I fully understand your frustration with dispatches that goes like "
Help", "
I've been taken hostage", "
My car has been stolen" and etc. But please look at this from the other side aswell, allow me to explain...
When I'm on as
civilian: I try to write the dispatches as realistic as possile, like if they were an actual 999 call. I rarely write dispatches but when I do, I do them detailed. But you know why I rarely do dispatches? Because police rarely responds, so I do not see the reason to spend a few minutes writing an actual good dispatch. All honor to those few officers that do reply and respond to dispatches, but these are in the minority. You talk about that civs should do more detailed dispatches and you basically say that you get dissapointed in these non-detailed ones. But, have you ever considered how dissapointing and frustrating it is for us civilians that actually spend time writing dispatches, just to wait and never get a response? I'm not saying you in special dont reply or respond to them, but the police force in general.
Statistics:
(These are just top of my head and not documented statistics, so they are not accurate. Please note, this is out from what I have experienced and what others that I play with or meet and talk to have experienced)
- If the dispatch is about needing help down at one of the stations, for various reasons ranging from pure roleplay reasons to delivering a criminal, and everything inbetween, three out of twenty times police is likely to respond or even reply. Sure enough, if the police is busy with an operation/situation it is fully understandable. But it is very frustrating when I after 10-15 minutes have waited down at the station just have to just drop it and drive away, just to find three to four officers litterally sitting in Kavala square, with only one or two of the officers actually talking to whoever they are talking to. Could not the other officers that just sit there like a mute just drive or walk down to the station and deal with the discpatch?
- If the dispatch is about calling in any illegal activities, six out of twenty times police is likely to respond or even reply.
- If the dispatch is about calling in gunfights etc, four out of ten times police is likely to show up.
Bottom line, police have alot to learn from NHS, who is very good at responding to dispatches, wether its notifying that it will take some time to respond or that they are on their way, they usually respond to dispatches that I've sent in. Also, in patrol cars there should be two or more officers. Could not the passenger open, read and reply to dispatches? And when I say reply, i mean reply even if they are responding or not, just so that the one that sent the dispatch dont have to wait a long while for no police to show up. If the dispatch has too little information, i.e "Help" etc, then reply and say that you need more information. Most people who send these dispatches is new and does not know better. At least they try, at least they use the dispatch function. But if they do not get a response/reply, would not that NOT encourage them to do it more? They will just end up not using dispatches again, cause they know its to no use.
When I'm on as
police: Over a year ago, back when I was DSGT, responding to dispatches was still a problem, but more officers read and responded/replied to them, I noticed this when I played as civilian back then. The statistics looked alot better. Now I'm in the police again, as a PCSO, and I have to say I'm abit dissapointed in the officers I've been on patrol with. Dont get me wrong, I've been on alot of patrols with great officers, but on the other hand, many officers have expressed their view on dispatches, wether they are detailed or not. I've been sitting in the passanger seat and read the dispatch to them, some either did not care about it, some said that we would not deal with it, some was hones and said they could not be arsed to deal with it, and some officers rather wanted to drive to the other side of the island and deal with a gunfight/drugbust or whatever when we litterally was in the same city as from where the dispatch came from, most of which we were too late to cause it was too far. Do you see my point?
The reason for my long and on-the-edge reply is because I get quite frustrated when I see a post like this, complaining about the quality of dispatches and saying that if the dispatch is detailed you will respond, when the fact is the police rarely responds, even on detailed dispatches. It's quite the slap in the face for me, when I actually use time and effort into writing dispatches.
