Budget Cuts: San Jose, Detroit Cops Stop Responding to Burglar Alarms
- Posted on August 16, 2011 at 9:18am by
Christopher Santarelli
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You can usually bank on a call to the police being taken seriously. But in some cities, budget cuts and false alarms are moving police to ignore certain calls and burglar alarm services.
After having to layoff 165 officers last June, the San Jose Police Department is scaling back certain services, reports the San Jose Mercury News:
“The department has already scaled back a number of operations. Since March, for example, police have flown their helicopter only enough to maintain pilot skills, Cavallaro said. Horse-mounted patrols have been reduced. Half as many gang-prevention officers now work with schools, and there are fewer school crossing guards.
And it’s about to get worse.
In a memorandum sent this week to Mayor Chuck Reed and the City Council, Cavallaro and Chief Chris Moore outlined how the department will treat lower-priority calls so it can focus officers’ efforts on violent crime.”
The local CBS station outlines what calls will now be “low priority:”
You can watch the video report below:
Stealing recyclables or illegally selling fruit (as the video report notes) may not seem like a huge danger for your neighborhood, but burglar alarms? So much for the Slomin Shield.
Like San Jose, Detroit police are making service changes to put more cops on the streets, and waste less time and money driving to false alarms. CBS Detroit explains:
“According to the memo, sent to alarm companies and signed by Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee, 98 percent of alarms handled by the DPD are false.
Effective Monday, August 22, the police department will no longer respond to burglar alarm calls from monitoring companies unless the alarm company verifies the alarm.”
Police Cmdr. Todd Bettison told the Detroit City Council in April that the city averages more than 15,000 burglaries a year, but less than 1 percent of the more than 60,000 burglar alarms that sound each year in Detroit are credible.
Violent crime in the motor city has been on furious uptick this year, and the decision to reassess law enforcement operations comes following a weekend where 16 people were shot, and 7 dead, within 24 hours.
In 2003 the Los Angeles police commission voted, 4 to 1, to require that burglar alarms be verified before the police respond if a home or business has had two false alarms in a year.
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Comments (48)
blazingaway
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 4:46pmIf you want to have them respond tell them the robber has a “GUN’
Report Post »avenger
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 5:48pmthat is why we have the 2nd amendment.arm up stupid !
Report Post »chazman
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 6:59pm… encircle the entire city with a wall. Then Detroit will kinda turn into a self-cleaning oven!
THX, SWEETSCIENCE! That was dam funny!
Report Post »Jaycen
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:48pmHow long did it take them to figure out so many alarms are false? Why didn’t they scale back the response before now?
Stupid. Why, if it’s such a problem, haven’t they required the alarm companies confirm the alarm before they were in a disaster. Who’s running things?
Where is the leadership?
Report Post »blazingaway
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 4:45pmI bet these same damn cops are busy writing speeding tickets and having cars towed for parking.
Don‘t protect my property and then take away my right to own a gun to defend it and while they’re at it ask me to pay my taxes so a government worker can have a better life than me… “F” this crap.
It’s time for people to have the right to shoot someone for trespassing and that will end robberies and give us one less reason to employ so many damn cops to write speeding tickets a victimless crime.
Report Post »GabeTheGreat
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 4:37pmThey wont respond unless you tell em theres a lemonade stand without a license….
Report Post »GabeTheGreat
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 4:36pmJust tell the cops theres a kid lemonade stand without a lemonade permit!!!!; they’ll be there in a couple of minutes!!
Report Post »TheLeftMadeMeRight
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 3:42pmThey always cut cops out of the budget first to try and make their point, but I have a twenty that’s say they didn’t cut one dollar from government sector union jobs…
Report Post »Fantastic Four
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:50pmI live in this darn city and guess what they didnt cut from the budget, cell phones for welfare moms…. go figure
Report Post »USAMama
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:00pmExactly!!
Report Post »betterthantv
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 3:14pmBeing from Detroit. I can tell you, this is nothing new. Detroit doesn’t even respond to 911 calls anymore. Don’t believe me? Just try calling 911 from Detroit. More than half of their Rescue and Ambulance trucks are sitting in “graveyards”, needing repairs, tires, etc. Detroit gets more and more pathetic everyday!
My dad is a retired policemen from Redford, which borders Detroit. As far back as 15 years ago Detroit stopped responding to 911 calls unless there were reports of “shots fired”. The residents quickly learned how to “play the game” and caught on. Now they simply don’t respond at all!
Report Post »SonOfaCommunist
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 3:34pmAs they say in Texas, “I don’t dial 911!” That’s because they have their 2nd Amendment tools! Get ready folks, its gonna be a bumpy ride!
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 2:11pmI can see it in Detroit. The place is the Congo. There are too many crimes for the corrupt police to do something about. What a town. A democrat town……lol.
Report Post »smithclar3nc3
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 2:19pmImagine a place where all the little ideas liberals have on social and financial economic are put in place. A place where the productive must work for the none productive. A place that pays the highest amount per student for education. A place where the employers are at the mercy of the employee. where the meek inherited the earth
Report Post »Ladies and gentleman I give you Detroit a shining example of liberal progressive policy.
brenlynn
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 1:49pmDid they really say, illegally selling fruit?
