+1000Excaliber wrote:You're right that it's unrealistic, but there's a reason for it:Purplehood wrote: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...Excaliber wrote: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.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.
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.
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.
Having been a Paramedic many years I can attest that Lights and Sirens MAYBE buys you 30-60 seconds when there are lights and traffic involved. Not until they institute jet pack toting flying PoPo or Ambulances that ain't gonna change. In the chain of information there are multiple stops from the initial caller to the responding officer/medic it's a lag that the general populous doesn't know about, think about and therefore take into account. Unless situation happens in the parking lot of the station just after shift change you're in for a bit of a wait.
Sorry a little off the OP but had to add my .02
Carry on...