From the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department, the dispatcher tip of the week:
We get a large number of suspicious activity calls in dispatch every day. The information is more helpful to us and officers if it is called in right away.
If you are going to call in a suspicious activity complaint, please be willing to provide as many details to the dispatcher as possible. These are the types of questions dispatchers will ask:
– Location (where did the incident occur or start?)
– How many people are involved?
-What are they doing and why is it suspicious?
– Names of persons involved, if they are known.
-What are they wearing? Did they have any additional
belongings (i.e. purse, backpack, cell phones)?
– Direction of travel?
– Gender, distinguishing marks scars, or tattoos.
– Are there any vehicles involved? If yes.. (I.e. plate, color, make, model, year, distinguishing marks)
– Did the vehicles leave the scene? If so, what was the direction of travel?
– What time did this happen? Is it still occurring?
The more information that dispatch is able to collect the better we will be able to assist the public. If you are ever questioning whether or not to call in a suspicious complaint, it is better to be safe and call than not call it in at all.
