The Case For #TattleTuesday in Tucson

June 27, 2016 — police, tattle, TPD, trust

Dropping the truth bomb

In Tucson we experience a major dilution of our tattle as it passes through needless layers of middlemen to reach law enforcement central.  We report one thing and the bureaucrats report quite another, which results in chronic problems that might be solved by collecting really reliable intelligence in the first place.  Pure tattle goes from your lips to the ears of the principal.  It does not travel through the teachers, the students, or the PTA.  Tattle, and the need to deliver pure, unadulterated tattle, is not only a basic human right, but a basic human instinct.  To make use of this instinct one simply needs to direct and manage it professionally.  A vessel, a place, and a time must be established for the task of collecting pure intelligence from citizens and using it to both prevent and stop chronic crime.

I am urging my police department  to initiate a program on-line as well as in person at the station near me to give folks a chance to express themselves for ten minutes at ten a.m. each Tuesday.  I am choosing this increment of time because they always say they are too busy to try new communication methods. They can’t possibly argue that they don’t have 10 minutes a week.  Citizens in my neighborhood have gone to the station with evidence of black tar heroin in a vial and a report of on going crime near their home, but were turned away at the window of the cop shop and the vial of evidence was thrown in the trash in front of the two ladies. We need a system that works much better than that. We need to trust that what we report and evidence we submit is used to help solve the crime problems here.  I think a funnel that directs intelligence to the attention of the police live on a regular basis will make a difference to the level of trust in the whole operation.  I believe intelligence is the most valuable commodity police can have.  It protects both them and us.