Criminal vs Civil

After enjoying a day with my family to celebrate a little holiday cheer, I return to work and deal with a very angry member of the community I work for, one of my first phone calls for the day. And spend a great amount of time trying to explain the difference between a criminal call for service (which we would handle) and a civil incident/case (in which we would not respond). And listened to her mouthing off and start "kitchen sinking" list of complaints about the agency I work for.

On television and in movies, you never see an Officer or Dispatcher refuse to answer a citizens request for police presence. An officer responds and settles the issue and writes up the report. Yeah, right.

Hello to all those script writers out there! Learn the facts and write accordingly! Take the opportunity to educate the general public who believe everything they see on television and in the movies as fact.

Law enforcement agencies, like the local police departments and sheriff departments, as a rule, respond to requests of the criminal nature. Granted, many sheriff departments have a civil division to help with service of warrants and restraining orders, but the rule of thumb is, if you have a complaint of the civil nature, don't call the police. They're crime fighters. Civil servants that don't handle civil complaints. (Now that's an oxymoron-ish).