Karen:
When should I call 911 vs 311?Beat Cop:
Karen, you are not alone with this question. I get asked this all the time. The best advice I can give you is: if in doubt ,call 911. In many situations, a citizen might feel there is not an actual emergency, like a fist fight or theft occurring at a shopping center. The Police Department would like you to call 911 in cases of any crime in progress or any level of emergency.
Calling 911 with a preserved, low level of emergency is not going to prevent someone from getting through with a “real emergency”. Calling 911 early and getting the appropriate police or fire response can however, prevent a situation from escalating and becoming the “real emergency”. 311 can be used from home phones only and is available for calls like music complaints, parking violations and police questions.
911 calls using cell phones are slightly more complicated. (311 is not available on cell phones.) Recently, a 911 cell phone switching system has been implemented, routing your cell phone 911 call to the local police agency whose jurisdiction you are calling from. This system is not flawless and often will default to the California Highway Patrol. Getting connected to the CHP while in San Jose can happen when you are near a freeway but not on it or when the system is not sure where you are. If you are connected to the CHP, dispatchers will make the transfer back to San Jose Police.
A sure way to get San Jose Police from the start on a cell phone is by calling 277-8911. This number will connect you the same way as a 911 call made from your home. You may want to store this number in your phone and put it on speed dial.
Proudly serving you,
Your Beat Cop
Posts
What causes the greatest amount of stress and anxiety for the beat cop and what is the SJPD police administration doing about it?
ReplyDeleteRobillard - In all honesty not getting a vacation to spend time with family because of poor staffing ratios. Most beat cops don't even get a one week vacation a year and the administration pays no attention to the issue nor seem to care. It really lowers morale with the rank and file
ReplyDeleteI agree with anonymous. As a patrol officer I do not get to pick what days I am going to have to stay late on a call, or which day a District Attorney wants me to come into court, yet if I need a personal day off I can almost forget about it if I try and do it the right way. I recently asked for a Monday off 8 weeks in advance for my child's activity and was denied due to a lack of staffing. It really does lower morale with the rank in file, especially in patrol, as days off in the non patrol positions are much easier to get off.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the time off situation doesn't seem to be affecting those at the top of the Police hierarchy or one would assume something would be done to address the problem. That being the case, what does the police administration believe to be the threshold by which "low morale" will not be allowed to fall and how would this be measured and evaluated? How does low morale affect the performance of the department in fulfilling its public safety mission and what impact does it have on the officers? Does the use of sick leave increase as morale drops and time off becomes more difficult to obtain? What is the financial impact of low morale on the department and the city budget when overtime hours are incurred and the unfunded liability of these accumulated hours of overtime remain on the books because officers are not being allowed to “vent off” and reduce this by using the accumulated hours up as time off? Has anyone kept track of the number of times officers and sergeants have been denied time off? Has anyone kept track of the number of vacation and executive leave days that those of lieutenant rank and above take each year?
ReplyDelete