So you want to report a crime to the FBI? Then be ready to give up your most private information before you get to speak with an agent.
If you feel you’re an upstanding citizen with nothing to hide, then fine.
But many people who don’t have anything to hide will hesitate to surrender such personal information to a powerful law enforcement agency–simply to talk with one of its agents.
This is even more true in this age of right-wing crusades against the Federal Government–and especially its law enforcement agencies.
At a time when Federal law enforcement agencies need all the cooperation they can get, this is definitely not the way to go about getting it.
It’s analogous to the famous joke about an English-speaking reporter covering a civil war in a foreign country who enters the scene of a massacre and asks: “Is there anyone here who speaks English and has been raped?”
Good detectives know that if you want to establish a bond between yourself and a potential source, you must prove, over time, that you can be trusted.
People who get most of what they “know” about police work from TV crime shows know almost nothing about its realities.
Cases aren’t wrapped up in 45 minutes. Oftentimes, cops make deals with hardened criminals to solve a case: “You have to use a smaller bum to get a bigger bum,” as a deputy U.S. marshal once said about protecting Mafia informants through the Witness Security Program.
And merely slapping handcuffs on an accused criminal and saying “Book ‘em, Danno” isn’t the same as ensuring his conviction and imprisonment.
As cops know better than anyone, today’s arrest is often followed by tomorrow’s release on bond. And, still later, by a watered-down sentence under a plea bargain agreement–if not an acquittal by a judge or jury.
Shows like “Hawaii Five-O” and “Law and Order” have proven great hits with the public. But they don’t reveal the highly mixed feelings that most people actually have about the men and women who enforce the nation’s laws at local, state and Federal levels.
On one hand, many children are taught to believe in Officer Friendly as their protector in times of peril. They grow into adults who want to believe the best about those sworn to “protect and serve.”
But if someone breaks into your home and steals your TV set, chances are, that’s the last you’ll ever see of it.
The cops aren’t going to put out an APB (All Points Bulletin) for a missing TV set, even if you’ve inscribed your own driver’s licence number on it with an engraving pen for quick identification.
And while “the law is the law is the law,” the quality of the police response depends heavily on the status of the person who gets victimized.
Thtreaten to kill the President of the United States and you’ll instantly get a visit from the Secret Service. You may be arrested, indicted, convicted and sent to prison.
Or you may simply be added to a “watch list” of those considered possibly dangerous to the President. If he visits your city, you may be put under temporary house arrest until he’s passed through.
The same holds true–but to a lesser extent–for those who threaten the governor or mayor. If the threat is deemed serious, you can be certain that official will have a full SWAT team assigned to his protection.
But suppose you’re just Mr. Average Citizen. If your neighbor thinks you’re trying to horn in on his wife or girlfriend and threatens to blow your head off, the police will take an entirely different tack.
“If he does anything,” will be the standard police reply, “give us a call.”
Odds are that by the time the police arrive, there will be a warm body for them to draw a chalk circle around.
In San Francisco, calls to the regular police number–(415) 553-0123–will usually get you a recorded message (in English, Spanish and Chinese) letting you know what agency you’ve reached.
You’ll then be told that if this is an emergency, hang up and call 9-1-1. So if it is an emergency, you’ve already lost valuable time calling a number that nobody is answering.
But even calling 9-1-1 isn’t a guaranteed way to get help. At times you’ll get a recorded message saying that “all calls are answered as quickly as possible.”
That’s small consolation for the caller whose house is burning down or who’s threatened by someone pounding at the door.
Even reaching the police department offers no certainty of assistance. In cash-strapped San Jose, short-handed police are no longer responding to home burglaries.
Meanwhile, police departments loudly complain they get no support from the public they’ve sworn to “protect and serve.”
Law enforcement agencies–at all levels–need to vastly improve their relations with those whose support they need–and who need their protection. Until this happens, both the police and public will be the poorer for it.
