Cheating death and fighting communism: that is how a fellow officer once described our job. It was meant to be funny, but as time went on it seemed all too true.
I spent more than ten years in law enforcement, all of it on the street in uniform patrol. I've been a patrol officer, instructor, sergeant and lieutenant.
Do not report crimes here. Nothing here should be considered legal advice. All opinions are my own.
Accidents happen and a lot of people mistakenly set off their alarms. However, the officers don't know which alarms are accidents or real until they investigate them. If during the course of that investigation, someone surprises them - well, things might get tense for a few minutes. Calling the PD once you realize a mistake has been made is the best course of action. They can tell you if they want you to go outside, stay inside or whatever.
I've not had the chance to observe the dispatch center of a very large agency (such as a NYPD, LAPD, Chicago, etc.) What I've seen in medium sized departments (100-200 officers), you would have a dispatcher on each channel. A single channel might be dedicated to a specific area or precinct, while another might be dedicated to records checks.
So if a department had three precincts, there might be four channels (a dispatcher for each of the three precincts plus one for running warrant checks, license checks, etc.) Then there would be at least one supervisor who would make sure everything is running smooth. There would be call takers (people answering the phones) who might be cross-trained to dispatch.
Typically, there will be extra people available to bring up an extra channel if a special event happened. For example, lets say you had a vehicle accident with a death. The traffic homicide unit plus the officers working that scene might go to an extra channel to work and keep their radio traffic off of the precinct channels.
I hope that helps.
Nope.
It depends on the report.
Radio program/music director
Lifeguard
Social Security Employee
It depends on what the investigation revealed. Was it an assault or self-defense? Since I was not there and did not conduct the investigation, it is impossible for me to say what the best action should be for the officers to take.
I don't know. She should probably contact an attorney.
Call your local police department and ask for their assistance. They will know what to do.
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