Should PD Have Answering Machine?

Former officer John H. Watson writes in an op-ed piece for the Mississippi Press that he telephoned the Gautier (Miss.) police department and reached an automated attendant, which he calls an “answering machine.” He is “angry and disappointed” to learn about the device, he writes. He acknowledges the “wasted manpower hours that go into having to answer the phone from unnecessary calls,” but notes that often a citizen’s phone call, and their first words, are often critical. Watson retired after 32 years as a Pascagoula PD officer, sometimes worked in the comm center, and concludes, “Somebody did not think this through at all or does not have slightest idea of the importance of that primary incoming phone line to the citizens calling it.” Read more of his rant here.