Hello Julia and Nicholas,
I received a voicemail today from Jim Reid. The message was (exact transcription), “Mike this is Jim Reid calling with the Hanover Police. Please give me a call at 448-1108. No emergency, just gotta talk to you. Thank you.”
So, I’m sure you know where this is going: This was a solicitation for an ad for the crime prevention booklet. Okay, that’s fine, I like to support community organizations. Jim’s a nice guy, and he handled this well, and I registered no complaint with him. This is a policy issue.
My opinion is that the voicemail message should say, “I need to talk to you about our first-ever crime prevention booklet and how you can help,” or somesuch thing. Because if it doesn’t, you’re diluting the value of the police department authority.
Which is to say, like you two, I lead a busy life. I don’t have time to call back solicitors, but I would always call back the police or fire department. However, if I ever get another voicemail like that and I call back to find it’s another solicitation, I will never ever return another police or fire department call that is not emergency-related. Period.
Using the goodwill and authority of the police department should be very carefully considered. I hope this experience helpfully informs your policy decisions going forward.
Thank you for having a functional website that allowed me to quickly find the appropriate contact information and make my opinion known at the time of the incident.
Best regards,
Michael J.
April 18, 2006