Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with police and report

Drug-dealer Problems

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:37:40 -0800

A man in my neighborhood is selling drugs, and from what I can tell its something hard. I want to report this anonymously to the police. I'm afraid of retribution if he or any of his associates find out about this. I'm confident I've identified him on Facebook. What materials should I include with my report? How likely is it to be followed up on?

Police Report Filed. Do I Inform Insurance? Driving Me Crazy

rushtickt0ck — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:34:41 -0800

Should I call or not.. This is driving me crazy... I really don't want to mess up my perfect driving/insurance record and don't want higher rates. I've also heard horror stories about Progressive, and am hesitant to call. This is in Nj, and I have liability only. An older relative who doesn't live with me and does not have a car/insurance of his own, borrowed my car, got into a minor accident with another driver. He hit the forward moving car as he was pulling out from a street parking stall. There's now a dent/scratches on the driver's side door of my car and squeaks if I try to open it too wide. But it's an old car, don't care about it too much. On the other hand, there's "not a single scratch" on the other car. If this is in fact true, it would seem like a waste to tell my insurance. If there is damage, I'd like to pay out of pocket. Unfortunately, neither party exchanged numbers, and I have no idea what the other party plans on doing.

1) My understanding is that DMV is notified anytime a police accident report is filed. Will my insurance definitely find out from the DMV? Will this go on my MVR record even if someone else drove my car and got into an accident?
2) As I understand, insurance follows the car. If my insurance finds out, will i have a record in C.L.U.E even though I wasn't in the accident? If so, will other insurance companies see that I was not the driver OR does that not matter?
3) Even if I contact them to report an accident only, would that still ultimately be considered "reporting a claim"?

Keep your car parts to yourself!

salsamander — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 09:47:18 -0800

Is it possible to make a claim against someone's auto insurance for lawn repair and removal of the debris their car left in my yard? Today I went into the side yard of my house and discovered car tracks across my lawn, leading up to one of my larger, older trees.

While the tree looks fine, I noticed that the lawn has been torn up and large chunks of fender, glass, plastic, and even a headlight assembly strewn around the yard. The local police department has confirmed there was a reported accident on my property, and I'm going to try to get the accident report when the station opens re-opens tomorrow.

Has anyone ever heard of, or had luck with, trying to get an insurance company to compensate a property owner for leaving car parts and ripped-up lawn?

(asking mostly because the last time someone drove into our yard they hit the house, and that was covered by *my* insurance).

Does an accident go on your record if no Police Report is filed?

Jokesta — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:08:08 -0800

Does an accident go on your record if no Police Report is filed? I was in a minor accident on a major highway during a bad storm...a driver cut me off and slowed down when he got in front of me, causing me to hit the breaks and swerve in order to avoid ramming the car. I lost control of the car and spun out..slammed onto the left shoulder of the highway. Called my insurance for roadside assistance, they said I should call the cops--then get back to them. I called the cops, firefighters showed up, ambulance shows up, they both leave after calling a towing company. Towing company gets there, they can't tow me until a police report is filed. Waited for an hour or so with the tow truck guy, cops never show. He calls his supervisor, supervisor says "let's just get him off the road and to the shop..we'll take care things with his insurance as far as the police report goes since we're a certified shop under them(geico)" ...So they load up the car, he puts me on the phone with claims on the way to the shop...explains the police thing since they were backlogged because of the storm (there was actually a bmw flipped about a mile ahead of me with 3 people pinned)..Geico goes ahead and process the claim, they had an Onsite adjuster at the shop and he sent over the quote for the repairs all within an hour of me getting to the shop. All without the police report.

So does this accident go on my record with the dmv ? Geico declared this an at-fault collision since I lost control, my rates will surely go up. Will this accident pop up if I decide to switch companies?

Auto Accident, biased highway patrol report, anyway to correct this? (California)

wcmf — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:05:18 -0800

hi Mefites, I need some sound insights and advice regarding a recent auto accident I was involved in California. What to do when a highway patrol accident report is biased against you? what can I do to correct the situation? Here's what happened: I was rear-ended by a big-rig. Big-rig suffered minimal to no damage, my car suffered rear and front end damage. Highway Patrol shows up, say he doesn't believe my statement because big-rig has no visible damage. My car had some prior side rear bumper damage that I didn't had a chance to fix, the other driver flat out lied saying the prior damage was in fact, damage from this time. Highway patrol doesn't believe me when I explained to him about prior damage (I showed him a picture of the prior damage on my phone, but that picture is from the night and the picture is blurry, so the highway patrol guy would not budge). I have asked for and got pictures of the prior damage from my insurance, but the # and quality of the pictures are worse than what I've expected. Some people have advised to call the patrol's superintendent and ask for face-to-face meeting. My insurance said that even in cases where obvious biases exist, highway patrol would seldom amend their reports. I wonder if mefites have any good advice or insight on the matter. Something that I can do on my end other than to wait around for my insurance to take care of things and hope for the best.

Thanks so much!

PS: my insurance doesn't have a local office in CA, which I believe is affecting me adversely in this case.

Rental Car Accident filter

spacefire — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:43:10 -0800

Hertz fender bender, do I need to file police report, and am I covered? I backing up out of my parents driveway, I hit my mom's car with the rear of my Hertz rental car. Dents and scratches , but no other damage. I have Liability Insurance supplement but no Loss Damage Waiver as that should be taken care of by Visa since I rented using my Visa card. Should we file a police report?

Another question, related: The liability protection states, quote:
Within the limits stated in this subparagraph, hertz will indemnify, hold harmless....which by definition EXCLUDES ANY OF YOUR OR ANY AUTHORIZED OPERATOR'S FAMILY MEMBERS...RESIDING WITH YOU OR THEM..."
I don't live with my parents, I was just visiting, will the liability thing cover the damage to my mother's car?