311 call center requires cooperation
I respond to the Oct. 26 letter “City’s 311 line is a joke” from Alan Perlman.
He might not realize that 311 is a call center that forwards service requests to the appropriate city office/ agency. In order to best accomplish this, the 311 call center must gather the most complete and accurate information possible before forwarding it to the appropriate city office or agency.
Requests such as Perlman’s, which pertain to “a car parked on our street for over a month with no license plates,” are referred to Columbus Division of Police. The police need the most accurate detailed information possible regarding the vehicle’s location and description, including the address that most closely corresponds with the vehicle being reported. The street and the intersection do not provide enough information in the event that there is more than one vehicle with no license plates parked on that street.
Perhaps Perlman is unaware of the overwhelming level of demands on our police officers in the city of Columbus. This might be the first time he has attempted to use the 311 service.
However, I can assure him, from my own personal experience using it, that the 311 service does indeed work, and given the demands on it, it actually works quite well most of the time. It seems reasonable to expect that he could provide the address closest to the vehicle so that 311 can provide the necessary information and enable police to accomplish his service request.
Perlman’s reaction, “I guess I won’t report the two water leaks I came across. Why bother?” reminds me of a petulant child who says, “Well, I guess I’ll take all my marbles and go home.”
Expecting city services to happen without acting in a spirit of partnership with city service departments and agencies is pretty much guaranteed to result in disappointment. And expecting that Columbus police have nothing more pressing to do than “drive down the street and look for a car with no plates” demonstrates a huge lack of understanding and appreciation for the incredible level of demands that today’s reality places on our sorely underfunded and understaffed police department.
Jan Capaldi Columbus Pickerington