Must we call police for every little thing?
There’s hardly a police department anywhere that does not have important work to do; investigating crimes, crashes and other calamities, catching criminals and protecting the public from danger. But they are not free to perform these critical duties when they are distracted by trivial demands upon their time.
Pennsylvania State Police have quite a bit on their plate, especially because so many municipalities – some of them quite large in population, like Canton Township, for example – have no police departments of their own and thus rely, free of charge, on state police to patrol their areas. Those troopers can’t be enforcing speed limits, pulling over drunk drivers or pursuing thieves, murderers and rapists when they are summoned to resolve minor disputes like the one a few weeks ago in Armstrong County.
A couple of 13-year-old junior high girls thought it might be funny to add soap to a recipe for Rice Krispies squares in their home-economics class. For good measure (we can just imagine the surreptitious giggling), one of the two decided to throw in a scab from her knee for good measure. One of their classmates tried the resulting treat and told her teacher it tasted funny.
Few can argue these girls deserved to be scolded and disciplined for what they did.
But in the Armstrong School District, that wasn’t good enough.
State police were called to investigate the crime. The girls were charged with disorderly conduct. In what amounted to a news conference following the incident, Trooper Eric Young explained before television cameras the girls meant no harm.
“I don’t know their intentions. I’m guessing they just thought it was funny because all the group of people that were there, they’re all friends,” Young told a reporter from KDKA. Young added the girls were sorry for what they did but police would be keeping an eye on them.
Really? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the girls’ teachers or the school principal to keep an eye on them, rather than the cops?
Wouldn’t it have made a whole lot more sense for the school to handle this type of mischief itself rather than to call state police?
Sadly, this hand-wringing dependence on law enforcers is way too common.
Last week, a 6-year-old’s mother called McDonald police when her son was hit with a plastic bat after scuffling with another child on the swing set. There was a time when parents settled these squabbles themselves. Not today. We should be glad the S.W.A.T. team didn’t rush to the playground.
Earlier this week, someone’s child left an iPad in a restaurant and when they realized it was missing and returned to collect it, it was gone. Peters Township police were asked to investigate.
As a society, we have to realize police can’t pursue heroin dealers or get a handle on drug-related crime, for instance, if they are busy refereeing shoving matches at high schools and verbal battling among neighbors and accommodating people’s carelessness.
The 911 line is not for complaints; it’s for emergencies. Police protection can never improve unless we come to realize that.