Dear Officer Michelle,

What is the best way to report a misdemeanor - physical assault - but no serious injuries?
Online crime report does not have classification for this.  Is there a number I can call and file a report ?
I tried 264-5471, but that has a long list to options and automated system cuts off half of what I say.
Thanks
Sk

Dear Sk

First of all, if it was a violent crime-in-progress, you would call 911. It is often not determined until later whether an assault crime is a misdemeanor or a felony. If someone uses an object to hit someone, even if it is a garden hose, it can be interpreted in the law as an assault-with-a-deadly-weapon, which is a felony. If the assault occurred between a husband and wife, or a cohabitant, it could be interpreted as spousal abuse, which is also a felony. There are other things we look at such as biases and gang violence as well. So you see you just don’t necessarily know what you have at first. This is precisely why the Sacramento Police Department doesn’t have an on-line reporting category for this. We would have to dispatch an officer to the scene to determine what type of crime took place.

The 264-5471 number is the right non-emergency number to call. It isn’t a voice mail but rather the number to our dispatch center.

Officer Michelle