SAN ANTONIO - Police here are unveiling a new program they say will help keep you safer. But some people in San Antonio think it is a bad idea.
The police department says it needs more officers, but until that happens things need to change. So now, if you are involved in a non-violent crime, chances are you won't see police to file your complaint.
...
[T]hey have come up with the Strategic Management for Accelerated Response Times, or S.M.A.R.T., Initiative. Now people will file certain reports on the internet, and then get a case number by e-mail.
"It sounds good. If you are fortunate enough to have it. But unfortunately in this town, there's a lot of families that don't have access to the internet," said Diana Cappelli, who don't [sic] think the plan will be effective.
Police say they won't respond to non-violent crimes like car burglaries, graffiti, beer runs and theft. They say this will free up officers to respond to emergency calls, and that would improve response time.
(from WOAI-TV)
Also not included in the do-not-respond list: minor traffic accidents. I wonder if this could cause problems with auto insurance companies. And what about beer runs? Doesn't this effectively let young beer grabbers know that there's almost no chance of them being caught? Watch out, convenience store owners.
Chief McManus is supposed to talk about this tomorrow. I'd like to hear what he has to say.
5 comments:
I had a discussion with an officer regarding this plan and I think once it gets implemented, it will have some merit - and will need to be tweaked as they encounter problems.
My understanding was that the minor traffic accidents will be responded to by a trained traffic person, not a uniformed officer. In other words, some guy from the city - just not an officer - will come out and do the reports etc.
In the event of an accident involving a crime (DUI, idiots racing, etc), then the police will respond.
Don't even get me started on beer runs! I can assure you, calling the police now is a waste of time. The Valero can have the little punks on video but when it comes down to it, a 12-pack of beer is about $15.00 (unless you drink my brand, and in that case, it is only $7.00).
So, are they doing away with the SAPD Non-Emergency number? I've used this before for domestic disputes that broke out in our apt. complex as well as really loud neighbors that were trying to have sex in the pool (loud sex, no less) at 3am...
Dave, I remember a time when Shiner Bock was about $7.00 for a 12-pack. Ah, college days.
Of course, the beer runners could just catch themselves, like these guys.
Kels, loud sex in the pool!? Did you have alley cats for neighbors?
I have no idea... unfortunately they lived in the unit diagonal from ours (level below, next set of units over)... On a regular basis my roomie and I would see close to 20 people living in the one unit... and we suspected they were dealing or something, because we smelled weed on more than one occasion and they NEVER left for work... They were also kind enough to have weed smoking and beer drinking parties on their patio at 2-4am in the middle of the week... with their 2 year old out there with them... Another reason the non-emergency number was called... because we tried to reason with them... but there's no reasoning with people like that... apparently someone else in the complex called on them, because in one night there was a response to them 3 times... they finally got evicted by the apt. manager.
I will never again live in a complex like that.
This all sounds fine and good, until you're the victim of one of these non-violent crimes...Try coming home from work one day to find you house has been burglarized. To me, this is just another example of one of the worst police departments I've ever seen...a "talk a lot but do very little" department
Post a Comment