University 911

Rose Woodhouse 2 Comments

The university at which I teach and study is in a pretty high crime area. The campus and county police do their damnedest to get crime alerts out to the students, faculty, and staff.

So I am woefully ungrateful for their difficult and risky work when I am totally entertained by the recent series of alerts the university community received. Somehow, I picture the events going on behind the scenes to be something like a Reno 911 episode.

Alerts 1-3, July 18, 2:24-2:30 AM: [County Police] are in the area of [an intersection near campus] investigating the report of an individual armed with a gun. Suspects are 2 black males, one wearing a white tank top and white shorts. The second wearing black shirt and black shorts.  They were last seen running away from campus towards [nearby street].

Alert 4, July 18, 3:10 AM: After thorough checks of the area by [Campus Police] and [County Police] an ALL CLEAR has been given for the previous incident at [that intersection].

Alert 5, July 18, 6:04 PM: On Wednesday, July 18, 2012, at approximately 2:30 a.m. [Campus Police] became aware of call for service in which a weapon was potentially involved.  This location was in close proximity to campus.   The [County Police] responded.   The initial reporting of this incident was hindered by a language barrier.  [Campus Police] sent an emergency text alert to community members based on the information available at that time. The subsequent investigation by the County Police determined that no crime was committed and no weapon was observed or implied.  This incident has been closed as unfounded by the County Police.

I am having a bit of a time imagining just what kind of language barrier hindrance that was.

Rose Woodhouse

Elizabeth Picciuto was born and reared on Long Island, and, as was the custom for the time and place, got a PhD in philosophy. She freelances, mainly about disability, but once in a while about yeti. Mother to three children, one of whom is disabled, two of whom have brown eyes, three of whom are reasonable cute, you do not want to get her started talking about gardening.

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2 Comments

  1. The (shall we say) “perp” was a teenager who spoke teen. As in, she said, “Like, I totally do not have a gun. I mean, seriously! Obvi!” All this was said while loudly smacking on gum.

    The officer was dumbstruck.

  2. Ah the afternoon when one of our office people found a handgun in the bathroom next to the hospitalist work room in the hospital. She called Security. They gave the gun BACK to the guy who illegally carried it into the hospital.

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