911 response time

[TheMan419]

Sadly I found out what that response time is In my area. As many of us do here we live in a rural area. To my west is a highway. North is all farm fields. South and east are woods.

Sunday night the Mrs was putting in a load of laundry. She starts screaming bloody murder and telling me to grab my gun.

I assumed there was a four leg predator. Nope there was a 2 leg kind at the back door.

It was about 930 at night. Dude was shirtless, bald or close cropped hair cut and all tatted up. Said he just needed to use the phone.

Well our phone was busy being used as the Mrs was calling 911. I advised him through the closed door that we were armed and he needed to leave.

He walked west away from the house. There are no other houses that can be seen in that direction. He got down to the bridge over the highway and then turned back toward our house. Walked back past our house the other way.

County police finally showed up. Some 8 minutes later. Felt like an hour.

Obviously I am thankful he did not try to enter the home. I am also thankful I have the necessary tools to solve that problem if he had tried.

Many advantages to living in the country. 911 response time is not one of them.

Now that the adrenaline levels have returned to normal I am considering an alarm system and cameras.

Also I think I have wife convinced she needs a pistol in her barn. Of course since she teaches riding lessons to children it will have to be properly stowed in a quick access safe of some kind.

Sorry just had to get all this off my chest.

 

[widefat]

Sadly I found out what that response time is In my area. As many of us do here we live in a rural area. To my west is a highway. North is all farm fields. South and east are woods.

Sunday night the Mrs was putting in a load of laundry. She starts screaming bloody murder and telling me to grab my gun.

I assumed there was a four leg predator. Nope there was a 2 leg kind at the back door.

It was about 930 at night. Dude was shirtless, bald or close cropped hair cut and all tatted up. Said he just needed to use the phone.

Well our phone was busy being used as the Mrs was calling 911. I advised him through the closed door that we were armed and he needed to leave.

He walked west away from the house. There are no other houses that can be seen in that direction. He got down to the bridge over the highway and then turned back toward our house. Walked back past our house the other way.

County police finally showed up. Some 8 minutes later. Felt like an hour.

Obviously I am thankful he did not try to enter the home. I am also thankful I have the necessary tools to solve that problem if he had tried.

Many advantages to living in the country. 911 response time is not one of them.

Now that the adrenaline levels have returned to normal I am considering an alarm system and cameras.

Also I think I have wife convinced she needs a pistol in her barn. Of course since she teaches riding lessons to children it will have to be properly stowed in a quick access safe of some kind.

Sorry just had to get all this off my chest.

A Dog is both an excellent early warning system and a deterrent.

 

[wheelbuilder]

I think she might be best served by carrying a pistol concealed on her rather than having it in a safe and away from her. It would keep someone from getting between her and a gun, as well as keeping small hands away. If she's careful of the selection and how it's carried, no one would know it is on her.

I'm glad everyone is ok.

 

[Gunny]

For this area, 8 minutes would be a pretty fast response.

I don't know how many times I was the only county LEO on duty and be on the extreme limits of the county and get a call for the extreme limits on the other side of the county. City PD rarely leaves the city limits and many times late at night, state police may only have one or two troopers covering a four county area.

Ambulance is just as bad. While they're centrally located, many times they're asleep late at night when the call comes in, or they're at Walmart and I sometimes think they get a call, then head to the checkout counter before they worry about responding.

 

[RickB]

I agree that 8 minutes is not bad for a rural response time.

 

[RandyT]

I believe the average respond time is 14 minutes, And in some cases can be as long as 45 minutes. With one deputy on duty like the other person said, response time for me can be 30 minutes.

Which is were the phrase "When seconds count the police are only minutes away" comes from.

 

[Shaneard]

My inlaws gas grill caught on fire a few years ago. Somehow the tank started leaking and it got bad. They called 911 then videoed it. It took 17 minutes for the FD to get there. Sadly the nearest FD is less than 1,000 feet from there driveway, it's a volunteer FD.

 

[Newtocvt]

I was a 911 dispatcher for awhile. 8 minutes in a rural part of our county is a pretty good response time. I’ve seen some 20-25 minute response times.

 

[Bocephous]

A few years ago I held a man at gunpoint for 40-45 minutes before state police arrived. He had broken into my dad's house (he was away, thankfully), and the police were very aware that I didn't know how many there were, and that the perp was looking down the barrel of my firearm, as this had been explained to the 911 operator, twice. Thankfully, the perp stayed seated and he was alone.

 

[nybirdman]

I agree a large dog(s) would be a better investment than cameras or alarms.They are a great deterrent.I have a drive way alarm but the dogs are always alerted first.

 

[CobyRupert]

:devil: Devil's advocate here:

Real crime of the century: A guy walks up to your house and asking to use the phone....and.......??? :confused3:

Your wife screams bloody murder, yells "Get the gun!" and calls the cops. Why?

Do you have "No Trespassing" signs?

You ask him to leave and he does (while you're making (very thinly veiled) threats about shooting him). OK. Done. What's the crime?

So, what was her complaint to the police? What was HER suspicion based on?

What did the police do? Arrest him for existing? Excessive tattoos? Failure to drive a car? Pedestrian-ing without a cell phone?

Sounds like there was only one party (not counting the cops you brought) bringing gun play and threats of violence to the scene and creating a disturbance.

