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OldCurlyWolf wrote:

speedsix wrote:...first you gotta finish the donut...then you gotta pick the glaze off yer shirt, then you gotta lick yer fingers clean...then you gotta finish yer coffee...THEN you yank 'er into Drive and tear out to the call...

Smart Aleck. You know better than that. I don't know how many cups of coffee I sent out the window with barely a sip out of them. The donut gets tossed back in the sack and the fingers get licked before you get up to full speed.

KC5AV wrote:

Excaliber wrote:

Purplehood wrote:

Excaliber wrote:

Purplehood wrote:I noticed at least two posts in this thread that asked why the Police had not responded by the time that the poster had finished pumping their gas.

As a counterpoint to Speedsix's tongue in cheek reply (which did make me chuckle), the short version is that LEO's don't have any exemptions from the laws of space and time.

It takes time for a dispatcher to gather information, it takes time to transmit that information, and it takes time to get from wherever the officer was when he received the call to where he is needed. The incident in the OP's post wasn't a Code 3 (lights and sirens) call, and even running code saves only a fairly small amount of time. This is the real reason behind the saying that when you have only seconds, the police are just minutes away.

If you've ever been late for an appointment and tried to compress the time it takes to get to your destination to fit the time remaining until you're due there, you have some idea of the challenges involved.

Time and space don't compress much, even when we want them to.

I guess I failed to make my point. I really don't understand why anyone would expect a response in that short a time. Seems to be totally unrealistic to me...

You're right that it's unrealistic, but there's a reason for it:

Very few folks have ridden in an emergency vehicle where they would actually get to see how long all this takes.

Their expectations regarding of response time come primarily from TV or the movies where you see a couple of seconds of the call, a couple of seconds of a police car running code 3, and - wa la - the officers are on scene and taking action. They fail to realize that every piece of the action they're seeing has been compressed to allow enough time for commercials.

They then become deeply disappointed when their call becomes 30 seconds old and they find that Captain Kirk hasn't yet beamed down from the Enterprise with a security team and phasers set on stun, and fail to appreciate that a response time anywhere under 10 minutes is pretty darn good. Under 5 minutes and it's your lucky day - buy a lottery ticket.

In rural areas, good time stretches out to the 25 - 30 minute mark due to long distances and sparse patrol coverage.

Totally OT, but I'd like to see a show where the ambulance/police car starts out sirens blaring, then cuts to a commercial break. When they show resumes, they are finally pulling up to the scene of the accident/crime.

G26ster wrote:

speedsix wrote:...going to the trouble to report this guy may have saved someone else a bad day...thanks for taking the time...another officer may have run into him later that day...a check may have revealed a warrant...you don't know the good you did by asking to have him checked out...

I said I was the odd man out here, but for you, as a former LEO, I guess we think different, as I did not have to be in daily contact with the dregs of the earth as you did in your career (and thank you for your service). First, the OP did not state whether the man had anything with him, like a bag with perhaps a belt in it. He did not state where the "suspect's" truck was. Was it in the Walmart parking lot? Back at the hotel? Am I to evaluate everyone I come in contact with as "suspect" if they don't meet my "personal smell test" and call 911 if they don't? Sounds like what the DHS wants us to do.

The man had no phone. Not everyone does. The OP didn't know why he needed to get back to his hotel. Neither do I, and there could be a million reasons not evident as to why. Maybe that's where his truck was. Maybe he had to be there at a specific time to meet other workers and he did not want to wait for the police to give him a ride. Maybe he got a ride from the hotel to Walmart to try and get a belt and they didn't have one to fit his truck. And yes, maybe he was a mass murderer out on the loose. Anything is possible.

I don't have a Batman License, I don't think I have a Robin license either, and I should be making a 911 emergency calls reporting everyone who I come in contact with that doesn't meet my personal smell test. Or, perhaps I just don't know what 911 is for.

Let's turn the tables a bit. Suppose the man saw where the Op's thumb was, saw a bulge, and assumed he had a gun. After being rebuffed by the OP, he goes inside and has the clerk call 911, and a MWAG call goes out on the OP. Sure, you'll beat the rap, but when you get pulled over with 4 or 5 police pointing guns at you, and after being questioned, how nice of a day have you had? After all, the man didn't know you had a CHL and were legally carrying, he just got scared and had someone call 911 because he didn't even know it's legal for anyone to carry. You didn't pass HIS smell test, and you scared him.

Again, I know I'm in the vast minority here, but I just felt there were some counterpoints to be made. Flame suit on