New Crime Check tier system concerns some

(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)

SPOKANE, Wash. -A Spokane businessman has concerns after calling Crime Check to report a crime that he witnessed under a railroad overpass. But his concerns aren't with the crime, but with Crime Check itself.

Motion Auto Supply President Tim Trudnowski went out to lunch but during a walk, he came across some suspicious activity that made him call Crime Check.

"They were doing some things that they probably shouldn't have been doing over there," Trudnowski said. 

When he called, the operator said that they couldn't take the report. It left Trudnowski scratching his head. 

"I was told that they were going through some type of tier program of some kind."

So we made some calls to the Spokane Police Department to help explain to us what the tiered system is.

"When we have an incident that draws a lot of city resources, police and fire, we only have so many people left over to handle the nonemergency calls. So sometimes those nonemergency calls are put into a queue or holding just because there's not enough officers at the time to respond," said Officer John O'Brien.

Tier one is when they have active hostage situations, ice storms, or wildfires. That means 911 will advise to call back at a later time. 911 calls can be forwarded to Crime Check or Crime Check will only take 911 calls.

Tier two is when there is an increased workload for a short duration 911 will continue to take reports. Crime Check will advise callers that their request would be delayed indefinitely.

But Officer O'Brien says that emergency calls will always be taken.

"We encourage people that even though we don't have the resources  at the time, please don't get discouraged. Give us the call, we will get back to you and handle those calls," he said.

Trudnowski said he received a call back 10 minutes later with an officer taking the report.


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