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Police Response (or lack thereof...)

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Started 1 year ago by drew
Latest reply from economic guru

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drew

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So early this morning a couple of miscreants tried to steal the spare tire from under our 15 passenger van. They got the tire off of the van, but were caught by a neighbor who observed the whole thing, yelled at them, and scared them off. They left the tire on the ground.

My neighbor called the police, but the police never came. I know the typical 'wake up in the morning to find a smashed window on a car' won't rouse anything even approaching police interest, but I'm pretty surprised that an eyewitness means nothing to them. It doesn't seem like they're serious about even trying to stop this sort of crime.

Posted 1 year ago #
Twixlen
Westgate, Columbus
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Here's what I find so interesting about that....

I've been experiencing much the same thing, regarding reporting minor-but-still-a-crime stuff that happens, with one caveat. If I discover folks having sex in the park, 4 cop cars will be there within 5 minutes. A guy on a bike with a back pack checking for locked car doors doesn't elicit a drive through.

Posted 1 year ago #
lifeliberty
Here
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I keep hearing of police not showing up when called, but I have never had a problem. They've showed last time my truck was broken into, and in a short amount of time, within 10 minutes, and they took a report then and there. Nothing was stolen, but a guy was walking down the street smashing windows and then coming back to loot the cars. this was about 3 years ago, maybe the redistricting has hurt them.

Posted 1 year ago #
Tenzo
Chicago Lakeshore
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Twixlen wrote >>
Here's what I find so interesting about that....
I've been experiencing much the same thing, regarding reporting minor-but-still-a-crime stuff that happens, with one caveat. If I discover folks having sex in the park, 4 cop cars will be there within 5 minutes. A guy on a bike with a back pack checking for locked car doors doesn't elicit a drive through.

Called about a guy in german village ducking into yards. He was wearing dark sweatshirt with a hoodie pulled up on a 90 degree day. Dispatcher took the information as to were and what he looked at, but didnt care about the direction the guy was going or what he was doing.
OK, fine, get the hint.

And why do you tell about people having sex in the park. Just as long as they don't scare the horses.......

Posted 1 year ago #
rory
Weinland Park in the Historic Short North
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I got excellent response time when I called about a running gun battle north of my house and also the time a guy was screaming about headless body that he had. Turned out it was just an Iraq flashback. In Weinland Park the response time has been phenomenal lately. Almost like, "How did you know?".

Posted 1 year ago #
Twixlen
Westgate, Columbus
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Tenzo wrote
And why do you tell about people having sex in the park. Just as long as they don't scare the horses.......

I can't let my dog witness that crap! He'll be scarred for life.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
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My parent's neighbor in Grove City had a car broken into Saturday night (doors unlocked) and the police came and dusted for prints.

Posted 1 year ago #
drew

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Re redistricting - It's funny, since redistricting I've seen an almost absurd amount of police cars roaming the streets around here during the day. Victorian Village is pretty damned calm during the day. At night? Can't get one even when there's an actual crime!

Posted 1 year ago #
JonMyers
Ao Nang, Krabi, Thailand
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Back in June I set off the alarm on a Sunday morning at a friend's house on Park street in VV. I locked myself out of the house, my phone was inside, and I was waiting on the cops to show up so I could go get back up keys at my apartment.

In all it took the cops about 45 minutes to show up at 9AM on a Sunday morning.

Posted 1 year ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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drew wrote >>
Re redistricting - It's funny, since redistricting I've seen an almost absurd amount of police cars roaming the streets around here during the day. Victorian Village is pretty damned calm during the day. At night? Can't get one even when there's an actual crime!

I'm wondering if that is due to the shifting of everything in the short north south of 2nd ave and downtown out of dispatch zone 4 into the dispatch zone 5. Zone 5 is hella busy at night 'cause it also includes south east of downtown.

Posted 1 year ago #
rus

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Mercurius wrote >>
My parent's neighbor in Grove City had a car broken into Saturday night (doors unlocked) and the police came and dusted for prints.

Wow. That's the first time I've heard of a car break in rating forensics. Sounds like your parent's neighbor has a bit of pull.

Posted 1 year ago #
rus

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Twixlen wrote >>

Tenzo wrote
And why do you tell about people having sex in the park. Just as long as they don't scare the horses.......

I can't let my dog witness that crap! He'll be scarred for life.

*arf arf reeeooofff! ARF!*

translation: how dare they call THAT doggie style!

