Friday, March 16, 2007

911/311 Dispatchers?

Have you had issues with dispatchers when you call 311, or 911. It appears that some of the calls made to dispatchers (who are not MPD officers) are not necessarily being treated correctly. There have been instances of crimes that are called in (I'm specifically talking about break-ins) that later fail to show up on police crime maps. If it isn't on the crime map (or the list you probably receive at your PSA meeting), then it isn't in the police stats because somewhere between you making the call, and the message getting to the police there is communication breakdown (according to the police, if this is happening, it is because the call is never getting to the police). Obviously there are multiple dangers with a problem like this. One of which is that if the crime isn't in the stats police are unable to accurately track trends, connect crimes, or allocate resources properly. Have you had issues of this sort with 911/311 recently?

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