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?

  • @Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    2013 hours 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.

  • JWBananas
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    411 hours ago

    “Send fire, not police. I just need someone brave to show up.”

  • @Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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    1415 hours 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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      1012 hours 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.

  • @undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch
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    915 hours ago

    I’ve called the police on a handful of unsafe drivers: drunk driver on wrong side of road, drunk driver meandering over the line, boyfriend/girlfriend stopped at a traffic light in separate vehicles getting into a domestic assault territory (and backing up rush hour traffic), etc.

  • Pietson
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    413 hours ago

    I’m not in the US but I’ve called the cops before when I could hear a woman screaming while on my way home. I didn’t really get a lot of info about the situation but as far as I could tell nobody got hurt.

    • @SacralPlexus@lemmy.world
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      14 hours 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.

    • @Today@lemmy.world
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      315 hours 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.

    • @IMALlama@lemmy.world
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      1121 hours 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.

  • @OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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    816 hours 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.

  • @recapitated@lemmy.world
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    1017 hours 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.

    • Liz
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      716 hours ago

      Mad he had to actually do his fucking job for once.

  • @stoy@lemmy.zip
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    615 hours ago

    Swedish police are usually trustworthy, but they are underfunded and love to close investigations.

    I have called the emergency number three times in my life and the non emergency number a few times.

    I called the emergency number once for a fire in a bin during a dry summer, they were not really interested.

    The second time was this summer, I hit an animal when driving at night during the late summer, since I couldn’t see what animal it was and some animal are required to be reported, I did so.

    The third time was when I heard a sharp bang behind me and saw a light flash reflected off of a bridge I was driving passed, I called and reported a possible gunshot.

    I did call the non emergency number to report an open door at a school that was closed for the day.

  • nocturne
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    1919 hours 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.

  • @Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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    716 hours 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.

  • ComradeSharkfucker
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    19 hours ago

    If I thought introducing an upredictable and aggressive person with a gun was better than not doing that.

  • @meyotch@slrpnk.net
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    2322 hours 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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        216 hours 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.

        • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashedOP
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          516 hours ago

          Bruh, thats some shenaigans.

          Feels so “ghetto”… its like calling the a friend that happened to be a cop, instead of actually calling the cops.

  • hendrik
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    22 hours ago

    If I’m in a country where police mostly do what they’re supposed to do. I don’t live in the USA and I’ve called the cops for unclear and probably dangerous situations, traffic accidents, people sleeping at the bus stop when it’s too cold and they don’t respond to me yelling… So far everything turned out well. I mean I don’t call them for fun, though.

    • sunzu2
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      1622 hours ago

      I don’t live in the USA

      we getting pretty close to where this gonna turn into a flex

        • sunzu2
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          121 hours ago

          when did it start resonating with USian? \

          also 84 is a strech when 90s was peak Americana

          but yeah at some point after the two idiotic wars and 2008 melt down US turned into its soft power into a joke.

  • @Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    1922 hours 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.

      • @Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        23 hours 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.”

    • @Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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      1021 hours 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)