Police Report

After seeing a report on the news about the increased crime at White Rock Lake, I started thinking more about that whole beer-bottle-thrown-at-my-head incident. The news report cautioned that women, in particular, should go in pairs when they're walking or whatever at the lake. Or to at least take a dog. Well, I don't have friends that I run with, and my dogs are now 11 years old, and I'm not sure they'd be down with a 5 miles run- Or rather, I'm afraid they might, in fact, be DOWN with it...

The news report also said that the Dallas Police Dept. didn't have any plans to put more security out there. Even tho crime has increased at a reportedly alarming rate. WHAT?!

So my husband and I talked it over and he encouraged me to report "the incident" so the police would have yet another statistic to add to perhaps get the necessary beefed up security.

I asked my neighborhood crime watch person who to call for a non-emergency report. She told me to call 911 and just tell them, "I have a non-emergency I'd like to report." My neighbor also added, "Be careful if you run at the lake by yourself! There've been sexual assaults reported!" Oh my! I'm hearing it again. It must be true.

So I called 911. The operator asked me what my report was, and I told her. And then she said she'd be sending out an officer. I replied, "Can I just talk with someone on the phone, rather than them coming out." And she that no, she'd be sending an officer out. And I thought, "Well, I guess this is just procedure."

When an officer arrived at my door, he said, "Mrs. Arista, I was told you insisted on having an officer out to your house to report a crime that happened to you-"

URGH. I felt so embaressed and wronged by that 911 operator. I told him I didn't at all insist on having him out, and that the crime wasn't even necessarily a crime. I then went on to tell him that I got hit in the head with a bottle over a week ago. I told him I was only now reporting it after seeing the report about crime at the lake on the news last night.

He asked me some more questions and we sort of resolved that it was a little late to even really care about what I was telling him. He went on to tell me that the crimes at the lake were actually car break ins. Primarily of people who had items in plan site- Like one guy who had his laptop on his passenger seat. I asked him about the sexual assualts. He said there was ONE report of a women being chased and grabbed by her ex, or something like that...Nothing that puts me or other women at any alarming kind of risk. (Which explains why the DPD doesn't plan on upping the police presence at the lake.)

So again, the news and me just don't get along.
I think it's main objective is to put fear in all of us- I'm not sure why, I guess all the hype is exciting.

The officer said my beer-bottle-in-the-head, was more than likely just a litterbug throwing the bottle from the bridge. And I'll add, to remind me to be aware of my surroundings when I'm out on a run. I still feel safe out there on my own. As long as I don't watch the news reports.