[paulsby]

10. i'll be the first to admit

there are some cops who are LAZY AS FUCK and will do almost anything, including 15 minutes of verbal calisthenics to avoid "paper" at all costs, and if they do write paper, will write the bare minimum. some agencies are better than others at weeding such guys out... usually you can tell during probation and can them then. but once they get off probation, and it's a civil service dept. with a decent union, mere laziness won't get them fired, and they know it. some were lazy from the start, but managed to act out of character during their probation. many others reach a certain point in their career where they've been beaten down too much, treated unfairly (at least they believe that. in some cases it's true), and learned that being proactive is more trouble than it's worth. they make the decision to do the bare minimum. in general, it is MUCH easier to get fired for what you do, then what you don't do. as long as they respond to their radio calls REASONABLY quickly, turn in the reports they write, and make arrests when they are statutorily mandated (which, apart from DV offenses is basically never), they can be as lazy as they want and nobody will stop them. we call them "retired on the job". they suck