imported post
... and what WE'RE saying is that this can happen without any notification by the OCer to the police. All the dispatcher needs to do is ask a couple of questions: "Has the person removed the weapon from his holster or waved it around? Has the man made any threats or is he trying to bully or intimidate anyone?" If the answer is no, the dispatcher can simply inform the caller that the activity is legal, cite the applicable section of law, and disconnect. If it results in a call, the officer should be trained to observe. If there does not appear to be anything illegal happening, the officer should turn around and head back to his car.
There are actually two contacts in the above. One is your assumption that the dispatcher is going to somehow distill a call based on what the 911 caller "perceives" is happening. I can almost assure you that is very unlikely to be put into place; mostly because of the 2nd contact. That of the officer observing conduct and exercising judgement that there is no issue and doing the follow-up to the caller that the conduct is perfectly legal. (If the dispatcher filters the call, at grave liability risk, SCOTUS caselaw or not, the officer doesn't get to the call in the first place.)
Like it or not, there is an education piece to this, but one of those is almost certainly NOT going to be dispatchers filtering MWAG calls - they get one of those, someone is gonna roll on it - COUNT on it.THEN comes the observation piece you speak of, perhaps even a brief contact.
In WI, part of theimpetus toward a PPA is going to involve non-gun (not anti, just non-gun) people getting to the point of telling their legislators "I'd prefer not to see those openly anymore, can't you just make a law like they talked about so they just tuck them under their coat or something?" In order for that to happen the public education piece has to run:
1. MWAG call; dispatcher advises a squad in the area.
2. Officer observation/contact, no criminal issue.
3.Officer follow-up with complainant.
4. Complainants (Jane Q Public) gains awareness that OC is perfectly legal and what really matters is how the person conducts themselves otherwise, gun notwithstanding.
Making local LE who you're likely to deal with most a part of the process proactively isn't a bad thing. Over time, you WANT those relationships with law enforcement. I realize much of the above relates to a PPA as one of the desired end-states, but that's OK too. Then OC becomes what it should be; simply another method of carry based on the individual's personal considerations.