Northwood News ♦ February 2012

Suspicious Activity? Leave Your Number

By Jacquie Bokow

Our own neighborhood police officer, PO3 Douglas Miller, related a story on the NFCCA Listserv in late September which may change your mind about remaining anonymous when calling the police with a complaint.

Police were called due to two noisy young men early in the morning.  Slowly walking down Belton Road about 3:45 a.m., they were loudly rapping, which woke some residents.  Officer Miller looked into it.

“Those two were residents of the neighborhood,” said Officer Doug.  “Besides being out at 4:00 a.m., they were not doing anything illegal.  They were identified and sent on their way after the officers made certain they hadn’t stolen anything.”

But Officer Doug then related a similar incident the previous night when he was working.

“A citizen called us and wanted to remain anonymous.  He/she saw kids looking into cars at 2:00 a.m.  We caught the kids wearing all black and wearing empty backpacks.  Unfortunately — or fortunately — we caught them as they tried to hide but before they stole anything.

“The citizen who called in didn’t leave a name or a phone number.  If we had the citizen’s name, we could have gotten additional information, enough information to charge the subjects with a crime other than theft.  (911 dispatchers are great but don’t know what the elements of all crimes are like we do.)  We ultimately had to let them go and let them walk back to their houses several miles away through other neighborhoods.  (According to our records, they all had several priors for theft/burglaries.)

“We treat everyone with complete confidentiality, but sometimes we need to contact you.  So, if and when you call 911, you can state, ‘I do not want to be contacted unless it’s absolutely needed, but I am willing to leave my phone number.’ It would greatly help us.”

So write down the Police Nonemergency Number — 301.279.8000 — and leave it by all your phones so you aren’t scrambling at 4:00 a.m. when you’re groggy from sleep!

Contact “Officer Doug” at [contact details redacted].   ■