Law Dispatcher

One of the most common types of calls to a 911 center is a burglary call. Most callers will state that they have been robbed, when in fact, they have not been robbed at all, they have been burglarized. There’s a big difference. Let me explain. When the premise of a house, vehicle, or business has been broken, it is a burglary. When a purse snatcher yanks your purse off of you, that’s a robbery. A robbery must involve something being taken by force off of your person. If your wallet is laying on the seat beside you in the car, that is not a robbery because it was not on your person ie…in your pocket or in your hand.

When callers call in and state to me that they have been robbed, my usual response is “What do mean by robbed?” I’m not trying to be a smart aleck, just simply want to understand exactly what the problem is and code the call accordingly. Usually then I will advise the caller of the correct terminology and proceed with the call.

As you can see, there are three different types of burglary calls. I will deal with each one individually but in essence, they are all handled pretty much the same way.

Vehicle: When the premise of a vehicle has been broken, law enforcement will respond to lift fingerprints and take a report. Make sure that when you call in a vehicle burglary, you are available to wait for an officer to respond. (You can’t call it in and expect to go to work in the next 5 minutes.) Also, if the vehicle is wet from either rain or dew, prints will not be able to be lifted until the vehicle is dry. Try not to touch the vehicle anymore than absolutely necessary before the law arrives. Make sure you tell the calltaker exactly where the vehicle is located and that you will be standing by to meet with the officer. Now, for the difficult part of vehicle burglaries. If the vehicle is a pickup truck and someone took something from the bed of the truck, there is a varying of opinions as to weather the premise of the truck has been broken. For my own sanity’s sake and ease of calltaking, I still code it a burglary and the responding officer can change the call code if they so choose. The same goes for tires/rims being taken off of a vehicle.

House: As with vehicle burglaries, the premise of the house must be broken whether by force or not. If the subject enters the house without permission to do so, it is considered a burglary. Again, prints will be lifted and a report made. When calling your local law enforcement, make sure you know the address of the location and try not to touch anything. Be willing to stay and meet with the responding officer. The sticky point with residential burglaries is if something was taken from the carport. Since no premise was actually broken, it causes some heartburn with dispatchers. Again, I code it a residential burglary and let the office change it if they want.

Business: These follow the same suite as above. The quirks with business burglaries are vending machines, which are considered a business, and construction sites (and even these are questionable). Again, just make sure someone is there to meet with the responding officer and make a report.

Now I must issue a strong warning. If at anytime, you think someone may be in your home who is not suppose to be there, whether you are in it or not, call 911 immediately. Give clear and accurate answers. If you are not in the home or place of business, DO NOT go in. Stay away at a safe distance and give the calltaker all the information they require. If you are inside the house and think someone has broken in, if at all possible, try to leave the house if you can do so without injuring yourself. If you cannot, tell the calltaker exactly where you are in the house and stay on the line. The calltaker will be constantly relaying the information to the road units so that they are aware of your situation. Stay calm.

It is always a rush of adrenaline when a calltaker take a burglary in progress call. I’ve had them with kids, who have been home sick from school or on school break. They are the best. Kids know exactly where to hide in the house, can give fairly accurate assesments of the situation and usually are calm given the circumstance. I once had an adult who was so scared that she was nearly impossible for me to control so that I could extract information. The less information I have, the worse off the situation is going to be. Calm yourself and let the calltaker take control of the call. They will stay on the line with you until you are face to face with the officer. As a calltaker, I can’t always guarantee your safety, but your chances increase substantially if you can give me the information I need. Yes, it is a freightening situation, but as long as everyone is safe, that’s all that really matters to me.

If the incident is not in progress, use the non emergency line to report it.