Hacker News Reader

Comment by kevingadd | Hacker News Reader

I think you'll find many residents of many cities will call the cops even though they know the cops usually won't do anything.

View on HN

Well, sure, because the insurance company's first question will be "is there a police report."

A police report != a 911 call from a legal standpoint (to my non lawyer knowledge).

But it is the first step if you need a report written.

You can walk to a station and do it in person. That won't be logged in the 911 database.

It really isn’t. Where I am it is a form on a website.

I don't know anything about NYC, but, normally, a police report actually involves the police writing down some names. So, one lives in a high crime area and one notices that the police are no longer around, one has strong incentives not to go on the record about this or that crime.

Ages ago when I was a kid, our house was constantly being robbed. No city police in a town of 50,000

County police who took an hour or more to show up finally told my dad to get a gun and explained how we should move the body to make it look like we were being attacked. So that we didn’t get arrested.

So yea we moved promptly.

And now I want a Youtube tutorial...

Why was there no police?

A few years some parents left their kid home alone while on vacation.

Neighbors knew family had gone vacation and saw movement at night. Jumpy cop, dark house, sudden movement, dead kid...

Family got big payout, City dismantled the police department.

Plenty of rural areas will only be serviced by a county sheriff, and there may not be that many officers. I grew up in a place like that. You could drive around forever where I grew up and never see a cop.

I think their point is that it could explain the 3-6% drop. But yes, the other 94-97% of people still call.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com