Police Notification

Purpose

The purpose of notifying the police, is in case they get calls of "suspicious" behavior that could be mistaken by home owners or bystanders as "casing the neighborhood". Repeatedly traveling the same blocks is often considered suspicious, but is common during a rallye.

Back when these were telephoned in, the best time to call was a day or two before the event, which gave the PD enough time to get it into the beat information for the swing shift briefing, but not so long that it would fall off the list of things to stick into the beat info.

With email, it's not really clear whether the rules are different or not, but Friday is better than Saturday, as the police may not read and act on your email fast enough.

Addresses

Palo Alto

PD@cityOfPaloAlto.org during business hours on a weekday.

Mountain View

police@mountainview.gov

Los Altos

police@losaltosca.gov

Sunnyvale

Use form with mmmYYYY@TheRallyeClub.org as your Email address or send Email to SVTIP@tipnow.org (intended for anonymous tips, but our messages should not be anonymous).

Santa Clara

police@santaclaraca.gov

San Jose

contact form

Cupertino / Santa Clara Sheriff Dept.

Sheriff has a link to their email

Sample

Here is a sample E-mail. Of course, dates and names (people, cities, and streets) and dates must be changed.

TO:      police@mountainview.gov
SUBJECT: Gimmick Car Rallye Saturday evening in Mountain View

There will be a public Gimmick Car Rallye this Saturday evening (Oct.
6, 5 to 10 PM) in Mountain View, as a benefit for cancer research.

A gimmick rallye is nothing like road racing.  It is similar to a
scavenger hunt using street signs. There will be a couple dozen cars
driving through the neighborhoods I'm using.  The basic route is:
between SMITH and JONES and between EL CAMINO REAL and FREMONT.

There will be a "checkpoint" on Easy Street along Whisman Park
from 7:30 to about 9:00 PM Saturday, where cars
will stop along the curb for a few minutes.

You might get a report that "suspicious" cars are driving slowly or
parking with interior lights on [to read instructions], reading street
signs, and then starting off again, perhaps making U-turns or
circling around the block to "try again".

I'm sending you this email so that you will know what we're doing and
may reassure any callers near this route.

More rallye info is available at http://old.therallyeclub.org/what.htm 

-- George Bush, Rallymaster, oct2016@TheRallyeClub.org  Phone: (650)555-1234

(TODO: update to new rallye-intro when ready.)

Resources

Mountain View

Mountain View map and Mountain View neighborhoods and Mountain View crime statistics might help you find neighborhood names to use in your E-mail.

If you wish to report damaged or obscured street signs in Mountain View, phone MTV Public Services at (650)903-6329.

More?

Please add similar info for additional cities.