I know Lemmy has the ACAB sentinment, and I get it, I don’t trust them either. But real talk tho, there are some scenarios where you might not have other options.

So… the question is: When, if ever, would you call for law enforcement? And if you distrust law enforcement, is there ever a situation where it gets so bad that you just have to risk involving law enforcement?

    • IMALlama@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      Depending on what happened they might not make one for you. I drove my car to work, parked in a parking lot, and came back out at the end of the day to a heavily dented fender with blue paint scrapes on my red paint. It was obvious someone hit me. I called the police station, told them what happened, and asked for a police report. They declined and said it might have been a deer. It’s a busy/high traffic area and there wasn’t any green space for atleast a half mile.

    • Today@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      I’ve called them several times to get a report for car break in or vandalism. Once i got a check from a victim fund for my broken window and missing stuff. Called them because someone in a scream mask was banging on my front door at 3am.

    • SacralPlexus@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      Similar vein: when dealing with fraud, etc. I was victim of credit card and identity theft and found that businesses and credit cards took my disputes more seriously when I informed them I had contacted police already.

      • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        Hell, a police report used to be required to dispute fraudulent credit card charges, freeze your credit report, etc. Ask me how I know…

  • meyotch@slrpnk.net
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    16 days ago

    In many jurisdictions you can just file a police report on a self-serve website. This avoids them showing up and shooting your dog and usually suffices for a claim.

      • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        Where I am, you actually have to call the non-emergency for emergencies. 911 is like a ten minutes wait time, but if you call the small town police non-emergency line and tell them a car just flipped into the ditch in front of your house (again) they will get the first responders there a lot faster.

        I’m told this is because when there is an accident on the freeway 500 people call it in, thinking they are saving the world and it clogs up the line.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    I have no issues calling law enforcement. I actually have done so a few times in my life, for various reasons (reporting safety issues, traffic accidents, crime). And I feel quite safe with it, as I live in a civilized country, where the police is a very professional service of highly trained people, and not just some jerks who got hired because the knew how to hold a gun and then got a few weeks of (online) training on how to write tickets.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    16 days ago

    Think of it this way. You are in a courtroom and the lawyer asks 'why didn’t you call the police?"

    If your home was burglarized and you don’t call the cops, the police will assume you’ve been doing something illegal. Most people will call the cops just to have a police report on file for the insurance or to claim a tax loss.

    • Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      I’m not white though, pretty sure they’d assume I did something illegal as soon as I opened the door. lol. How would calling the crazy racists on steroids with guns cops help? Seems like a very unnecessary risk. Also, why would I be in a courtroom due to my home getting robbed?

      I’m not a homeowner, but guessing that applies for renter’s insurance too. Never had to use it, thankfully, but that’s def good info to have! If robbed, leave drugs at friend’s house so you can make an insurance claim.

      I wonder if you actually have to interact with a cop for that. Really adds insult to injury (again, if you’re not white of course)

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        15 days ago

        “According to their neighbors, Monkey Puppet’s house was burglarized on 12/22/2024. No police reports were filed by Monkey Puppet. This gave the police probable cause to search their house, where they found the contraband.”

  • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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    16 days ago

    I had construction workers break into my business because they decided to work while I was closed. Called the police, they let them stay.

    While walking in the bosque near the Rio Grande someone was shooting into the trees and nearly hit us. The cops’s solution was I should carry a gun and shoot back next time. This is within city limits. Same solution when I called them about hunters illegally hunting (both out of season, and within city limits).

    There were meth heads squatting in the house next to my parents. They broke into the garage and stole multiple of my wife’s firearms. The sheriff’s deputies told us if the suspects turned up dead no one would really investigate it. They never investigated the theft, it took months to get a report, and even longer for the serial numbers to be entered into the database as missing.

    While riding my bike a cop ran a red light and nearly hit me. He started to write me a ticket until he realized I was wearing a camera on my helmet. He told me to be more careful in the future and he was letting me off with a verbal warning.

    It would likely take a dead body for me to call the police.

  • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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    15 days ago

    A traffic accident. Cops, as simple minded creatures of habit, fundamentally categorize calls into “I can shoot people” and “I probably can’t shoot people” events, and traffic accidents are usually the latter.

    Plus my insurance requires it.

  • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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    15 days ago

    In my experience police have always been kind and helpful. Not everyone has the same experience I suppose.

    • weeeeum@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      Yeah a lot of people hate their local police because of something that happened on the other side of the country. You should only distrust your local department when you have a reason to distrust them. I live in a little town and the local police are super chill.

      • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        A cop on my local police force pulled over a driver while off duty and pulled his gun on the poor guy. He wasn’t local and just made an illegal turn without realizing it. (I think the cop may have been drinking as well). Thanks to the driver having a dash cam that recorded the entire incident the cop was eventually forced to resign.

        On the other hand I had a police lieutenant that lived a few doors down from me (same police department) and he was a really nice guy, both off duty and on. Once when I was a victim of identity theft, the cop on desk duty that I spoke to refused to take a report from me. I later spoke to my neighbor and he told me in no uncertain terms that the other guy was wrong. My neighbor told me to go request a report again when he was on duty, and to immediately call him if I ran into problems again.

        So you can find all sorts of both good & bad cops in just about any department….

  • recapitated@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    Some music gear got stolen from my van parked in my driveway.

    I called the cops the next day, they came over and took a report and told me nothing ever gets recovered.

    Then I called around the music shops to report serial numbers and stuff. Within a day I got most of my equipment back, especially the expensive parts.

    But the cop who took my report for some reason was tasked with doing the recovery from the second hand store, and he was really mad about it.

    That was about 12 years ago, and since then I have come to the conclusion that I would only deploy police in conditions where I would be willing to deploy lethal force which is almost never, and ideally probably never.

  • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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    15 days ago

    Imminent threat of bodily harm and no route for escape. Calling the cops will get you an armed response. The only time an armed response is at all appropriate is if life could be lost otherwise. Any other time, it’s best not to bring a gun into the situation.

    • y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      14 days ago

      Fair but calling for this reason is more likely to end with the cops showing up after the bodily harm has occurred. You need a way to self-host your armed response.

      “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.”

      • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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        14 days ago

        Point being it’s a last resort. I’ve lost all other options, may as well at least get someone there to ID the body or somesuch.

  • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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    15 days ago

    I’ve called them on my brother a few times when he’s been abusive and it starts crossing the line to physical. The last two times I had to call the dispatcher I talked to immediately asked if it was my brother by using his name.

    I’d call the police for a lot of things.

      • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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        14 days ago

        They know my brother by name.

        I’m safe, I love in another state than he does now, but I appreciate your concern!

  • Zonetrooper@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    I am in a relatively stable area with police who are reasonably well-behaved and under rational oversight. So… all the usual reasons?

    I’ve called because I sighted a possibly rabid animal. The police didn’t arrive in a hail of gunfire which struck a bunch of innocent bystanders. I’ve had them turn up to take notes on a car accident. They were polite and not aggressive.

    Like, I fully recognize I’m lucky to live in an area where the police aren’t abusive. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to call them because they are assholes somewhere else.

  • Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    Last time I called them, it was because I got home late and my backdoor window was shattered. I had recently broke up with an unstable person, so I phoned the cops the next day just to make a report.

    They called my ex, who initially denied it at first and tried to say I was a meth dealer or something. Eventually, the cop said she admitted doing it and asked if I wanted to press charges. I declined.

    I reconnected with her years later in 2021 during the pandemic. It did not end well yet again, but at least no one got hurt and no property was destroyed this time around.

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      16 days ago

      Oof, I think domestic disputes is the worst thing to involve law enforcement.

      Like, a burglar is much a simpler situation. One is homeowner, one is not. But domestic dispute is just a random stranger in a position of power (that’s essentially what a cop is) of judging who is, in their opinion, the worse partner. Basically a 50%/50% roll of dice of getting yourself arrested, or shot.