Well, I had a fun excursion to the Alexandria Police Department today to get a copy of the police report on Jennifer’s accident last week.
(BTW, Jennifer is recovering nicely. Thank you all for prayers. As her body heals, insurance companies are busy speaking to each other, and the wheels are grinding slowly…)
It is a dark and foreboding brick building shoved up against the beltway. And surrounded with as much security as the White House or the Pentagon. In order to get in, you go through a special guard building, pass through a metal detector, show various forms of ID, talk to police officers through thick, blue bullet-proof glass, and walk maybe 30 meters to the building itself. It is surrounded by a giant, steel fence. The reason for all the security — if police departments need reasons in today’s America — is that the “detention center” (jail) is where, I think, a number of terror suspects (like John Walker Lindh and Zacharias Moussaoui) have cooled their heels. On the other hand, I think it is also where Judith Miller languished for her deeply held principles and got her love letters from “Scooter” Libby.
The officer at the information desk said he couldn’t give me a copy of the police report if I was not named in it. “Accident reports are confidential, like medical records,” he said, adding that I would probably need a signed letter from my wife saying it was okay to collect the report in her absence. Nevertheless, he asked for my drivers livense, disappeared for 15 minutes, and came back with a copy of the report. “I’m going to do you a favor,” he said, handing it to me. “Normally, we charge $3 for this, but you have enough problems as it is. But this is the only copy you get.” Ahhh, favors…
There was a nifty little sign at the information desk noting all languages you could speak and receive official help and translation when dealing with the Alexandria PD: Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Farsi, French (?!?!), Hindi, Korean, Somali, Spanish, Urdu and English. English. That means you can speak English to a City of Alexandria employee and someone will translate it into a language they understand. The Black Speech of Mordor, maybe?
3:34 pm on January 31, 2006
