[Arrath]

Given how popular it is to call a SWAT team on someone as a 'prank' I can't say I see too much truth in "Before you can bust down a door, you often need to do a lot of work."

The perceived emergency in the bogus 911 call adds some weight of course, but in lots of cases the Police seem far too gung ho to roll out heavy and bust down some doors. Not to say that it is an appropriate response to go raid a house in search of a reportedly stolen phone, but goddamn.

[spijdar]

As you alluded to, I think telling the cops someone has your phone and telling the cops someone is about to shoot up a bunch of people should get different responses.

Now, I'm not saying cops don't abuse their power nor what response they should give to an "obviously" bogus threat, but even for a trigger happy cop, why bother the risk for someone's phone when there are gonna be hundreds of "credible" threats? I doubt even a crooked cop would be willing to break the rules over someone's stole phone.