[RP TownTalk] burglary in Ward 2 reply and question

[Sarah Wayland]

> Pardon my being nitpicky, but I know you didn't mean to say it's ok to call in a
> false alarm - I think you can get fined or even arrested for that!  That would
> be deliberately calling in about a crime/emergency that isn't happening.  But
> yes, I agree with you 100 percent that if you see something that doesn't look
> "right," it's best to call the police and let THEM determine what to do.

Thanks, Sue, for the clarification.

Years ago, when we had an active Neighborhood Watch program here in
town, the community police officer who met with us spent a fair amount
of time explaining to us that it wasn't BAD to call in something that
looked a little weird. Many of the people he was talking to were
reluctant to call something in because they felt like it was
infringing on someone's privacy, or wasting our police officers' time.
To them, it felt like a false alarm.

The police officer said that in his experience, if something looks
weird, it usually *is* weird. Our officers are trained to respond
appropriately.

An example he gave was of cars just sitting on the street for 10-15
minutes, and then driving away. That looks completely innocuous, but
it turns out that this is classic "drug dropoff" behavior. So if you
see unfamiliar cars just sitting next to your house for a few minutes
and then driving away, you might want to call the police about that.
And get a good description of the car (with license plate numbers) if
possible.

-Sarah


-- 
Sarah Wayland
sarah.wayland at gmail.com