Following officer layoffs, the Tulsa Police Department is not sending officers to respond to reports of fraud, forgery, larceny and car break-ins unless the crime is still unfolding or other critical circumstances exist, reports the city’s World. Policy was changed Feb. 4 and 911 dispatchers now tell certain callers to report their crimes via Internet, telephone, walk-in or mail.
Officer Jennifer Mansell, who works as a telephone report officers, said she has seen a significant increase in calls that are referred to her since the change. Most of the crimes that police no longer respond to in person were made part of the new policy because of their extremely low rate of resolution even when officers did take reports in person, she said. Despite that, police always responded in the past because victims usually need police reports for insurance purposes, a record of the crimes helps determine where police routinely patrol, and people generally feel better when an officer comes to the scene after a crime, Mansell said.