Police investigates possible delay in service

[Desertdog]

Call the police when you have a problem, get fast response.

TPD investigates possible delay in service
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=3456060


Imagine contacting police because your car has been stolen, finding the car and the suspect, but having to wait and wait for the police.

Because stolen cars are considered a property crime, there may be a longer response time, but Tuesday, that lull led to a carjacking by a murder suspect on the run.

Matthew Goddard reportedly stole a 3/4-ton pick up truck from a construction site on Tuesday at 5:15 in the morning.

Turns out he was wanted for murder in Colorado.

The Tucson police report shows the first call came in 15 minutes later, the victim said he would meet officers at a Jack in the Box, but while there, he spotted his vehicle and the man who took it.

He called Tucson Police again, then confronted Goddard, the man who stole his truck.

The police report states that Goddard ran into the desert and minutes later returned and allegedly carjacked a woman who going through the drive-thru at Jack in the Box.

Pima County sheriff's deputies respond to the carjacking because it's in their jurisdiction.

They get there before Tucson police ever answered the original call of a pick up truck stolen.

Tucson police reports show that they arrived about an hour after the initial call.

Tucson police officials say that they are looking into the matter to determine if there was a delay in service, and the circumstances, but these reports clearly show there was a delay.

 

[Vernal45]

Tucson police officials say that they are looking into the matter to determine if there was a delay in service, and the circumstances, but these reports clearly show there was a delay.

Ya think.

 

[griz]

Come on guys. A car jacking is a crime against a person. A stolen truck is a property crime. Do you really want them to respond to the calls in the order recieved? How would you feel if the 911 operator said the burgler in your house would have to wait because the closest car had to check out a noisy neighbor call first?

 

[Jeff White]

Demand that your taxes are increased

That's right, get right up to city hall and demand your taxes are increased enough to pay for enough officers, TCs, squad cars etc. so that the level of service that will permit calls to be answered in the order that they are received to be possible.

If you're not willing to pay for the level of service that you want, then you shouldn't be complaining.

In lieu of tax increrases, maybe you could suggest some programs that could be cut in order to divert money to the public service agencies (police, fire, EMS).

We continually underfund those agencies yet feel the need to publically castigate them if you need them and they are busy elsewhere because there aren't enough of them to provide decent coverage.

I don't know of any agency that is manned at such high levels that they don't sometimes have to triage (to borrow a term from the medical community) calls.

Yes the Tucson police probably could have prevented the car jacking if they had dropped what they were doing and responded immediately. The problem is, they don't issue crystal balls...I have an old one in my squad car, but it's cracked and I can't always determine when a routine recovery of a stolen vehicle call will turn into something more serious.

I couldn't tell you the number of times I've had to excuse myself from taking a routine report and respond to a call that required immediate response. Get a scanner and listen to how often you'll here an officer clear from a call and get immediately told by dispatch that there are two or more calls pending.

This is about resources, not about how the Tucson police didn't want to bother with a stolen truck.

Jeff

 

[pcf]

Jeff It'll never happen, then we'd here about the how the overstaffed, bloated budget TPD was violating everyone's civil rights because the responded to every call they recieved.

 

[R.H. Lee]

The twice weekly local paper publishes the 'Red Light Roundup', a log of police activity for the previous week. More often than not the phrase 'police arrived but were unable to locate' appears. In fairness, though, our small town covers a large area.

 

[Old Partner]

Minor problem

Jeff It'll never happen, then we'd here about the how the overstaffed, bloated budget TPD...

Except for one minor problem folks, the statement above is TRUE!

:banghead: