Police Response Time

greener · Post by **greener** » Thu May 07, 2009 6:38 pm

Monday night I heard noises outside and poked my head out the door three times and didn't see anything. Tuesday morning I discovered that the noises were the destruction of the mail boxes on my block. At 8 AM it took three calls to get the complaint registered. I was told that this was the responsibility of the Community Officer assigned to my neighborhood, but we didn't have one assigned (and haven't for some time). Eight hours later an officer called. We agreed that there wasn't much he could do about the vandalism and he was very non-committal on my request for additional after-dark police presence in the neighborhood, even after I mentioned that I lived next to the partially boarded up house that had a fire 5 months ago. (My neighbors walked on their mortgage a year ago. In January there was a fire in the house. In March, the mortgage company got around to boarding up the broken windows but didn't bother to pick up the debris from the fire. ) The nice officer told me to immediately call the main number if I heard any noises again. Gee, 4 calls and an 8-hour response is reassuring. I suppose the thing to do if I want response in less than a day is to go outside and fire two rounds from a revolver in the air then go back inside and call 911 to report hearing shots fired.

Now explain to me why I wouldn't want something for home defense and just rely on the police.

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Thu May 07, 2009 7:38 pm

Remember, that a call to 911 could take the rest of your life.

KAZ · Post by **KAZ** » Thu May 07, 2009 8:25 pm

Not good. To bad that the house next door is still standing. I believe very much in the broken window theory that once things are let go around you nothing good happens. Take care of yourself! Regards

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Thu May 07, 2009 8:37 pm

KAZ wrote:Not good. To bad that the house next door is still standing. I believe very much in the broken window theory that once things are let go around you nothing good happens. Take care of yourself! Regards

In my travels through my town, you see a lot of abandoned houses in just about any neighborhood not just the bad part of town but in some fairly affluent areas also.

Post by **Bullseye** » Thu May 07, 2009 9:42 pm

A while back an old Victorian was donated to our city. It was a nice house that needed some loving to be made nice again. It sat empty for four or five years and the city did nothing with it. When they finally decided what to do with it, the SWAT team showed up and held training in it. They kicked in all the walls and doors and made a huge mess. A few months later some kids went in and burned it to the ground. What a shame. The family that donated it hoped that it would be restored but all it got was trashed. The city can't do anything with the land because there's a family graveyard on it, so now it sits all overgrown with a big pile of mostly burned timbers in the middle. Really does not make me happy but there's nothing I can do about it. At least the property is overgrown enough that you cannot see the mess. The city just dumped a big pile of dirt in the driveway so no one could enter. What a waste.

R,
Bullseye

greener · Post by **greener** » Thu May 07, 2009 10:40 pm

Although I'm not happy with the glacial speed of getting the house back to code or otherwise dealt with, I'm more concerned about what it may attract and the attitude of Henrico PD. The only crime prevention the police can do is to have a random presence in areas that might be a problem, the rest of the time their job is to take notes after the fact. The idea that after four calls and a response 8 hours later and then being told to call that number if I had a problem sort of lit my fuze.

Post by **Bullseye** » Thu May 07, 2009 10:58 pm

You're right to be concerned, the na'er-do-wells will find that house and make a refuge out of it. Also very disconcerting is the lack of apparent concern by the doughnut patrol. Of course they'll feign concern when something bad happens and then blame the neighborhood for overlooking the problem. Passing the buck is our national pastime here lately. Nobody seems to understand personal responsibility especially those who are charged with keeping society safe. I'm not knocking cops, I know plenty on the job some within my own family, even have one on the wall at the memorial. Individual cops are the good guys but that big blue institution needs some serious overhauling.

R,
Bullseye