i had written a clever intro for this blog post with calculations of how often george zimmerman called 911 in the weeks before killing trayvon martin. but then i found out that the 46 calls he made to 911 were over a period of 8 years, not 2 months. womp, womp. still, 46 is a lot of emergencies.
most of zimmerman’s observations, alerts and issues didn’t warrant a call to 911. they were more appropriate for what we here in new york would report to 311 (the things 311 handles). the daily beast compiled a summary of zimmerman’s numerous calls and you can see the complete history of calls here from the city of sanford. i must say, this small town has released way more information that i would have expected.
zimmerman’s call pattern is demonstrative of an obsession. imagine if a potential romantic prospect or job candidate contacted you with the same frequency saying pretty much nothing. you would think they were “off” to say the least. almost like the boy who cried wolf, you wouldn’t take them seriously and might even get a restraining order.
911 calls in sanford, fl. fall under the jurisdiction of seminole county. the county’s ems budget for 2012 is $377k for full-time staffing (if i’m interpreting this correctly, see p.391). that covers about 10 annual salaries at a little over $37k. while they may employ more or fewer dispatchers, i imagine there are no more than 15 dispatchers total, with fewer than that working at any given time. that means that if you held steady employment as an ems dispatcher serving the city of sanford and surrounding municipalities for the last 8 years, the odds of you receiving a call from zimmerman were at least 3 to 1.
the gated community where this tragedy occured had experienced a number of burglaries over the last year. the exact number remains unclear. i’ve read reports of 15 in the last 12 months and 8 in the last 15 months. but whatever the number, it prompted some 30 residents to attend a neighborhood watch meeting in september, 2011. neighbors were clearly ready to watch out.
with justifiable interest in keeping the neighborhood safe, i wonder what proactive steps residents could have taken in order to keep 
their homes from being the next target. in the time and with the energy it took to place about 2 calls per month to 911, i wonder what george zimmerman could have done to thwart would-be burglars rather than set ammunition filled booby traps for non-criminals.
and so i present to you:
5 ways to fight crime without killing innocent people
1. install surveillance cameras in common areas. want to know who’s robbing you? roll the tape.
2. improve lighting conditions. well lit places make people feel safer. this includes kids walking home in the dark and neighborhood watch people who kill the kids they see walking home in the dark… out of fear of “the dark.”
3. host a block party. with such a transient population in this “gated community,” (more than half rented, including zimmerman) a bbq would have allowed residents to get to know each other. if zimmerman engaged with young black men in hoodies over burgers and hot dogs, maybe he would be less inclined to kill them. then again, maybe not.
4. share anti-crime best practices. for example, setting your lights to a timer will make it look like you are home when you actually are not. these devices run you about $30 at hardware stores and they are so sophisticated you can set a different time for each day of the week.
5. get a life. you know when you notice what everyone else is doing? when you don’t have anything to do yourself. we should always be aware of our surroundings, but there’s a not-so-fine line between being vigilant and being a vigilante at “get a grip” status.
can you note the relevant reference in this poem?