Broken Windows II

September 2006
Fixing Broken Windows II: The Detective
by Matt Zacks
Last month, The Uncommon Sense began to explore the extent to which the Flint Police Department pursued petty crime. The first step was to file a criminal complaint regarding a stolen and vandalized section of fencing, witnessed at our new headquarters on West Court Street. This month we shall plainly see the work ethic of our detectives.
On August 14, 3:51pm, The Uncommon Sense called the Criminal Investigations Bureau of the Flint Police Department. What follows is the transcription of a conversation with Ken Engel, the detective in charge of our criminal complaint:
US: (Dial tone, dialing, 2-3-7-6-9-0-1)…
Police Department: (…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…
Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring…) …Flint Police, Engel…
US: Yes, I would like to speak with the detective in charge of my criminal complain.
Detective Engel: …what’s your complain number?
US: Four, eight, three, eight, five.
Detective Engel: …uh, I believe I am.
US: Oh, okay…
Detective Engel: What can I do for you?
US: How is it progressing?
Detective Engel: …uh…(sigh)…I think I honestly today, uh…(sigh)…I’m probably going to have to get you to call me back tomorrow morning. I think I just closed it out today.
US: You closed it out?
Detective Engel: Yeah, and I can’t, I can’t remember just off the top of my head. I just went through a bunch of my complaints and I think I closed five of them out and yours, I think, was one of them. Um…
US: You don’t know what happened?
Detective Engel: Um, I’m not going to tell you I don’t know, but I’ll tell you, right now, I can’t tell you. If you want to call me back tomorrow morning…I have an interview here at nine. We should only be…if you can call me back tomorrow, uh, to be on the safe side for everybody, if you want to call me back tomorrow between two and four, if that’s convenient for you, otherwise you can call me back maybe between eleven and noon.
US: Did you arrest somebody?
Detective Engel: No…was, was there…uh, like I said…let me see, uh, no, I’ve already shut that down too. We get done here at four so we pretty much close everything up.
US: Well, it’s only 3:53 right now.
Detective Engel: Uh, was there suspect information with it? Or…
US: Yeah, well I gave you the name of the witness and the license plate number.
Detective Engel: Yeah, and I spoke to the witness, because I didn’t have a good enough phone number for you. Yeah and they actually gave me a phone number for you.
US: I think I gave them my phone number with I made out the complaint.
Detective Engel: Mmm hmmm.
US: And I gave you the license plate number too.
Detective Engel: Hang on a minute. I’m gonna transfer you to, uh, call this number, give me about thirty seconds and call this number. Call 237-6905 and just give me like thirty seconds to walk down the hall.
US: All right, thanks.
(Forty-five seconds later)
US: (Dial tone, dialing, 2-3-7-6-9-0-5)…
Detective Engel: (…Ring…) Okay, I sat back down here in my office. Let me see what I can find out, what I did. And, what I found out…(sigh)…
US: On the average, how many complaints do you get every week?
Detective Engel: Uh, it varies, um, I don’t know how many I had last week. Probably in the neighborhood of forty to fifty.
US: Okay…
Detective Engel: Um, let’s see…yeah, this here it says, the complaint reads, uh, “Reporting person claims…uh…that at the above building,” I don’t even know what they meant here, “and witnessed a black pickup truck bearing such and such a plate, stealing fencing off the property.” Um, I ran the plate…it come back to a lady out in Flint Township. And, um, let’s see, what did I do here…I was unable to contact her, so there wasn’t much I could do with the complaint.
US: Well…
Detective Engel: A lot of times, and I don’t understand people, and this isn’t necessarily the case with this one because this is a leased vehicle. There’s a lot of times that people’s plates get stolen, but they uh, they don’t take them off vehicles and they go and…but on this one, this should pretty much be her case. So I was unable to get a hold of her anyway. So there wasn’t much I could do with it.
US: (Long pause) …So, how many times did you try to contact her?
Detective Engel: …It wasn’t times, it was me trying to find a means to contact her by phone.
US: You didn’t have an address or anything?
Detective Engel: Mmm hmmm. I’ve got an address, but normally I don’t get assigned complaints with suspects. And I don’t get out of the station very often, so normally every—almost everything I do is on the phone.
US: Well, what can we do to get some action on this complaint?
Detective Engel: (long pause) …Well I can attempt in the next week or two to drive by the house…most of the time when you have a name and address, you can pull up the phone number, and uh…
US: I just seems to me that if this person is driving around vandalizing commercial property and randomly taking someone’s fencing, that really isn’t worth much, you would think they’re making a habit out of it. God knows why. So I would really like to address this problem. I’m not interested in an insurance claim, I want to see something done about it.
Detective Engel: …Well…(sigh)…(long pause)…tell you what I can do, I’ll, uh…next time I’m out I will attempt to drive by and see if anyone resides there or if they know the person or, you know, if the names match up or whatever…and if they will do that then I will attempt to do something, but if they don’t match up or whatnot, then there’s not much else I can do to help you.
US: But that…
Detective Engel: I mean, in your complaint, no one has even taken the time to tell me what this person looks like, you know.
US: The witness should be able to tell you that. I wasn’t there.
Detective Engel: Well, and that’s part of the problem.
US: Why? (Long pause) …I mean, I gave you the contact information to the person that saw the whole thing…
Detective Engel: I will, uh…next time I’m out I’ll take a drive and see what happens with this address out there and see if I can find out who this lady is and…
US: Do you want me to call the witness to get more descriptive information for you?
Detective Engel: Nope, I’ll give her a ring.
US: Okay…
Detective Engel: I’ve talked to her once, but I mean, um, like I say, when I get the opportunity to get out there, I’ll go by and see. If they know who this person is, great, and if we can find out who was using her truck that day and she’s willing to identify him, um, we’ll go from there. Alright?
US: When should I call back?
Detective Engel: …uh…probably in a week or so…and I’ll attempt to get out there between now and then. Alright?
US: Alright…thanks…
Detective Engel: (Hangs up)
Stay tuned for next month’s finale, when we reveal the identity of the Flint Township suspect!