Dispatcher yells at victim for driving to safetuy in burglars van

**Evolution** · February 19th, 2009, 02:34 PM

I don't know about you guys, but this pissed me off. 2 guys break down his front door and the victim escapes through the basement. When he gets to his driveway he sees there van is empty and running. So he drives there van away from the scene. The dispatcher threatens the guy saying he will be charged for stealing the burglars van. The dispatcher told him to stop driving immediately. That pisses me off. What if he had stopped and they saw him sitting up the street and he was harmed? Video link below.

http://www.wgal.com/video/18748003/index.html

**wa3ra** · February 19th, 2009, 10:56 PM

A dispatcher is NOT a LEO...none of her goddamned business, and I hope she's reprimanded for it.. I appreciate the irony!

**emsjeep** · February 19th, 2009, 11:23 PM

I was driving behind some woman who was acting very oddly, swerving, flipping people off through the sunroof and speeding. I calle dit in and stayed on the phone to call the turns, she was going, more or less, in the direction I was going so I continued to call intersections as I'm driving about 1/4 mile behind her at a normal speed. After maybe the second one the operator goes, "Do you know this person?"
"No."
"Don't follow her, you're going to get into trouble."
"OK, I'm just going this way."
"Stop following her."
"I'm not."
"Yes you are."
"OK, I'm hangin up on you, bye."

Turns out she had a warrant and a suspended license, don't know if they caught her, sent a car to her home address though. These aren't the brightest people sometimes...then again they do a good job most of the time. I have had problems with many dispatchers in my life, yet others are great, its a crap shoot.

**wa3ra** · February 20th, 2009, 12:16 AM

Two of us followed an obvious DUI one night, both of us called comm center not knowing about the other...we both followed the guy for almost two miles, as he clipped parked cars the whole way. The guy pulled off onto a side street, and after a few minutes, left the car...

The police never showed; I have a county radio in the car, and didn't hear the call even dispatched until after the guy left the car.

Police decision? The call was 'unfounded' .

**emsjeep** · February 20th, 2009, 12:27 AM

You could have asked the PD to meet you somewhere, pointed out the car, had them knock on his door and if they could get a name you might be able to sign the complaint. Chances are it worn't go very far and any lawyer would tell him to say he chugged a bottle of vodka right after he got out of the car. Also it makes more paperwork for the PD and they won't like that. I followed some guy who was driving on the wrong side of the road through a small QUIET town with a large private police force at 3AM, they told me, "Sorry no cars."