The first time, I couldn’t even reach a human. The machine on the phone line told me to file a police report online. It was like, name, date, what happened, upload picture, send. Never heard anything back.
The second time, I went to the police station and—was told to file a police report online… same as last time. Nothing happened.
Is that legal? I’m pretty sure they have to take a police report in person. Laws vary by area, but not providing a way to file a police report in person is exclusionary, so I’d imagine they could get into a lot if trouble of they refuse.
I’ve had cops tell me they won’t do anything and wouldn’t take a report. I don’t know if that’s legal or not, but it is something police have done in the US before.
It’s not legal, they are required to take a report, but not required to prioritize investigating it. If they ever do that again, ask for their name and badge number (ideally on a business card so you can keep it), and file a complaint with the police department along with your criminal report.
Long before we met, my wife had police blow off check fraud despite the cashier saying could positively identify exactly who the person who passed the bad checks was because “well they’re obviously in a tough place so no need to make it tougher”
That cost us about $500 later when we went buy a house and I learned the bank we were going through was the same one the fraudulent checks were from and we had to pay off the debt since it was never actually marked as fraudulent
I’ve had two car break-ins.
The first time, I couldn’t even reach a human. The machine on the phone line told me to file a police report online. It was like, name, date, what happened, upload picture, send. Never heard anything back.
The second time, I went to the police station and—was told to file a police report online… same as last time. Nothing happened.
Is that legal? I’m pretty sure they have to take a police report in person. Laws vary by area, but not providing a way to file a police report in person is exclusionary, so I’d imagine they could get into a lot if trouble of they refuse.
I’ve had cops tell me they won’t do anything and wouldn’t take a report. I don’t know if that’s legal or not, but it is something police have done in the US before.
It’s not legal, they are required to take a report, but not required to prioritize investigating it. If they ever do that again, ask for their name and badge number (ideally on a business card so you can keep it), and file a complaint with the police department along with your criminal report.
Long before we met, my wife had police blow off check fraud despite the cashier saying could positively identify exactly who the person who passed the bad checks was because “well they’re obviously in a tough place so no need to make it tougher”
That cost us about $500 later when we went buy a house and I learned the bank we were going through was the same one the fraudulent checks were from and we had to pay off the debt since it was never actually marked as fraudulent