One would think the police would want to know about even minor crime.

Last night my car was broken into. I live in the Woodland in Waverly neighborhood and we have on-street parking. My car was not really "broken into;" I unintentionally left it unlocked. The thief did not do any damage to my car.  They dumped the content of my console and glove compartment onto the front passengers seat. The only thing taken was a GPS. I hardly ever used it anyway, most often using my phone if I need a map and driving instructions. That was no big loss.  I had a little metal container that I keep change in and they did not even open it.  It may have had three dollars in change in it.  I had an old brief case in the car with some old personal documents and junk paperwork. The brief case had been in my car for months and I had just never taken it in.  The thief rifled through it but took nothing. This was a minor annoyance but did not ruin my day.

When I got to work, I thought I should report it and I called the non-emergency police number.  The person on the phone took my name and make of my car and then said they would have to send a police out to take the report.  I said, it was really no big deal and I didn't need to see a policeman, I just wanted to report it.  I was told the police do not take crime reports over the phone. Why? It would seem like as waste of time to send out a policeman to report what I just wrote.

One would think the police would want to know about things like stolen bicycles and broken into cars.  You would think a data base would tell police where minor crimes are occurring and guide them in where extra patrols are assigned or where more education in needed telling people to lock their valuables.  This is not that big of a deal, but one would think the police would accept reports of minor crime by an Internet link or a phone call.  I wanted to report the break-in but did not care enough to wait for a policeman.

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