Frustrating Call to Report Reckless Driving/Hit & Run

If it’s on the freeway/highway that’s DPS the State Troopers. If you called my agency the call takers would transfer you to DPS for the report. The call taker would probably send the information to the dispatcher for the district for an Attempt To Locate. If our helicopter is up they’d try to find it and if they did they’d switch to DPS channels for the stop.

In Arizona a non injury hit and run is a class three misdemeanor which is the lowest. If you aren’t the victim I’m not sure if DPS is taking a report. If they did it’d probably be an information report with no follow up unless the victim reported it later.

A call to the Houston Emergency Center*, regarding a drunk or reckless driver incident, in progress, would get serious attention, from civilian and sworn personnel, in the building. Such calls actually get a high priority response code. That does not, of course, mean that there will, necessarily, be a unit, on patrol, near enough to effect a timely response.

Again, I must emphasize the liability incurred when a private citizen pursues a suspect vehicle. An LEO has “qualified immunity,” at least for now, when trying to intercept or pursue, in good faith. (Qualified Immunity” is what some politicians want to eliminate, in “police reform.”) A private citizen has no duty to follow/investigate/pursue, so, no protection from liability.

*911 is not the direct line to the HEC. A 911 operator will transfer a call to the HEC, if it is the appropriate agency.

I understand the frustration of a citizen trying to do the right thing by reporting a crime and is met with a less than satisfactory response. The only thing I have to add is that in my experience providing a license plate is often a dead end. People that drive like that often have a suspended drivers license and no insurance. The tag is often stolen off a wrecked car in a junk yard. If the car was totaled the plate is dead and if taken from a junk yard it won’t be reported as stolen. It got so bad in my state that they changed the color of the license plates. Policing is regional. While many crimes like you witnessed are solvable many jurisdictions lack the time or desire to solve crimes like this. I was lucky. I worked for a department that had a tempo that let me work on my own investigations in patrol. Most officers on patrol had no desire to do followups and truthfully didn’t have the talent. As an FTO I stressed that it might be a nothing crime to us but to the citizen reporting the crime it was a big deal. I told the FNGs to be patient and imagine they were talking to their mother or grandmother. I also told them if they couldn’t solve the small crimes they wouldn’t be able to solve the big crimes. I admit that I often gave my SGTs heartburn with reports in the hold bin requiring further investigation. SGTs like everything to run smoothly ie they don’t want their bosses asking them questions.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lon

I applaud you for trying. Around here, our dispatchers would have, at the very least put the info out as a BOLO for a drunk driver. They would have taken your name and number in case we were able to find the vehicle so that you could be contacted at a later date for a statement and to retrieve the video.

I’ve been around a long time and have never heard of a hit’n’run Detective. All of our hit skips are handle but patrol. Just goes to show how different LE “normalcy” can be from area to area. Our Patrol guys would love that.

Keep doing what your doing, you never know when that little thing that’s called in may be critical.

---

Back in the day, early '90s, I was my department's "Traffic Analyst". I did all the H&R followup investigations as well as filing all DUI and other traffic related matters with the District Attorney's office. So in effect I was the H&R Detective, but I worked in uniform and also worked a Traffic/DUI car Friday nights. It was a good assignment until the department did away with it as a sworn position.

I had a somewhat similar experience.
Returning home late after an after business hours shooting match and supper, we saw an apparently impaired driver all over the road and while not wide open, faster than my usual cruising speed. My passenger attempted to call it in but could get no response. Strange, he was the chief of police of the (small) town we were approaching.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thn9mm

Thank you everyone for your input. I understand that with everything LE has to contend with, this is low yield fruit.

I think the other lesson is to encourage forum members to think about a dash cam. After this incident, I will be upgrading mine to a model with rear facing camera and better night time resolution.

---

You did just fine. Take solace in the fact that had he or she killed someone, you would have had valuable evidence to present to the authorities and/or the victim's attorneys.

Where I work, even a valid tag that is on the correct vehicle is not proof that the registered owner was driving the car at the time of the offense. Our dispatch would have performed a "broadcast and cancel" BOLO to all units and if someone was near they would have checked it out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Patrick Taylor

So a drunk sleeping in a car not moving is bad but a speeding drunk on the highway hitting other cars is low fruit and does not deserve a call.

Interesting....

---

A drunk sleeping in a car not bothering anyone is probably not going to generate a call for service. A drunk holding up the drive through line at a restaurant is probably going to cause the manager of said restaurant to call and request the police to respond. For one, it's bad for business to let an intoxicated subject remain on site and hold up the line. He or she certainly isn't going to contribute to the daily sales if they are racked out sleeping off their substance abuse and two, they are eventually going to relax their foot off the brake and run over something or someone.

Plus the driver may just be taking his or her heroin ride and going towards that big, white light....a.k.a. overdosing and dying. People passed out behind wheels is a whole new animal lately. ODs are rampant here and it's the first thing we suspect when we get "that call".

We had one a few months back that sat in his car in the heat for three weeks before he was discovered. Well, what was left of him. Then they yelled at us for not checking on cars parked minding their own business.

In the OPs post, the driver of the car that was sideswiped holds most of the cards as to whether or not a criminal case is going to be generated from the event. If said driver with the mirror knocked off doesn't report it nor do they want to pursue it, then nobody is going to want the footage. No case will be filled out and the event will fade away.

If they want to pursue it, and later call it in, then the aforementioned "broadcast and cancel" BOLO would have the OP's information in it and a detective could follow up at a later date and at the very least pursue a misdemeanor case IF the victim wants to press it. If a lead was generated, the victim and the OP could await trial to present their case and evidence. Here, unless there is serious injury or death, it's a misdemeanor and the victim would have a year to seek a warrant.

So it's not that it's "low hanging fruit".....it's more that a whole lot of boxes haven't been checked yet to get the ball rolling........specifically the lack of a willing victim that has called to report the sideswipe.

Hope this helps.

And really, when you get right down to it, I for one am glad that nobody was killed and that the OP's footage wasn't needed. I used to clean those scenes up and notify next of kin. It's not pleasant....and witnesses usually get taken along for the ride emotionally. Preliminary stuff is not fun and usually requires a good bit of time out of a witness' day if he or she is involved in serious criminal matters. I've seen a lot of them become frustrated with the continuances, the prelims, the witness stand...........

Slow, agonizing process.

Regards.