by The Sage
Dear Sage,
I'm all for community policing, but the bike officers at my police department
are driving me nuts! They gave out their pager numbers to businesses so
they can be called directly when a problem occurs. They've told the clerks
and managers that we're too busy with priority calls to dispatch their every-day
incidents! But guess what? Officers get paged on their days off for shoplifts
and other types of crimes! How can we reverse this?
Beeped
Dear Beeped,
The concept of community involved-oriented policing doesn't strictly mean
you change the way incidents are reported, only the way they're handled.
And bypassing the comm center means these incidents don't generate stats
that are useful for justifying budgets, staffing, etc. The "busy with
priority calls" argument doesn't work either. If a bike officer is
available, they should be assigned almost as quickly by the comm center
as by being paged directly. And the comm center would know if the officer
isn't working! I say talk to your supervisor or manager and have them work
out a compromise that maintains biz-to-cop communications but puts the comm
center in the loop.
Sage
Dear Sage,
Did you do anything on April 1st that was totally outrageous?
Tricked Out
Dear Out,
I've said it before-if this job didn't have such serious consequences, we
could have a blast! No, we didn't really do anything wacko this year. On
the other hand, I heard that computer geeks were sending e-mail that claimed
you could dial up some number, be connected to your local 911 system, and
eavesdrop on calls as they were being made. It was all a hoax, of course.
But don't you think your citizens would get an earful?
Sage
Was it just me? Or did all the world's cartoonists get the same idea at once? From last issue of DISPATCH, we know that Charles Schulz drew a Peanuts cartoon with the theme, "snowman melting, so dial 911." Well, check page 17 of the Jan-Feb 1998 issue of 911 Magazine and you'll find the same concept. Psychic, man!
Dear Sage,
My agency is looking for radios that will last a long time and won't have
to be replaced. We don't really care about the initial cost if they're reliable.
Any suggestions?
10-Yr. Warranty
Dear Warranty,
Well, you can't have everything! Given enough use, any radio will have to
be repaired or replaced at some point. And if you figure in the random failure
rate of parts that you just can't predict, you're still going to replace
or repair radios. Motorola radios have a reputation for taking a lickin'
and keeping on tickin'. On the other hand, the head of a major health system
complains that his Kenwood TK-360 portable radios are literally falling
apart. "We are having a severe problem relating to durability and reliability,"
the big boss says. They've been back to the supplier for repairs, but nothing
is forever in the health field, let alone radios. My advice: stick with
the big "M" and big "E" and make them stick to
their warranty.
Sage
My Crystal Ball: I can finally demystify why you get 911 misdials. First, someone mistakenly saw "911" on their pager-which means "call me back quick!"-and mistakenly dialed that number instead of the 7-digit number the person left. Second, as that Peter Szerlag character points out, a person misdialed while trying to reach New Delhi, India. The direct dial prefix is 0-1-1-9-1-1-1. Somehow, the caller didn't press all the numbers and-presto!-you answer instead of Mom. Now, don't ask me ever again about this ever again.
Dear Sage,
My brother was in the Navy and I once got to see an on-board operations
center where he worked-it was fantastic! There are all sorts of integrated
displays of information that we could use in dispatching. Why hasn't
anyone come up with such a thing for public safety?
Unlisted
Dear Unlisted,
You're absolutely right that the military is way ahead of public safety
in acquiring, processing and displaying information from diverse sources.
But consider that the military probably spent 100 times what you'd pay for
a CAD computer, since money is no object. I'm sure your city council wouldn't
even think of spending $400,000 per vehicle for AVL, or $10 million for
equipment back at the comm center to track them all. Until that technology
trickles down, we're outta luck.
Sage
Look carefully: The state of Minnesota has approved a plan by the city of Waseca to issue $3 million in industrial revenue bonds. What will they do with the money? They'll give it to Transcrypt International Inc. as part payment for the E.F. Johnson plant that's in Waseca-what else? Transcrypt bought EFJ last July, and now every radio they make will have a part of Minnesota built into it. Aw!