[joshuahaglund]

IDK where you live but where I am, unless it's an actively life threatening emergency, the Police will say they're busy. I watched a drunk driver try to drive away after smashing into a parked car, ripping a wheel off the parked car. The drunk driver kept trying to start his car to get away. People called the police but they said they're busy. Fortunately his car was totaled and wouldn't start either. Over an hour later someone picked him up. If they can't even bother to deal with an active drunk driver, they aren't gonna help retrieve a bike.

Not saying confronting thieves is for everyone. But it's not necessarily as physical as you think.

[chmod775]

> IDK where you live but where I am, unless it's an actively life threatening emergency, the Police will say they're busy.

Where I live the basic law/constitution establishes a protection duty of its citizens by the state (this includes their property). The police is one of the ways the state takes care of this duty. If the state is grossly negligent in this or even does nothing at all, the state may very well be on the hook to make the injured party whole. This responsibility is passed down and carried by individual police officers, and there have been cases of police officers being personally convicted of causing bodily harm for not dispatching a unit after a request for aid (despite them not personally swinging any punches)[1].

Generally you'll have police show up for near anything if they can.

[1] https://www.wz.de/panorama/nach-notruf-keine-streife-geschic...

[wat10000]

In the US, it’s been established by the Supreme Court that the police have no duty to protect anyone. They can it they want to, and individual departments can make it a policy and fire officers who fail at it, but it’s not a fundamental requirement.

[true_religion]

I live in Arlington, VA where I once saw a purse snatcher being chased by 5 cops. Only to have 3 more show up after the guy was on the ground. They all had their own cars too.

During COVID, I called the non emergency line police for a break in on my car parked on the street and the police showed up in minutes then searched the area frantically to see if the guy was still around.

I don’t know if they are over funded or just bored.

[happyopossum]

Sounds like you live in a crappy big city like SF, Oakland, Santa Clara, etc.

For the vast majority of people who live in reasonable cities, calling the police for something like that will get a timely response.

[bagels]

Please tell us the magical place you live in that has friendly, helpful police with time to investigate every crime.

[weakfish]

Didn’t happen in the small North Carolina town that my parents live in, with a very similar situation as the parent. So truly, YMMV. Not all places can be generalized.

[saagarjha]

Santa Clara, population 110,000, is a big city to you?