911, please hold

The Trumpies at KATU had a story up the other day about how the 911 call center in Portland has been swamped lately. As a result, emergency calls sit on hold for a while before they're picked up.

I'm sure there's more than one cause of that, but one thing that sure isn't helping is the fact that the cops don't answer the non-emergency line at all, at least not at night. You sit on hold listening to an endless loop of some DJ giving you website addresses that you don't want or need. It also impresses upon you the fact that the cops really don't want to be bothered with you.

So the next time something comes up on the borderline between emergency and non-emergency, people naturally decide it's an emergency, because otherwise they know they will get no response at all.

What do the Portland cops do any more? Do you ever see one? It seems as though, faced with a choice between a bad-boy, Proud Boy police force and no police force at all, Portland has opted for no police force at all.

As I have in the recent past, I call upon the city auditor to investigate the police response to phone calls, emergency or not. It's outrageous.