A Detroit man who called 911 three times to report a break-in at his mother’s apartment has been ticketed for “misuse” of the emergency line, even though the reason he kept calling was because it took police hours to show up.

Sean Street told Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK-TV his mother called him when she returned home and saw her front door had been kicked in. He called 911, then jumped in his car to go over to her apartment.

It took him an hour to get there, and when he arrived police hadn’t shown up. He made another 911 call and another hour later they still hadn’t come by, so he called a third time.

“[There] was no profanity whatsoever. I was very polite with them. The officer actually seemed very polite, also, and he told me let us handle it. Don’t take matters into your own hands,” Street told the station.

It's Detroit, I know, but still bullshit....

Well, an hours old B&E aint an emergency now is it?

More blame the victim crap.z

Pretty much lowest priority around here. The one time I did a ride along a call came in for a burglary at like 4 or 5pm, we didn't get there till 1am.

ETA: If the burglary wasn't in progress he should have called the non-emergency line to begin with, at the very least with his 2 followup calls he should not have used 911, it is for real emergencies, like someone dying. This of course doesn't apply if the non-emergency line was closed. The ones in my town are limited to normal business hours.

Detroit

This.

Take a look around the city, and then ask why the police don't rush over to the scene of a possible crime that probably isn't even in progress any more.

The first call was 911 appropriate. The second and third were not.

Want to see whats taking so long? Call the non-emergency number, where the call taker will probably tell you that officers are tied up with higher-priority calls.

All of the above is right, but

What if the dude was still in there during the first call?

Each city's/department's non emergency line's guidelines are different. Here past burglaries are called into 911.



Again, depends on the city/department. The non emergency operators here have no way to communicate with the 911 operators or the police dispatchers.

I don't think this happened in Detroit.  I believe it was out in the suburbs.

The non emergency number gets you an automated menu with the option to speak to an officer. That officer is in the station and able to contact officers on the street or dispatch.