On Aug. 1, returning from our daughter’s house about noon, I noticed a rather full, unattended, backpack lying in a parking lot at the intersection of SR161 and South 342nd Street. I could have stopped and examined it myself, but I thought that the police (or the bomb squad) would be better qualified for the job. City Hall is about halfway home, so I made a slight detour there to make a report in person to the police department.

Entering the main entrance, I found “Police” on the first door on the left. Entering a small lobby, a uniformed police officer approached from behind bullet-proof glass and asked what I wanted. I gave my report about the unattended backpack.

The officer said, “We don’t do dispatch here. You’ll have to call 911.”

“But I came here in person to give you this report.”

“Sorry, but it is police policy.”

I turned on my heel and drove home to make my report by phone, wasting another 10 minutes, with a possible bomb lying in a public parking lot.

Is this bureaucratic intransigence what we should expect from our FWPD?

Joseph Conner, Federal Way