Geesh. We are talking about someone filling out a form and turning it in.

If that is wasting police time, I think you are looking at the wrong culprit. Start with the waste of time in MA being the only state out of 50 to waste cop time on something an 18 year old with a sign might actually do better? Or maybe ask why somebody filing and submitting a standard form involves much if any police time?

Police probably won't spend any time investigating the incident; the value of the police report is more so they can spot trends in crime, so they know what to look out for in the future. Or maybe one day they will catch a guy doing this exact same thing to another car. They will remember that they have 10 police reports from the same neighborhood for 10 similarly-damaged cars, and they will connect the dots.

The real foolish thing here is that the BPD continues to direct people to call 911 for non-emergencies instead of establishing a 311 number. Every child learns that 911 is only for serious emergencies. And then the city of Boston goes and tells us the opposite. The situation is entirely due to Menino's arrogance, since he is the only person blocking the adoption of 311 (the city councilors are in favor of it). Menino doesn't want people to forget that 617-635-4500 is the "Mayor's hotline."