9-1-1-, ABC NEWS, CBS NEWS, CNN, FACEBOOK, NBC NEWS, POLICE DISPATCHING, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT, THE CHICIAGO TRIBUNE, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TWITTER
THE AGENCIES WE DESERVE
In Bureaucracy, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on March 22, 2013 at 12:13 amThe quickest way of opening the eyes of the people is to find the means of making them descend to particulars, seeing that to look at things only in a general way deceives them.…
--Niccolo Machiavelli, The Discourses
One morning at about 8:10, a friend of mine named Robert heard a helicopter repeatedly buzzing the San Francisco Ternderloin area, where he lives.
Thinking that a fire or police action might be in the works, he called the non-emergency number of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD): (415) 553-0123.
Police dispatcher
And he got a recorded message.
This told him–in English–what he already knew: He had reached the San Francisco Police Department.
Then it told him this again in Spanish. Then again in Cantonese. Then came a series of high-pitched squeals–presumably for those who are hard-of-hearing.
Then the line went dead, and another recorded voice told Robert: “If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and try again.”
At that point, Robert decided to waste no more time trying to learn if there was an emergency going on in his area. Or, to put it more accurately, he decided to waste no more time trying to learn this from the SFPD.
Instead, Robert turned on his TV and checked all the local news channels. When he didn’t see anyone reporting a raging fire or police sealing off an area, he decided there probably wasn’t anything to worry about.
But later on he decided to call the SFPD once again–to complain at a level he believed would attain results.
That level was the office of its chief, Greg Suhr.
Robert didn’t expect to reach the chief himself. But he didn’t have to: Reaching Suhr’s secretary should serve the same purpose.
The secretary he reached turned out to be a sworn officer of the agency. She patiently heard out Robert’s complaint. And she totally agreed with it.
She also agreed that this was a longstanding problem with the SFPD–citizens not being able to get through for help because of an ineffective communications system.
Finally, she agreed with Robert that the situation counted as a major PR disaster for her agency. People who become disgusted and/or disallusioned with a police department’s phone system aren’t likely to trust that agency with their cooperation–or their lives.
Then she had a surprise for Robert: Like him, she had at times been unable to reach a live dispatcher–even when calling 9-1-1.
She added that the police department did not handle its own dispatch work. This had been farmed out long ago to the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (SFDEM).
She said that the SFPD didn’t have any control–or even influence–over SFDEM, which operated as an independent agency.
Robert suggested that it was definitely in the best interests of the SFPD for someone at its highest level to contact SFDEM and demand major reforms. Or to find another agency that would take its dispatcher responsibilities seriously.
The chief’s secretary said she would pass along Robert’s comments to the proper authority.
Will anything change? Not likely, barring a miracle.
There are few events more frightening and frustrating than having to call the police, fire department or paramedics during an emergency–and get a recorded message.
Whether intended or not, the message this sends the caller can only be: “Your call is simply not important to us–and neither are you. We’ll get to you when we feel like it.”
When people call the police or fire department, they’re usually frightened–for themselves or others. They know that, in a fire or crime or medical emergency, literally second counts.
It’s going to take the police or fire or paramedics several minutes to arrive–assuming they don’t get caught up in a traffic snarl.
And it’s going to take them even longer to arrive if it takes the caller several minutes to reach them with a request for help.
This is the sort of bread-and-butter issue that local authorities–who operate police and fire departments–should take most seriously.
Mayors and council members should not expect to be treated with respect when their constituents are treated so disrespectfully in a time of crisis.
And citizens aren’t stupid. They can easily tell lies from truths.
Lies such as: “We’d like to put in a new communications system, but we can’t afford it due to budget cuts.”
And truths such as: While San Francisco faced a $229 million deficit for the fiscal year, 2012, it nevertheless found untold monies to tap after the San Francisco Giants won the 2011-12 World Series, 4-0.
Monies to decorate various San Francisco buildings (such as the airport) with the orange-and-black colors of the Giants. Or with the Giants logo.
San Francisco Airport–decked out with San Francisco Giants colors
Monies to throw a day-long party for the victorious Giants on October 31–Halloween.
So, in the end, it all comes down to a matter of priority–for both citizens and their elected leaders. As Robert F. Kennedy once said: “Every nation gets the kind of government it deserves–and the kind of law enforcement it insists in.”
Share this:
Like this: