Page 257 - NIXBOOK

A few times per year a power outage would knock out all the traffic lights at one or more of our major traffic intersections. Either
the traffic lights would default to all-way blinking red, or they would just all go dark. Most of the drivers would notice the
change, but when the lights went all dark there would always be oblivious drivers who would just drive through at full speed.
Invariably, people would call 911 and demand an officer be dispatched to the intersection to manually direct traffic. Not a bad
idea, but when 7 intersections need attention and there are only 2 patrol officers on duty - who need to respond to other 911
calls - well the intersections are going to be neglected. The police chief was frankly unapologetic when explaining this to citizens:
“Do you know how incredibly dangerous it is to put an officer on foot in the middle of a major intersection? One that has four
through lanes and two turn lanes running north to south, and two through lanes and two turn lanes east to west?!?”

Svetlana was at the police department’s front counter again, complaining again about how the KGB and the CIA were still
stalking her with electronic signals, as part of a huge conspiracy to ruin her life. I handed her another statement form to fill out,
which she did. Took her about 20 minutes to write some more stuff down. I barely read it when she handed it back to me; it was
just a bunch of blathering nonsense like she always wrote. I added her latest statement into our special filing system and she
walked out, feeling a little bit better that she could vent again to the police. And yes, we did send mental health professionals to
her house regularly to check in on her, and they did what they could for her.