s/o Would you call the police?

[weaver_67579]

I would only call for a n actual crime.

I don't understand the"suspicious person" calls. Maybe because I have never lived in a nice, white, suburban housing subdivision. Just seeing an unusual person in my neighborhood would not set off my alarm bells.

I live in a rural area on a farm. I know most all the neighbors and regular joggers and such. An unusual person in my neighborhood would definitely catch my attention and I write down a description on the calendar with time/description and if applicable-type of vehicle and plate number. A neighbor was burglarized a while ago. I have kicked hunters off of our property and would call police if they would act in any way off. I would kick any trespasser off. If someone unknown/uninvited was around any of the farm buildings or the house, I would call the police. Race or religion would not make a difference in the decision to call on someone. However, being a predominantly white agricultural community in the northern US-not many people of color here-so they would be easy to identify as not a "regular" on my road. I have no issue with the Hispanic neighbor down the street-other than their ignorant dog and would not be more or less likely to call on them -vs-other neighbors. I have a driveway alarm on our farm lane so we are not surprised by people coming in the drive. I see a car coming before they get to the house.

 

I have called 911 for brush fires, a chimney fire at our house, people swerving around the road-presumably drunk, and toddlers playing in the street that cussed me out when I tried to get them off the road-more than once. I have called the non-emergency number for people I have seen regularly driving kids around without being in car seats (my Mom was on an ambulance crew in the rural area I grew up in-I have seen people that have gone through a window in an accident)-personal issue for me. I have also talked to the police after seeing a drug deal in my church parking lot.

[MistyMountain]

I got to add to my calls today. There is a homeless camp outside my community garden that "moved" into the woods behind the garden. Most of them were very inebriated young men. In the past few days they have been demanding to get in the fenced in garden to a few of the gardeners. Today about 15 men went in the woods to the camp in small groups thoughout the day. There was some yelling in the woods but periods of quiet too. Then a group of two men and one very drunk women who had to be held up and was barely walking came walking by. She ended up passing out completely and the two guys hug each other right after she passed out. One of the guys carried her completely limp into the woods with at least 15 drunk guys in there. I called a place where you call for people who are really publically drunk and they said it warranted a call to the police which they transferred me too.

[Meriwether]

I called the police when our home was robbed. I called after a non emergency accident. I have never seen a drug deal, violence, etc. I do see homeless people fairly regularly, but it wouldn't occur to me to call the cops? I would be highly unlikely to call the cops on anyone, so nothing has changed for me.

Edited July 31, 2016 by Meriwether

[zoobie]

This is an interesting question for me because I live in a neighborhood that has gentrified greatly over the decade and a half we've been here so we've seen a lot of transitional stuff and I've definitely been faced with this question and have read some interesting dialogue about it - about both calling the cops for vague and nuisance complaints in general and about gentrifiers calling the cops specifically and all the issues around that.

 

There are situations that I called the cops about when we were newer to our 'hood that, after seeing how the cops dealt with it, I stopped calling. Specifically, about homeless people and people using drugs or people just hanging around. In nearly all cases, these were black and Latino men. Sometimes the cops hassled them in ways that I didn't feel totally awesome about, though I never saw anything awful, I just, after some reflection, stopped calling in those complaints. Someone sleeping on the play equipment at the park, I"m letting it go. Kids smoking pot on the corner, letting that go (of course, now it's legal, so of course I'm letting it go).

 

So, I think my behavior had already changed, if that makes sense.

 

Of course, there's a whole host of other things I'll still call about. About half a dozen times, I've seen serious violence either happening or about to happen. Most notably, I was once standing at the window, holding the phone at 2 am, debating whether to hit call on the 911 I'd already dialed when the people who were having the argument went from words to baseball bats. I hit dial, of course. And, honestly, I dropped down to the ground on instinct. Twice, I've seen guys beating women in the street in front of the house. Once, I saw a scuffle and couldn't decide if it was friendly until I opened the door holding the phone and they ran off. I probably scared them away, which is good - the victim was a bloody mess.

 

And I'll still call noise complaints if it's past midnight and it's really loud.

 

In some of these cases, I don't even understand what was being called in. Like the autistic guy with the toy truck... what was the point of the initial call? I just don't get it.

The call was from a woman driving down the road. She wasn't sure if the truck was a gun, but they were in the middle of the street. I can see why she called. She didn't want them to get hit by a car or for anyone to get shot. She told 911 she wasn't sure it was a gun. It's reasonable for a citizen to expect police to help in that situation and to call 911 to handle it instead of possibly putting yourself in danger or making it worse. She couldn't foresee the police would wind up shooting the therapist! http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/north-miami/article92497672.html

Edited July 31, 2016 by zoobie