Be A Good Witness
As a citizen, you
are the eyes and the ears of your police department. You can
provide the police department with much needed information.
Below is a list of items that are necessary for relaying good
information to responding police units.
What?
What is happening? What kind of incident is taking place? Is it
an accident, a parking problem, a burglary or another type of
incident.
Where?
Where is the incident occurring? Street address? Is it an
apartment or a house? On the street? Near what cross street or
address? What business on what street and what address?
When?
When did the incident occur? Is it occurring now, did it just
happen or did it happen ten minutes ago, two hours or yesterday?
This is the basic information that a dispatcher needs to start a
unit responding. Be prepared to answer any other questions that
the dispatcher might ask and get right to the point when you
call. When a vehicle or person is involved in the incident, the
dispatcher will usually need information about them.
Personal description
Start with sex, race, and approximate age of the subject. Then
start describing the physical features and clothing from the
head down to the feet.
Vehicle description
Start with the type of vehicle (car, truck, motorcycle) then
give the make, model and approximate year. The color should be
given next starting with the top and then bottom. (Red over
black means red roof/black body).
Direction of travel of the vehicle or subject
If the vehicle or person has left the scene, the
telecommunicator will need to know the direction of travel of
the vehicle or suspect. Which direction? On what street? How, on
foot or in a vehicle?
Your name, address, and phone number
We need this information so that if we have further
questions or the officer does, you can be contacted. If you wish
to remain anonymous that is your right, just advise the
dispatcher of that fact when they ask for your name. On
occasion, you might be asked to remain on the line while the
dispatcher gets units responding to the call. Please do! This
way you can give more information on the call.