Report Post »BigPaulie
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 1:39pmLock and load.
Report Post »robert
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 1:47pmFortunately, this trend will continue spreading across the US until ALL the bloat and fat are reduced from police budgets. They’re way over-funded as it now stands.
Eventually, it will get to the point where it will be up to the citizens themselves to form self-defense groups and patrols for protection which is how it should be anyway.
Lock and load. Amen!
Report Post »Bill Rowland
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 2:32pman 18″ barrel and an extended magazine
Report Post »rightwingheroes
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 1:12pm99% of a police officers day is spent driving in circles, aimlessly. What’s the problem? Now all of the sudden they are too busy to respond to alarms?
Report Post »SamIamTwo
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:51pmAnd now the criminal knows exactly how to approach their jobs.
I bet they didn’t cut back any of their administrative people, like HR, clerks, etc etc.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:46pmOnce again we see the ongoing pressure campaign of Mr Obama, of “top down, bottom up and the inside out.” Soon enough, it goes blooey and Obama slams the steel shackels upon us all.
Report Post »SamIamTwo
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:46pmIt’s a well known method for getting the taxes they want…take the high risk issues and not work them…sheesh.
Just the opposite of what DoD had to do when they combined DLA with CMD to shed off 12K employees. They did a risk assessment and determined what items had to be worked first, second, third etc etc…but that happened after they got to the point of doing everything with no one and realized people were not working the high risk issues.
And that happened around 1995. The states and cities should know better than to cut off high risk issues.
Report Post »YesNdeedie
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:38pmAre they still honoring their duty of donut breaks several times daily?
Report Post »Karlsan
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:37pmSo if I call the police and tell them my neighbor’s house is being burgled, will they ask me to verify it? “Yo, dude, you jacking my neighbor’s house?”
Report Post »Everett Bennett Jr
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:33pmQuit paying taxes and buy a gun. Buy several guns.
Report Post »slvrserfr
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:33pmI wouldn’t consider this as irresponsible, just restructuring their policies in a cost effective manner until their fiscal disposition improve.
Report Post »MikeinIdaho
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:19pmAnother good reason to shoot first and call the police later, if at all!
Report Post »MrKnowItAll
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:11pmThe Police in Detroit stopped responding to bugler calls decades ago. If you call 911 in Detroit. You are told Sir or Miss we have murder scenes we cannot respond to. When someone i know was found dead in the street, he had all his I.D. and contact information. We found out two weeks later he was in the morgue. When we went to see the detective. We asked why no one was contacted. The detective replied….”We find over Two Hundred Dead Bodies in the Street a Week, we do not have the Manpower to notify anyone even when we know who to contact”. This was horrible for the family because he had to have a closed casket due to being in the Morgue so long.
Report Post »Finger Follie
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:31pmBut these towns have the manpower to bust little girls selling lemonade from a stand….
Report Post »Mtroom
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:10pmDon’t really see this as a big problem…should actually create some jobs…late night security jobs..and force alarm companies to up date and Maintain alarms…they install it and leave it in a lot of cases…I have dealt with some old alarms, they where useless and went of at various different hours….what i do have a problem with..is they announced it…that‘s information i wouldn’t mind if they kept from the general public
Report Post »I lived in Miami back in the late 80′s when the Russian sub hit the sand bar off the coast…Remember that one? I recall the local media announcing “If you happen to come across one of these crates of guns or ammunition, call local authorities immediately”…Think that was a good idea?…..somethings don’t need to be announced…just need to inform and work something out with those effected….just sayin’
V-MAN MACE
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:53amRiiiight.
Disarm the people, stand down, and let the thugs run wild.
Top down, bottom up, inside out.
***WARNING!***
I’m not calling the police. I’m shooting.
Report Post »rienheart
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:40amLooks like more business owners will be living in their Stores, and Hopefully ARMED. So when the police are called to a burglar alarm there will be Something, (like a Dead Burglar) to investigate. People will start to fight back sooner or later and they will get rid of the Useless tools they have elected to their Legislatures. If they don’t, Their Cities will burn down around them.
Report Post »RodT82721
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:36amThis might be a jobs program! If the police are no longer responding to automated alarm systems, then a private response agency (rent-a-cop) could fill a void. Or a service charge for each response, after all an ambulance ride is not free. Users should foot the bill IMHO.
Report Post »Wayner
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:39amThat’s great!!! Why don’t you tell every crook in Detroit about it?
Report Post »PApeacemaker
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:33amGood news for the crooks I guess, maybe crime will pay lol
Report Post »I.Gaspar
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:30amHow many years before Road Warrior becomes status quo for Detroit?
Report Post »That’s one great example of progressive government transforming American life.
Gotta vote them all out and never let them back in.
KangarooJack
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 1:38pmThe DownRiver Jazz Festival is coming soon in Detroit. Every year-fights/shootings/car jackings, etc. Will be interesting to see what is in store for this year?
Report Post »Detroit has been run for DECADES by Democratic Union Thugs. Kwame still has the “love” of his brothers in the hood. I am NOT making that last sentence up-I heard him (Kwame) this morning say as such for an interview on Detroit Fox News. I’ll try to find a link.