911 calls being asked if they have arms?!

[Avocadess]

I was talking to a friend yesterday who called 911 the other day because she lives alone in her house and heard drunk teenagers outside her windows at night and one of them even talked about HER saying that [listed her occupation] lived there. That frightened her, so she called the police with the 911 call.

After reporting the situation and giving her name and address, etc. she asked if they would send someone to her house and get them to go away. The operator on the 911 called asked her if she had any arms. What?!! She refused to answer. She didn't want it put in a database that she either does or does not have arms.

Has anyone else heard about this or experienced this? I have never heard of this happening before. (This is in Austin, Texas.) I agree with my friend. It's just as bad or worse than having to fill out 101 questions for census takers (where the data is then given over to Lockheed Martin to process).

[pugwash84]

She should have said yea I used the hands on the end of them to phone you lol

[Snowbird]

I was talking to a friend yesterday who called 911 the other day because she lives alone in her house and heard drunk teenagers outside her windows at night and one of them even talked about HER saying that [listed her occupation] lived there. That frightened her, so she called the police with the 911 call.

After reporting the situation and giving her name and address, etc. she asked if they would send someone to her house and get them to go away. The operator on the 911 called asked her if she had any arms. What?!! She refused to answer. She didn't want it put in a database that she either does or does not have arms.

Has anyone else heard about this or experienced this? I have never heard of this happening before. (This is in Austin, Texas.) I agree with my friend. It's just as bad or worse than having to fill out 101 questions for census takers (where the data is then given over to Lockheed Martin to process).

Avocadess, I love your spirit! You being from Austin, have a reputation for being feisty and independent. We, up here in the northern tier of the U.S. occasionally hear stories about the feisty ones in Austin, TX. We love it!

If I had been the 911 caller and had been asked that question, I would have stated: Yes, I have a right arm and a left arm....click. :usa2:

[Ki's]

I have a family member who works in dispatch and it is routine to ask the caller if there are any visible weapons involved. A heads up for the deputies answering the call, I guess.
However, I lived in Texas for several years and called about a prowler once on my property. Dispatch asked...."do you have a gun?" - "Yep" - "Do you have a dog?" - "Yep" - "Well, y'all should be OK till somebody gets out there."
That was back in the day when there was a stocked rifle rack in every pick up truck, though and long before the government became preoccupied with peering up everyones ass. (literally) Rather doubt I'd be so forthcoming with that information now.

On a different note, here's an interesting bit on Lockheed Martin ...they sold a package to the government to have anyone who's job takes them through borders to have a TWIC. (transportation workers identification card) As a sailor, it allowed me into and out of secure ports. The ships company I worked for paid a lot of money to have the crew identified with their spiffy little FBI approved ID card. Funny thing is....there has never been any type of check point for the cards. If we were out of the country, we had to hand over passports, but nothing about the TWIC.
Seems to have been quite a money making scam when you consider it applies to anyone working on planes, trains, trucks and ships. (and of course you have to 'buy' a new one every couple of years.)
I'm in several data bases...private citizen, sailor, nurse...and none of them seem to be connected. Sometimes I just can't help wondering if the biggest point of them is to make money for whatever company designs the individual base.
Anyways, sorry to get off the point of your thread...Lockheed Martin just automatically triggers my 'pissed off' button. :)

[Selene]

Avocadess, first of all: are you sure the 911 op asked the woman if "she" had weapons - or was the inquiry "whether there were any weapons?" There's a big difference here, and possibly your friend - in her distress - misunderstood the question? I'm just asking.

911 asking about the possible presence of weapons is normal for any call where the caller reports feeling threatened or encroached by others. This is so that:

1) they can asses the priority/urgency of the call - a caller that says "He's got a gun" gets Rank One full-speed, all patrols available or Emergency Task Force armed and highly trained response with ambulances, roadblocks etc. This is a very serious situation. Response: "I don't know..." gets pretty fast response with warnings and cautions to the responding officers to approach with caution, weapons may be involved. Response: "No, but I think they're drunk..." will put you behind the domestic dispute and the auto collision in importance; slower response, but they'll get to you.

2) Knowing whether weapons are involved also, of course, allows the responding patrol to prepare their own tactics and possible approach to the situation, as above here.

So it's an important question when any potential threat or violence is involved.

As to asking whether the woman herself had any weapons, well, that's a new one for me.

Hope this helpful.

Cheers,

Selene

[Avocadess]

Selene: They asked her whether she thought the drunk teens outside had any weapons and she answered, "I don't think so." THEN she was asked whether SHE had any "arms."