10/27/03  Police and 911 Priorities

Linus Spiller was "on point" Linus Spiller: Police Department needs to get back to the basics.  .

A few weeks ago, my neighbor was called out of town on a family emergency.  While away, his house was broken into.  Another neighbor noticed it and called me to see if I knew where the owner was.  I said no, and we both went over to discover the back door kicked in and the den area in total disarray.  I was heading away overnight but knew I had to do something.

I called 911 (Saturday afternoon about 5:45).  The operator said they were short staffed and this was not a priority call.  I insisted she could not assume it was not a priority because we had not seen our neighbor all day and he could be inside hurt.  She then asked if we had been inside to verify that.  I said I really felt that was why we needed to have the police come out ASAP.

She said she did not consider this a priority call under the circumstances.  You cannot imagine my outrage. 

Long story short ... I called from 6:00 until midnight every hour to report this again and got the same response.  I even called the SW substation and surprised the officer on duty because he said he could only take this type of call from 911.

The good news is that an officer did go by around 8:00 and looked around with my neighbor.  They found only a break in and vandalism and secured the back door as best they could.

On my way out for the evening, I stopped by an area grocery store and saw an officer with a squad car in the lot on "private duty".  He was pleasant and helped people with their purchases and provided a safer feeling environment for the store.  I WAS OUTRAGED!  Why?  Because our council allows a system to exist that says it's OK to hire cops on an "extra duty" basis but not have them available to patrol our neighbors and parks or answer 911 calls.

This is outrageous!  If our police cannot find the time to answer 911 calls, then they ABSOLUTELY do not have the time to take extra duty assignments using "our" uniforms, squad cars, badges and guns!  Have we become "slaughter sheep"? 

Here are the issues as I see them.  Chief Bolton did not stand a chance of reducing crime in this city if he started out 500 officers short of what the recommended ratio of cops to citizens should be.

Since 911 operators are not law enforcement officers and , and I suspect most are not Dallas residents either as 75% of city workers do not live in the city.  Therefore, it is ludicrous that they get to tell us our call is not a priority. 

If a 911 operator in their town responded in the same way, I am pretty sure that they would be very upset.  I must admit DallasArena.com does not share my viewpoint that City workers should live in the city.  My basic belief is that stakeholders make better decisions than those who are not stakeholders. 

I live in Dallas and work for the City.  I try very hard to look at things the way I think my neighbors and fellow taxpayers would.  This is the "extra value" I bring to my job that my non-resident co-workers cannot.  Yes, we are all well-trained professionals, but at the end of the day, they go back to their suburban and country houses.  I return to my home here hoping I made "Dallas proper" a better place.  I wish I had the same comfort level when I called 911.  I absolutely do not.

Look at the odds the citizens of Dallas have  AGAINST them -- 75% of 911 operators do not live in Dallas.  Couple that with over 85% of police and fire officers do not live in Dallas.  What are our Council and manager trying to do to us?

Ask the average citizen.  They will say that city workers should live in the city -- many citizens think that they do!  Worse yet, most of our department directors and assistant directors do not live in the city!  City Council, what are y'all thinking!?

Can things be worse?  Absolutely!  We train officers at a cost of over $60,000 each.  They are not required to come to work for us after the training, NOR do we require them to pay us back for that investment in training.  Dallas is the only city in the region with a certified training facility and program.  Some type of reimbursement system that recovers some of  those costs should be ALREADY in place.  It is not.  So the citizens of Dallas are taken advantage of one more time!

In my opinion, until we fix the structural problems of how we provide police protection in Dallas, we will always have problems with the chief -- regardless of their gender, race, talents, age or experience.

 Citizen D