I have a bit of an addiction that I don’t really like to talk about.  I’m addicted to reality TV.  And usually, it’s really bad reality TV.  Out of the reality TV shows that really feed my addiction, the cop/criminal shows are the ones that really do it for me.  But the TV shows just aren’t local enough, and I’d like at least part of my dose of reality to be located close to home. 

So I depend on my local police departments to feed my addiction to reality!

Depending on where you live, your local police department will email you a crime report, either on a daily, or a weekly basis. 

If you live in the Sunset or Parkside districts, Captain Paul Chignell of the Taraval police station will send you a fairly complete daily report of arrests and criminal incidents throughout the neighborhood, sometimes with a little bit of entertaining commentary to go along with it.  These reports are pretty thorough, but you will sometimes receive a few days worth of emails at a time when the Captain dares to take a day off.

If you live in the Richmond district, you receive an email from Captain Anthony Fotinos of the Richmond police station every Friday afternoon with a “greatest hits” style email that covers the highlights of crime (if you can call them that) that have occurred in the past week.  This newsletter also adds events from the Safety Network calendar to the email – which gives a nice balance of the good and the bad, or yin and yang, so to speak, but they’re definitely less thorough than the Taraval district’s daily updates.  Which makes me wonder exactly what qualifies for the weekly greatest hits list? :-/

If you want to get the Taraval station’s daily update, email the captain to request it. 

And if you want to get the Richmond station’s daily update, email the station to request it.

And even if you’re not a reality junkie like me, you might find these reports useful to know what’s going on in your neighborhood.   After all – knowing is half the battle!

Tweet This Post