Who Will Respond to 911 Calls?

650,000 calls are made to 911 every day.  People who call think they need somebody more knowledgeable, more skilled or stronger than they are to deal with some situation.  Most of them are right.  And somebody goes to the caller to see what’s going on.

Most calls are for the police.  Many are for emergency services, usually fire and EMS.  Sometimes, all three services respond.  That's normal life for people in those jobs.

The current civil unrest mostly is directed at the police.  Where it will turn out, we don’t know.  It has also been directed at fire and EMS, where they have been blocked from attending an emergency scene.  The frequency of that is disputed, and all we know is that it has happened on occasion. 

It is the adult thing to do to prepare for bad things which happen.  Doing so requires that you ask, “What can happen?," "How likely is it?," "What is the worst effect if it happens?" and “When it does, what will we do?”   The first three questions help planners allocate scarce resources.  Something which is unlike to happen and which, if it does, will cause minimal loss, gets put to the bottom of the list.  If it happens often or if it does, it will really harm people are dealt with more urgently.  If it happens often and the effects are bad, we are not worthy of the name "public servants" if we don't prepare for the event.

Those who support police – and others – want to know what will happen in the future when they hear someone breaking into the house in the middle of the night.  The opponents of policing as we know do it now that question “waving the bloody shirt” – which it is, at least a little bit – and avoiding the fundamental question of policing.

But that sort of call to 911 DOES happen constantly.  Society exists to keep everybody as safe as reasonable.  So, what will we do?  That’s a legitimate question, no matter where one stands on policing.  Not many burglars will leave one group alone based on who they are or what they believe.  If you say that it will more probably happen to the other person, you may be right. Or may not.  Beats me.  But when it happens to you, it happens 100% and probabilities no longer matter.  You will have help or you will face it on your own. 

Why do people break into houses in the night?

That’s a trick question.  That’s unknowable by the victim of the break-in.  All the victim can do is assume – and try to avoid – the worst.  On the extreme-less-dangerous side, maybe the “burglar” is somebody confused or drunk, who thinks it’s their house and they don't have their keys.  They are not a big danger.  Or, it may be a burglar/killer seeking money or valuables who is willing to kill or violently stop whoever interferes.  That happens.  One guy I once represented killed a neighbor who came to investigate when he burgled a house.  (I represented him on a different murder.)  The victim doesn’t know which person that is, or whether they plan on committing sexual assault, arson, murder or merely theft. 

Currently, we have an agency that deals with immediate needs, the police.  Arms are endemic in this society and will always be possibly present whether they are outlawed or not.  So, we arm the police so that they will be at least as forceful as the potential burglar.  When we arm them, we have to trust them.  Even if the police do something excessive or even plainly wrong will only be addressed after the event is concluded.  The Minneapolis police killing and the Atlanta police killing are different at least in degree, but both guys are still dead and we can’t change that.  As a society, we can only fix what is wrong so that it doesn't happen again.

So the question remains, how do we deal with the burglar.   It WILL happen tonight, and every night in the foreseeable future.  We are prepared to debate how we should have been more ready for a statistically-improbable pandemic.  But the pandemic happened, so the issue is debatable and current.  We know owner-present burglaries will happen.

People talk about approaching policing (or whatever you would call it) from a sociological standpoint.  Police proponents pooh-pooh that idea as being dangerously weak.  Immediately, they may be right.  You can’t reason successfully always with an armed burglar.  Moreover, a police officer has to be right every time to avoid being shot some night.  If only 1% of burglars are armed and dangerous, and officer will last on an average of a few years.  Ultimately, maybe it’s an improvement to deal sociologically – just not while the burglar is still armed.

Also - oddly - the police also protect the burglar or supposed-burglar from being shot by a homeowner.  The police do not come to work hoping to pull and fire a weapon.  They want a quiet night or at least where everybody goes home.  If the police call on you to raise your hands, the smart move is to comply.

So, what will we do when someone calls 911?

911 centers operate by “cook books.”  That means that when you call with a certain type of need in a certain area, the operator physically or mentally calls up a “cook book,” which tells the operator how to handle the call – Who to call on the radio, what to tell the caller what to do in the meantime, and so forth.  What will the cook book say in the future? 

If the answer is, “You’re on your own,” let’s at least be honest with the caller.  What effect will that have?  We’ll lose more callers to violence.  We’ll lose more burglars to gunfire.  And we’ll lose more supposed-but-not-actual burglars by misplaced gunfire.  If we are willing to do that, we have the power to declare that’s the way things will go.

Nor ordering more respirators, not being more ready for an unlikely pandemic has had effects on society.  Drastic effects.  Not preparing for stuff that happens all the time also will have drastic effects.  We need to decide.  And a decision put off is still a decision in itself.

Mizpah!