One family in Trinity Park last night could have used just a bit of those 1,750.5 hours of police overtime that Donna referenced below. From the Trinity Park listserv (emphasis added):

Three young men (late teens, early 20s) knocked on the door.  When my neighbors cousin opened the door, expecting it to be his father, the three robbers pushed the door open, held the two occupants at gunpoint and ransacked the house.  Luckily, my neighbors brother stopped by and stepped inside the house.  At that point, the robbers fled on foot across my front porch and yard.  The only thing they took was a laptop and some cash. No one was seriously hurt, but my neighbors were very shaken up because they were roughed up a bit.

I know that there have been a rash of break-ins in the neighborhood and that the police seem to be catching some of these criminals … but am wondering if the police are doing anything differently in our neighborhood considering the increasing number of break-ins.  It took the police over 20 minutes to arrive (way too long) and then they didn’t even ask us if we saw anything or check on us to see if the robbers had maybe entered out place.  My husband saw two of the robbers run across our front yard and down the street, but the police didn’t even ask for a description.  Seems odd.

I wonder if Deputy Chief B.J. Council will lecture the victims on the root causes that might have led these poor children to become home invaders, as she did when concerned citizens met recently after a rash of muggings in Trinity Park.

That 20-minute delay has gotten some official attention. Council Member Eugene Brown commented on the listserv:

I have and continue to support our Police Dept., but a twenty minute response time to a home invasion is unacceptable, especially too when it is so close to District Two headquarters in Northgate Mall. I am asking the Manager to investigate.

UPDATE: Sgt. D. Gunter has responded regarding the response time. He says it wasn’t nearly 20 minutes:

I’ve looked into this and pulled the call.
The call was received  at  22:27:38
The call was dispatched at   22:28:44
1st unit arrived  22:31:55
Second Unit arrived 3 seconds later
 
Total time from police dispatch to police arrival
 
3 minutes 11 seconds