Let’s talk about the “welfare check” for which Jim Howe blindly praised the Centralia police and the Lewis County 911 center in a letter to the editor published in Tuesday’s edition of The Chronicle.
If we can assume Jim is the only resident at his address, then he would certainly know if he’d called 911 or not. He said he didn’t. Let’s believe him.
So, how is it his telephone number showed up on a 911 call? Was his number spoofed? Did the 911 center’s equipment record it incorrectly? If it was spoofed, Jim just got swatted. If the 911 center’s systems made the error, someone called 911 expecting a response and never got one.
Nothing a police officer says to a citizen has truth value. They are permitted to lie to citizens and do so as a matter of routine. When asked what number was called and they “confirmed” it was Jim’s, that confirmation was either a mistake or a lie. We know this, since Jim never called 911.
There remain questions about why that welfare check ever happened. Mistake, lie or a malicious bad actor. Which was it? None of those options warrant praise for the system that put armed men banging on a citizen’s window in the middle of the night.
How about it, Centralia Police Department? Why did this happen?
Jesse Ohlsson
Formerly of Lewis County
