- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- Yes.
I was walking home from work
and these two guys like pulled up
in front of me in their car like blocking my path.
It was very clear that they were
like trying to get me in their car.
(groovy music)
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- Um.
- No?
I don't think so.
- I have not.
- No. - I don't think I have.
- [Interviewer] Are you sure? - Yes.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called 911?
- Okay, wait.
I did call, my house got robbed.
- When someone burgled my home.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- Yeah. - Yes.
- Yes. - Tons of people.
- [Interviewer] Really? - Yeah.
I mean I worked in a sandwich shop.
So you know, bunch of people
like on our front property doing drugs.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- I've called 911.
- I used to like prank call 911 when I was really young.
- If I hang up fast enough, nothing will happen.
It's fine.
Cops pulled up to my house
wanting to make sure everything was okay
because apparently hanging up fast enough does nothing.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- I have called the police on someone.
- I have. - Yes.
- [Both] Yes. - Oh yes, actually I have.
- A bunch. (laughs)
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- No. I was close one time.
I was like in the Dollar Store parking lot
and there was a dog inside of a car,
and it was really really hot and I was like,
okay, I'm gonna wait five minutes.
And I was really stressed out but the owner came out
and I was like, "Hey man, like it's really hot."
- [Interviewer] Have you called 911?
- I have called 911.
I have a had a friend who was unresponsive
to drinking a lot of alcohol.
Took her to the hospital and she was completely fine.
Left her with kind of a nice bill.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- Someone was following me home when I was 17.
- Called the police
'cause somebody kept knocking on the door
and jiggling the handle.
- Me and some other people were on an airplane
getting harassed by a man.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on anyone?
- Yes. Five and a half years ago
reported my stepdad for abuse.
- My brother and I walked out
and he was choking my mother on the stairs.
He ran away and then the cops found him.
They found him at the gas station that he worked at
with meth and a can of spray cheese.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on anyone?
- I have called the police on someone.
The neighbors across the street from me.
The father was like screaming
at his daughter really horribly,
and so we called the police to do like a check-in
and make sure everything was okay.
- [Interviewer] Were they helpful?
- No, they pulled into the driveway
and immediately turned around
and went back somewhere else. - [Interviewer] Why?
- I have no idea.
They did not even knock on the door.
- [Interviewer] Feel guilty at all?
- About calling? - [Interviewer] Yeah.
- Um.
- Yeah. - [Both] Yeah.
- Oh yeah, yeah.
- I just feel very like I don't want to inconvenience them.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- Yes.
I was walking home on a very, very cold December evening
and I found a man asleep on the sidewalk,
so I did call the police.
They asked me to stay with him and I declined
'cause it was exceedingly cold outside.
And if you are that sleeping man,
I also sincerely apologize to you.
- My upstairs neighbor.
He would verbally harass us and bang on our doors
and our walls and things like that,
but I felt really bad 'cause he ended up getting evicted.
- [Interviewer] Ever called the police on anyone?
- No. I have called the police though
for a tree that fell down in the middle of the road.
So I, (Interviewer laughs)
I didn't know what to do. (laughs)
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- Actually I haven't.
- I have not.
- [Both] No. - [All] No.
- I have not.
- I don't think I've put myself
in that like situation to have to call someone.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- No, I've had police called on me.
My friends and I were driving illegally
with people in a car.
It was like four in the morning,
and we had to call our parents and get picked up.
Got grounded for a while. (chuckles)
- They pulled me over 'cause they got a call
that I was being like a drunk driver,
but he then, he looked at me and he's all like,
"I think I just pulled over the wrong car."
- [Interviewer] Has anyone ever called the cops on you?
- Yeah. - Actually, yeah.
- [Interviewer] Was it right that they were called on you?
- In retrospect, yes.
- [Interviewer] What were you doing?
- Loud activities that may or may not have involved
some other substances.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police on someone?
- Like for a bad reason?
- [Interviewer] Have you called the police on someone
for a good reason?
- Yes.
One of my friends in college,
she had drank way too much alcohol, so I called 911.
- In college, they did call 911
for me being very intoxicated. (chuckles)
Like some girl like punched me in the face
to try to wake me up and I was just like a dead body.
- I got in a fight with my mom.
We were like yelling and we were on the street,
and they called the police.
It was very awkward having to tell them that like,
"Yeah, we're just Hispanic and we yell and fight."
- [Interviewer] Do you think there's ever
a not appropriate time to call the police?
- Oh yeah.
- [Both] Yes. - [All] Yes.
- [Interviewer] When is it inappropriate?
- Most of the time it's inappropriate to call the cops.
- Your neighbors are playing music too loud
at like 8:00 PM on a Tuesday.
- I've called the police on my neighbors.
He had bagpipes.
He wasn't allowed to play it inside his house,
so he played it instead in his backyard.
- Any type of normal altercations or anything like that,
I would never call the police.
- [Interviewer] When is it not appropriate to call the cops?
- When you're calling them
just because you feel uncomfortable.
- When it's a situation that can be worked out
just through conversation.
- Ugh, if like you're just being a little bitch
and it's like something that you can just ignore.
- I think when it's more so you're emotional.
- And sometimes people just get angry over small things
and the small things don't need to be taken out of hand.
- [Interviewer] Have you ever called the police?
- [Both] Absolutely not.
- I don't believe in calling the police.
- No. - I don't know.
The relationship with the police for me is mm.
- Nope, I'm a no cop person
even though there may be conflict.
I'll try to find other resolutions.
- I don't know.
They either just like exacerbated the situation
or they do nothing.
- I don't really believe
in calling the police on other people, especially people
that could be harmed disproportionately by the police, so.
- I don't really know if the police
is really gonna be there for me.
Respectfully, I'm sure there are some police
that really will stand up for justice,
but I feel like I can handle it if I need to.
Unless like you're threatening my life
then I might call the police.