 

[thepumpguysc]

I too have a vol. fire dept.. less than 2 miles away.!!
My garage/workshop caught fire a few years back..
The vol. fire dept FINALLY got there after passing the street SEVERAL TIMES..
THEN they stood there watching it burn & wetting the trees so it didn't spread..
I'm glad they finally showed up BUT "I think" it coulda been saved.. I wasn't a happy camper..
OH WELL..

 

[mark02tj]

:devil: Devil's advocate here:

Real crime of the century: A guy walks up to your house and asking to use the phone....and.......??? :confused3:

Your wife screams bloody murder, yells "Get the gun!" and calls the cops. Why?

Do you have "No Trespassing" signs?

You ask him to leave and he does (while you're making (very thinly veiled) threats about shooting him). OK. Done. What's the crime?

So, what was her complaint to the police? What was HER suspicion based on?

What did the police do? Arrest him for existing? Excessive tattoos? Failure to drive a car? Pedestrian-ing without a cell phone?

Sounds like there was only one party (not counting the cops you brought) bringing gun play and threats of violence to the scene and creating a disturbance.

I think you need to re-read the OP's initial post....

The guy didn't just "walk up to the house" - he was at the back door, not the front door.

The guy didn't "ask to use the phone" - from the OP's description, it sounds like he was at the back door and didn't knock and only came up with the phone excuse when the wife started screaming bloody murder.

Whether you have "No Trespassing" signs or not - you're trespassing if you're uninvited on private property. Especially if you're at the back door of a rural property at nightfall.


Like the OP, I live in a rural area. Our house sits back 400' from the road and you can't see it from the road. If someone is standing at my backdoor, uninvited, at 9:30 p.m. claiming that they just need to use the phone, they're lying. If someone that is NOT up to no good REALLY needs to find a phone to use, there are plenty of houses sitting on the road where they could go to the FRONT door and KNOCK.

 

[Diggin It]

What's the crime?

Agreed. Where's the beef?

Only threat I see here was from the OP based on little or nothing. 'Close cut' hair and 'all tatted up' could be a homeless veteran.

And no status update after the officer's arrival. What was the outcome?

 

[Diggin It]

That said, 8 minuets is exceptionally fast. Many cities and suburbs aren't that fast. 20-30 minutes is more expected in most rural areas during daytime and evening hours. After midnight can be much longer since they may have to call a Deputy out of bed like we did between 2 and 6 AM.

 

[Ortimber]

Glad the OP and wife are ok. Our response most likely would be very similar. If a person is standing anywhere by my house at 9:30 in the evening, I will consider that a “potential” threat. I have no desire to harm anyone, but being a victim is really the last thing I want to be.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

:devil: Devil's advocate here:

Real crime of the century: A guy walks up to your house and asking to use the phone....and.......??? :confused3:

Your wife screams bloody murder, yells "Get the gun!" and calls the cops. Why?

Do you have "No Trespassing" signs?

You ask him to leave and he does (while you're making (very thinly veiled) threats about shooting him). OK. Done. What's the crime?

So, what was her complaint to the police? What was HER suspicion based on?

What did the police do? Arrest him for existing? Excessive tattoos? Failure to drive a car? Pedestrian-ing without a cell phone?

Sounds like there was only one party (not counting the cops you brought) bringing gun play and threats of violence to the scene and creating a disturbance.

I don't know what the culture is where you live, but someone coming to my back door at night looking like that already has two strikes against him. This was a crime free area until they started building the low rent apartments, but even so, my area is mostly rural, and professionals; and I assume most every home has a gun or two handy. No one like that exists here, except maybe the tree trimmers with the prison tats. He would stand out like a turd in a punch bowl. Looks can be deceiving, but usually are not.

 

[widefat]

I believe it was General Mattis that said - "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.’

 

[CobyRupert]

I think you need to re-read the OP's initial post....

The guy didn't just "walk up to the house" - he was at the back door, not the front door.

The guy didn't "ask to use the phone" - from the OP's description, it sounds like he was at the back door and didn't knock and only came up with the phone excuse when the wife started screaming bloody murder.

Whether you have "No Trespassing" signs or not - you're trespassing if you're uninvited on private property. Especially if you're at the back door of a rural property at nightfall.


Like the OP, I live in a rural area. Our house sits back 400' from the road and you can't see it from the road. If someone is standing at my backdoor, uninvited, at 9:30 p.m. claiming that they just need to use the phone, they're lying. If someone that is NOT up to no good REALLY needs to find a phone to use, there are plenty of houses sitting on the road where they could go to the FRONT door and KNOCK.

Ok, maybe some valid points, we don't know.

Some (many) "front doors" are just ornamental, don't even have sidewalks to them and are not the primary door. We don't know.

We don't know if he was standing there observing or just hadn't knocked yet.

Not sure about Indiana, but in most states your not trespassing unless someone has asked you to leave, either verbally or by signage. You're not trespassing just because you haven't been invited.

I get it. Reality is that people are going to react to a tattooed man differently than a woman with a young child. Is that prejudicial? Yes, but that's reality.

It be interesting to know why was he there and outcome with police.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

It's been maybe 30 years, but I did have a lady at my front door ask to use the phone. Her car had quit, and she needed help. I made her stand outside, while I retrieved the cordless from the kitchen. Today, anyone asking to use the phone is suspicious, particularly when virtually everyone today has a cell phone. Even I have a flip phone that I take with me when I'm on the road.