I am quite sure that all of you have heard about the story of the boy who cried wolf – and perhaps police in Detroit have reached that numbed state since they recently announced that they will require proof of crime before they will actually head off to respond to burglar alarms. This came about after the ridiculously high rate of false 911 calls that requires alarm companies to make sure that a crime is in progress before an officer is deployed.
Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. mentioned that when August 22nd rolls around, the department will no longer work in the same old way, which is to respond to burglar alarm calls unless the caller has actual proof that a law is in the process of being broken.
I guess they have the statistics to back up such a drastic move, since 98% of the inbound calls turned out to be false alarms in the end, and if you had to deploy an officer each time there was an incoming call, it would turn out to be a waste of resources and time. Makes you wonder whether you should now head down to the nearest animal shelter and adopt a dog…