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You Should Exercise Some Discretion
Calls for a police response are prioritized by two categories — Emergency and Non-Emergency. The following story is definitely a non-emergency call. This would have been at the bottom of my priority list and do you know when I would have responded to this call? The answer is: Never.
One of the officers said police had received a call that marijuana could be smelled in the hospital room in Bolivar, in western Missouri — where the substance is illegal, though medical marijuana will soon be available in the state. Sousley, who said he has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, told the officers that he had taken THC oil pills in the parking lot of Citizens Memorial Hospital but that he did not have marijuana and he did not want them going through his things.
The call to police was made by a security guard at the hospital. There is no way I would enter a patients’ room until I talked to a nurse that was in charge of that patients’ care. Even then, if there was no complaint of violence, or the patient endangering staff, and other patients’ I’m not going to talk to the patient, much less search his belonging’s.
The patient was not smoking marijuana, but even if he was that’s the hospital’s problem. It’s like getting a call from a parent whose child refuses to go to bed. What am I supposed to do about that? Yes, police are called for that as well. I’m not going to raise your children for you, and I’m not going to respond to a call from some wannabe cop who thinks he smells pot.
Published in Policing
Looks like a set up to me
I agree. Unfortunately, the officer fell for it.
There will be probably be more to this story in the days to come. More experienced officers would have contacted the dispatcher and asked for someone on the medical staff for a call back to provide more information.
When I was living in Georgia, the neighbor lady knocked on my door at 2:00 AM and asked me to call the cops. She had a guest who wouldn’t leave. She seemed to think that the situation wouldn’t rate very high on the police priority scale (it was a Friday night), so maybe I should tell the dispatcher that he had a gun.
”Does he have a gun?” I asked. If he did, she should come in and sit down, because going back over would be a Very Bad Idea. If he didn’t, there was no way in hell that I was going to tell the Cobb County Sheriff’s Department that there was a man with a gun if there weren’t in fact a man and a gun. (I might be brain-damaged, but I am not that brain-damaged.)
Anyway, the girl did go back. I made the call, leaving out any reference to firearms. Then the “guest” un-guested himself and the girl came back to tell me that I didn’t need to make the call.
”I already made the call” I said, because I had.
Then she got into her car and left, leaving me to explain to the deputies just what the hell had happened.
”It’s okay,” said the senior one. “We’ve been here before. For the two of them. Frequently.”
The couple moved on after that. Or maybe one of them killed the other one, buried the body out in the woods, and then moved on.
I have no idea.
Your essay tells me everything I need to know. I agree with your take on the situation.
My father frequently threatened to call the cops on me because it was “illegal to be better looking than your dad.”
By the way, Doug, yr topic sometimes comes up as “You should exercise some” which I feel is a gentle reminder to get off my butt and do my twenty minutes of rowing.
Maybe they could confiscate his car in the parking lot on asset forfeiture grounds.