Pittsburgh Council debates not dispatching police for Theft, etc. (crimes, living in)

[TechCom]

City Council To Hold Meeting On Pittsburgh Police Response Policy « CBS Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh City Council will hold a public hearing this afternoon on changes to the police response policy.

The chief of police presented a list of 14 types of calls that would be handled by phone, meaning the public won’t always get an officer sent to them if there’s not much in the way of evidence to collect.

Things like burglaries, theft, minor accidents. Instead, a report would be filed over the phone.

[SteelCityRising]

Um, I actually work for the Telephone Report Unit. An officer is ALWAYS sent to the scene for a burglary or attempted burglary. We only take burglary SUPPLEMENTS over the phone. For example, if you find the serial number for your stolen laptop, we'll add it over the phone. This unit has been around since 2005. I don't know why only now certain city council members are finding out we exist. It seems like whomever created the unit in 2005 did a bad job back then of publicizing its inception, leading to all this confusion today.

If there's any possibility the complainant may be in any danger, we always send an officer. I also never understood the uproar recently from domestic violence shelters when we never have and never will take reports involving domestic violence, a PFA, or a No Contact Order over the phone.

My job has been an absolute nightmare the past few weeks because of this.

[lprmesia]

Shortly after I moved here, I found that someone broke into my car and stole a backpack with my dirty gym clothes (I'm sure they were delighted to find such a great score). Either way, my experience prior to living in Pittsburgh was that for non-emergencies to call the station directly to file a report. In doing so, the lady told me to call 911 and hung up on me.

Needless to say, I never called 911 because I felt awkward calling an emergency number for a non-emergency.

If there was a number to call for these types of things, that would be just swell. It's super weird to call 911 (and I feel like a waste of resources too) for a non-emergent situation.

[quackxp]

Originally Posted by lprmesia

Shortly after I moved here, I found that someone broke into my car and stole a backpack with my dirty gym clothes (I'm sure they were delighted to find such a great score). Either way, my experience prior to living in Pittsburgh was that for non-emergencies to call the station directly to file a report. In doing so, the lady told me to call 911 and hung up on me.

Needless to say, I never called 911 because I felt awkward calling an emergency number for a non-emergency.

If there was a number to call for these types of things, that would be just swell. It's super weird to call 911 (and I feel like a waste of resources too) for a non-emergent situation.

I had the same thing happen to me. Although it was not gym clothes. I called 911 as I wanted to get the report filed.

[SteelCityRising]

We have to have a complainant call 911 first before a call can be routed to our unit because 911 divvies out police report numbers. I can't just have you call my desk phone and then pull a report number out of my hat. 911 assigns them. Unfortunately one of our zones consistently tells people to call our desk number. When I answer and politely ask people to call 911 to have the call routed back to me so I can have a police report number assigned to me people tend to be incredibly annoyed.

It's not a perfect system, but MOST major cities have a unit like ours that handles non-emergency calls. I don't know why we were such a shock to some on city council when we were around since 2005.

I also want to encourage people to always report crimes whenever possible. Even if someone breaks into your car but doesn't cause any damage or steal anything, that's still a crime.

[quackxp]

Next time I called 911 was when a small section of Pierce Mill Road next to North Park Lake was black ice. Lots of people pulled over and lots sliding around. I figured this was enough of an emergency as it was only a matter of time before there was an accident. Scary stuff right next to a lake.

Nobody picked up.

Called again and nobody picked up

I did get a call back about 10 minutes later.

Glad I personally was not in intimidate life threatening danger. If the time to pick up call that day is 10 minutes then plus time to dispatch and for emergency service to arrive.

Everyone be prepared, as good as our first respondents are 911 is not %100 and the best response time may be minutes when seconds count.