Posted 1 year ago #
Oak
Schumacher Place/German Village area
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I can "maybe" shed a little light into the dispatching process for Columbus. Calls that come in aren't done on a first come, they are assigned a priority status; essentially a triage system. Higher priority calls get pushed to the top of the queue in a constantly changing lineup. It is possible and happens on a fairly frequent basis that low priority calls (i.e. property crime reports) get pushed to the bottom and maybe don't make their way to the top of the pile until the next day! That's because higher priority calls (felonies and violent crimes in progress) keep flowing in. While this system does make you wait on occasion, it does assure that resources are freed up when really bad things are happening. I'm sure that you wouldn't want police response to a moving gun battle to be delayed because they were taking a report of a smashed car window. Columbus Police also have a self-reporting system that you can use to report crimes if you don't want to wait on an officer.

Posted 1 year ago #
melikecheese
Merion Village
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I watched the people next door selling drugs on the street with other cars as the source, saw over ten cars stop and make purchases within 15 mins.

Called police, gave plate numbers, described what was happening, 15 mins later they were gone, people next door went inside and cops never came. This wasn't a some kids are stealing hurry up or you will miss them, this was, yup they are just working in the street, I am watching money go from hand to hand to hand and small bags go back to hand to hand to hand, come on over and get them kinda thing. But I guess they were too busy, or maybe already arrested enough people that month.

Posted 1 year ago #
Chris Sherman
East Franklinton
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the sunday after comfest i arrived back at my shop to find 2 people stealing metal and equipment from the neighboring building. they ripped the back wall off with there truck and was loading it up. i called the police reported a burglary in progress. her very first question was "is this an abandoned building?" well that pissed me off. i told her it was a building used for storage and its being robbed so please send someone. i waited 10 min called back, her response was they are too busy. i hung up grabbed a hammer and jumped in my truck, blocked their vehicle in and hit them with a 1.5 mill lumen side light. they came out with hands up, at that point all i could was wait. kept the light in their eyes and made them back to the wall. they got restless so i called back. told them i had them faced on the wall hands in then air, dispatcher said they are on their way. now mind you there is a police station 2 blocks away on town st. i could hear the officers testing there sirens it was shift change. 5 min no cops, the thieves tried to flank me so i took off on foot back to my shop. the thieves also ran off on foot...

long story short i walked to town st and had to flag down a police car, the officers weren't even aware of the call. they took their truck 3 days later a detective called me i filed a complaint. whats funny is every time i talk to the cops now they ask me about that night. i guess it stirred things up at the station.

i have no problem protecting the neighbors and my property, i just wish the cops would to. that night was completely unacceptable, even after i called and said that i had confronted them they still would not come and they were 2 blocks away. honestly i have learned a few things when dealing with 911. ask for their tech number and tell them you think they have a gun. from my first call to me flagging them down 25 min had passed.

Posted 1 year ago #
Snarf
How Do I Delete My Account
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that's quite a story! shame they were allowed to get the truck back.

Posted 1 year ago #
Chris Sherman
East Franklinton
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well i had to wait for the tow truck to arrive, the police had to leave.... lets just say it was missing every inch of glass and who knew latex house paint doesn't mix well with oil. a 20oz hammer can do some real damage to the top end of an engine too. also the truck had to be pulled out and they broke his transmission. i wanted to burn it to the ground personally but i dont think that was an option.

2 years ago somebody was stealing parts from the neighboring shops cars. the police basically laughed at us. fine we can take care of this. 2 nights later dude shows back up. starts to jack up a car, several point blank frozen paint ball shots to the face and a good ass beating later he runs off leaving his car running with his girl friend in the front seat. police were called she gave up the goods, he was arrested at his home. hey the cops dont care then what are we left to do ya know?

Posted 1 year ago #
Snarf
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haha nice!

Posted 1 year ago #
Bear
The woods
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So, my two cents on this.

Our bikes got stolen a couple of years back. We called the police when my wife tracked down the thieves and had them in sight, and they appeared to apprehend. All well and good.

At the end of my interview with the officer, he said, "So are you planning to press charges?"

Wait, what?

"What do you mean, am I planning to press charges? This is a criminal offense. Why do I need to press charges? You guys caught them with our bikes. Isn't that enough?"

The answer, basically, was "No." He said that, overwhelmingly, most people are happy to get their property back and are unwilling to show up in court to state for the record that yes, this is the person who took my stuff, or even, yes, that is my stuff. They don't want to get involved, they're afraid of retribution, etc. And as a result, when the criminals come up for trial, it's fairly straightforward for them to be acquitted, without witnesses, even if they were caught red-handed. So the police often don't bother to go after these sorts of crimes, because they know from experience that most of the time they're just wasting their time.

"You have got to be kidding."

Nope.

"Tell me where and when I need to show up."

His eyebrows went up and he reopened his notepad.

We went to court. Never had to testify. The fact that we were out in the hallway was enough that the bike thieves took a plea. Cost us a couple of hours, and we never saw them.

Posted 1 year ago #
myliftkk
Columbus, OH
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@sherman - You need to get your bounty hunting license. :)

Posted 1 year ago #