Unless you're dying don't even think about getting decent service from our city's finest. After a late-night vehicle burglary I learned very quickly how Phoenix PD deals with its non-emergency situations. They don't. Well only during certain hours and on certain days, and if you're hopping on one foot. A 24 hour police department this isn't.
The irony is I felt like I was in a smaller city, not the nation's fifth largest city. Actually no. In a medium-sized city, someone would have picked up the phone and I wouldn't have to hear a computerized loop for 40 minutes.
Realizing this wasn't a 911 emergency I called the non-emergency line and got NOWHERE. I was put on hold for 40 minutes before finally getting an operator who told me to call back later - at 6 AM!! I saw two motorcycle cops pass by in that 40 minute gap and could chased one down faster than this phone call.
Turns out they do police reports on the phone these days. Convenient for me. Convenient for police. And convenient for soon-to-be-hired outsourced telephone operators abroad.
The process goes like this.
You call to report your incident. They take your name number and call you back - a "Don't call us, we'll call you" sort of thing. OK. Fine. You basically have to sit by your phone until they call.
Of course they call back when I'm in the bathroom taking care of bidness. I call them back only to be told I have to to the back of the 2 hour queue. Oh yes, and they occasionally close down to "work on their lists" when the queue gets too long - which means that you have to call back for that reason as well. So after a few times of that nonsense I get through to someone 10 hours later.
I had good service once I got through to a police officer, but getting through to someone IS THE BATTLE.