San Diego police non-emergency is a joke

[u/NochillWill123]

Today I woke up to a car blocking the drive way I was in and had to goto work. Called 3 different towing companies all said need to call police since it’s public street. Then I called the non emergency hotline and cops never showed up . I guess people can get away with parking where ever on the street .

[u/chaostheories36]

Not disagreeing, just wanna add that what the police do can be done so much better by different entities.

Like, in what situation is a cop in the best solution to send? Domestic dispute; send a marriage and family therapist. Traffic accident? Send an insurance person to take photos of everything and submit reports. Armed bank robbery; send SWAT.

Police are a horrible grab bag of uselessness that aren’t good at any of the things they are dispatched for. They’re barely trained in anything

[u/Lyx4088 → u/chaostheories36]

Surface level sure, but there are nuances and figuring out how to navigate the nuances is important. Sending someone skilled in de-escalating domestic situations and directing them toward necessary resources is important, but so is making sure that domestic dispute is just a heated verbal confrontation and it will not escalate to something physical or violent, and it isn’t abuse where someone may need legal documentation. You need police when there is a physical threat or abuse to protect people and help individuals leave dangerous situations. In a similar vein, you often need police to direct traffic when there has been a collision and to assess if there was an impairment such as drugs or alcohol that may have been a contributing factor to the accident, or if the vehicle was being operated in an unsafe manner. Not every accident is an oops my bad sort of situation where someone just wasn’t paying attention, didn’t see something, or made some kind of driving mistake that lead to a collision.

[u/defaburner9312 → u/Lyx4088]

Yea. Domestics are the most lethal kind of police call. I agree in principle that police aren't trained to be counsellors but sending some young woman with a psych degree to a house where the husband is hitting the wife isn't gonna end well either. It's a tough situation 

[u/GrammerSnob → u/defaburner9312]

We don't need to solve every nuanced situation now. I think it's enough to agree that not all police calls warrant an armed response. In fact, the vast majority probably don't.

Ask any career police office how many times they've drawn their weapon on duty. I'll be the answer is 0, 1, or 2 in a 20 year career.

[u/Lyx4088 → u/GrammerSnob]

It’s not just about armed response. Most officers may never draw their gun, but they absolutely use other physical tools including batons, their hands, cuffs, tasers, etc that other forms of response are either extremely limited in using or not able to at all. Guns are hardly the only issue with police when they respond to situations as police that would be better served by other entities providing services for. Thinking the gun is the issue with police response misses that they will and do use other means to physically stop, restrain, and incapacitate people, rightly or wrongly.

[u/GrammerSnob → u/Lyx4088]

Fine, but I think my point remains. We should have many services that specialize in resolving different situations, not just a single legal authority. It's simply too much to ask of them.

[u/Lyx4088 → u/GrammerSnob]

It is and we’re starting to get there with having a mental health and substance abuse response team (at the county level). That one is actually a good example on paper of what these additional services could look like because it sends in a licensed mental health person with a police unit so everyone stays safe and the person gets the help they need from someone qualified to begin to provide that help. It’s not that every mental health crisis situation (or even many of them) called in needs the police there, but until the situation is assessed there is no way to know they’re not needed. We do not have a good safety net or system of resources in this country as a whole to allow people access to help prior to call a response team with a police response team level of crisis.

What needs to happen for these services to be more successful (and this goes even to policing to an extent) is the services should be done at the county level because when you need help, trying to figure out who has jurisdiction for your needs is really frustrating. Nothing like calling for help to be told “we don’t provide response in that location” and then trying to figure out who does. The other part of it that needs to be worked out is a straightforward non-emergency number that operates like 911 so you can call in and the individual answering can help request the necessary services or connect the person to the service they need. That way you don’t end up with people clogging the 911 line for urgent but non-emergent calls.

[u/chaostheories36 → u/GrammerSnob]

Which is what my original thought boils down to. Teach an MFT how to use a taser, mace, handcuffs, whatever. It’s easier to do that than it is to teach someone the entirety of a masters degree.