16
by Walkaway
In our neighborhood, if you call the police they treat you like the problem, rather than deal with what you called about.
The last time I called them, there was something strange going on down beyond the end of our little street - if you've ever seen and heard a really big fireworks display (such as a city might throw) go seriously wrong (I think there are examples on YouTube), you know what I'm talking about. Big mortars exploding on the ground and all over the place, in among the trees, rockets flying everywhere. Sounded like WWIII... like a major battle.
The... cop... showed up about 15 minutes later, and was obviously really angry that I'd called and why we were complaining - wanted to know "what is your problem" (said in a nasty tone). I told him that I wasn't complaining... that I called because I was concerned someone might have been hurt, and that some of the blasts had shaken our house (and maybe cracked a window - we noticed one was cracked a few days later). He admitted that he'd heard the fireworks while driving out this way (there were still occasional mortars going off and big bangs) and finally left to check it out. He wasn't in a good mood.
I never did find out what happened, but the same sort of thing has happened a couple of times after that. I just ignore it, or go out to see if I can see anything. We've got three or four cracked windows now, from the strange explosions we experience now and then (not too unusual to have something shake the house or rattle the windows).
Definitely, response times (and ...police... response) are directly tied to the SES of the caller and the property values of the neighborhood.