Would this fly here?

[shooter1201]

British Madness

[KCSOZ20]

The sad matter of fact truth is, is that it already happens here!

Some agencies are so understaffed and working skeleton crews that issues like this are regularly handled with a report and that is all that happens.

Some agencies have what is called a T.R.U. or telephone reporting unit. Now as most of the experienced officers here know, a victim of a burglary/theft will not have any serial numbers or owner applied numbers to their property. Therefore it makes it very difficult to find and recover property.

T.R.U.'s will take your burg/car prowl report over the phone, give you a case number so you can turn it over to your insurance company.

In this world of budget cuts and manpower cutbacks this is the fallout from that!

Ken

[Gary L]

Man that sounds like they are telling the burglers and muggers, you have a free pass.

[PeacefulDragon]

Didn't the Los Angeles Police Dept just this week announce that they will no longer respond to burglar alarms? Talk about an invite to burglars!

IIRC, it was just the week prior that they announced they would also cease chasing people(!)(at least for some lesser offenses).

[Evnings]

Our CID has used a solvability scale for a few years to determine how much, if any time. they are going to put into investigating offense.

We still take the initial report, but if there are no suspects, similiars M.O.'s etc, CID isn't going to do anything with the offense except suspend it after 60 days.

[Delta_V]

quote:

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Originally posted by KCSOZ20:
Some agencies have what is called a T.R.U. or telephone reporting unit.

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What's wrong with such a unit? Isn't it more effective to have street patrol officers actually on patrol and responding to in-progress calls than to have them tied up on report calls?

[KCSOZ20]

quote:

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Originally posted by PatrickM98:

quote:

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Originally posted by KCSOZ20:
Some agencies have what is called a T.R.U. or telephone reporting unit.

---

What's wrong with such a unit? Isn't it more effective to have street patrol officers actually on patrol and responding to in-progress calls than to have them tied up on report calls?

---

I never said there was anything wrong with these type of units. But one reason why they have them is because of a manpower shortage. If there were enough patrol units on the street, that would allow a real officer to respond inperson to address the citizens concern.

Because of shortages and cutbacks sometimes the citizen gets to talk to a voice on theother end of a telephone.

Is this right? No. Is it out of neccessity due to manpower and budget cuts? Yes

Ken

[Sig220Man]

Many agencies here already have taken similar steps.

In addition to the aforementioned TRU's and non-response to alarm calls, many agencies will not send a sworn officer to many types of property crimes that do not have a suspect there or in the immediate area. You may be told to come into the station to make the report, it may be taken over the telephone, or a non-sworn police employee (cadet/CSO/etc.) will be sent instead.

I can understand why. The overwhelming majority of property crimes go unsolved, and in most cases a report serves little more than allow the victim to file a claim with their insurance company. With manpower shortages and shrinking budgets (to shrink even further if the recession continues), it makes no sense to send a fully sworn officer to write down a report that will go no further than the filing cabinet it's placed in.

[Urban Jedi]

The practice of 'non-investigation' has been going on for some time.

When I worked in a busy CID office, a lot of our time was spent finding reasons not to investigate things (i.e. what was the potential for arresting someone for the offence;how solvable was it?) because our workload was so immense.

Now, on front line duties, it appears that we are encouraged to do little if no initial investigation, and the informal rule of thumb is that if you havent got anyone arrested at scene or immediately afterwards, without any 100% irrefutable forensic possibilities, then the crime goes unsolved.

I have been informally reprimanded about efforts I have made for certain crimes I have reported in that the lengths I have gone to to secure potential forensic evidence at the scene were not befitting the 'type' of crime (i.e. retention of exhibits at scene for forensication for an 'unimportant' theft or criminal damage)

We also have telephone reporting units, who will take reports of minor crime over the phone to save officers attending the victims address. A fairly good idea when theres 6 officers patrolling my area (supposed to be 18) and 4 of those have less than 1 years service.........

The mind boggles.

[Deputy757]

quote:

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Originally posted by PatrickM98:
[QUOTE]What's wrong with such a unit? Isn't it more effective to have street patrol officers actually on patrol and responding to in-progress calls than to have them tied up on report calls?

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Amen brother. I can't tell you how fed up I get going to a report call only to have the victim say..."I wouldn't have bothered calling but my insurance company says I need a report." TRU's or whatever you call them are a great tool. If a citizen wants to actually speak to a police officer in person, fine. But let's cut out all of the fluff.
I'm not surprised that this is happening in the UK though. In a place where you don't even have to have a drivers license to get hired, where you may only have two PC's on a squad actually allowed to drive a police vehicle and even if they can do that...they may not be certified to drive it as an emergency vehicle...what do you expect?

[Urban Jedi]

quote:

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In a place where you don't even have to have a drivers license to get hired...

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I dont have one. I never have had one, and cannot drive a car. I have been in the police for 8 years now, and have never encountered a problem with not being able to drive. I've got a perfectly good pair of fully functioing legs, complete with feet!

[Bill R]

The UK truly is a whole 'nuther place! I can't even imagine a fuctional adult not knowing how to drive...

[Urban Jedi]

Who said anything about me being a 'functional adult'..........

[Bill R]

Sorry Urban Jedi, no offense intended.