Law Enforcement and Police Calls Police Services,

Law Enforcement and Police Calls

Police Services, Keeping the Peace or City Services Hotline?

As a society, it is collectively understood that contacting the police is a community service available to citizens. The phone number to connect emergency service dispatchers is the ubiquitous, '9-1-1,' digits. While there are additional channels in which non-emergency calls may be routed, the '9-1-1' option is the most memorable and universally known means for a citizen to connect with emergency services.

The types of calls that police respond to are generally categorized into four categories that correlate with legitimate functions of law enforcement and fighting crime. However, there is also a fifth class of requests that falls outside of police duties. This paper discusses the categories of police service requests, as well as considering the less conspicuous implications of prostitution and call-services on law enforcement and crime fighting.

John C. Meyer specifically cites four areas of police service calls as, 'maintain social boundaries, relieve disrupting situations, counter-punching (the caller's own suspicious activities), or obtain emergency response services,' (Walker & Katz, 2008, p. 238).

The public generally assumes that a call to the police will result in the resolution of a problem or nuisance. The first two categories fall within the police duties of law enforcement aimed at 'keeping the peace.' The neighbor that decides to enter the yard of another with the aim of cutting down a tree that obscures a view is likely to instigate a police call for trespassing on private property. The police response is aimed at maintaining social boundaries established by laws. Similarly, a call that a neighbor is playing loud music, past the time of a local ordinance, requests the police serve as a third party intermediary to negate a public nuisance. The response of police to both the trespassing and music situations are clearly within the realm of enforcing laws.

Requests for police intervention in case of counter-punching and emergency services are generally more within the realm of crime fighting functions. A call to police of a burglary underway that is merely aimed at diverting police resources away from another area is an example of criminal counter-punching. While the counterpunching example is nefarious in nature, the counterpart of a call for emergency services is the opposite. A homeowner that hears an intruder break the glass on their backdoor to obtain entry calls the police to solicit an emergency response is seeking police to fulfill an immediate crime fighting response.

In all of the cases, the public assumes that responses by police will be immediate and achieve resolution (Walker & Katz, 2008, p. 238). Unfortunately, the police are not able to address every concern, nor are they able to resolve every situation that does not explicitly break laws. The fifth category of police call entails requests for services outside of the duties of police. An "emergency call" for a malfunctioning traffic light or a disabled vehicle are not calls specifically for the police, however the public frequently associated a '9-1-1' call with communication to public services.

While many cases of police enforcement are clearly within the law enforcement or crime-fighting realm, others are more difficult for police to address. Streetwalkers are prostitutes that are clearly in the public space intent upon soliciting customers for sex work (Farlex, Inc., 2012). Call girls are also sex workers, but do not obtain their clientele via the streets (Farlex, Inc., 2012). The streetwalker may prompt police calls, however a citizen has a right to walk in public. Unless the police are able to prove that the alleged streetwalker is soliciting sex, then resolving the nuisance call is difficult or impossible. The problem of the streetwalker is that it erodes the public's perception of community safety and the effectiveness of police.