One of the worst times to start building a relationship between the police and the community is when something has already gone wrong. Emotions are high, people want answers, and we’re expected to make decisions while everyone is trying to figure out whether they can trust each other. I don’t expect everybody in town to…
Most people know to call the police when something looks wrong. The harder part is knowing what information actually helps once you make that call. You don’t need to investigate anything yourself or decide whether a crime has been committed. What helps is telling us what you actually saw, where it happened, and what is…
Most scams don’t work because the person on the other end is especially convincing. They work because they convince you that you don’t have time to think. You get a phone call saying there’s a warrant for your arrest. A message says your bank account has been compromised. Someone claims a family member is in…
If you only see the blue lights, you’re only seeing a small part of the day in a small police department. From the outside, quiet can look like we’re sitting around waiting for something to happen. From my side of the desk, it usually means I finally have time to work on everything the last…
You filed a police report, received a case number, and went about the rest of your day. A few days later, you haven’t heard anything. You don’t know whether someone is working on it, whether there’s been any progress, or whether you should call and ask. There’s nothing wrong with following up. You reported something…
When someone reports a crime, explaining what happened may only take a few minutes. You told the officer what happened. They took some notes, maybe took pictures, talked to a couple of people, and left. A day or two later, you call because your insurance company wants the report. And we tell you it isn’t…
You see something happening in your neighborhood, call the police, and explain the problem. An officer comes out, talks to a few people, and leaves without arresting anyone. From your side, it may look like nothing happened. Sometimes the officer could have explained the response better. But there are also times when we know something…
Sometimes I know more than I can tell you. That doesn’t mean I’m hiding something, and it doesn’t mean the department gets to say “no comment” and disappear. It means there are times when putting out everything we know would be a bad idea. Maybe two witnesses are telling us different stories. Maybe we have…
People carry a gun because they want it available if something goes wrong, but then they get where they’re going, leave it in the car, and walk away. Now it can’t serve the purpose they carried it for, but it can still be stolen or found by somebody who shouldn’t have it. At that point,…
When you call the police, the officer who shows up usually knows a lot less about what’s happening than you think he does. Dispatch may have given him an address, a name, and a couple of sentences about why somebody called. Meanwhile, you’ve been standing in the middle of the problem for twenty minutes, two…