Rapid Police Response IELTS Reading Answers

The IELTS reading exam is an important section that demands a good level of preparation. The reading passages cover a wide range of topics with different difficulty levels. Hence, it becomes imperative to have a sound vocabulary along with practice. Solving several practice passages is the key to acing the IELTS Exam. Develop your comprehension skills with the IELTS reading answers sample under the topic Rapid Police Response. 

Rapid Police Response IELTS Reading Passage

1

 Police departments in the United States and Canada see it as central to their role that they respond to calls for help as quickly as possible. This ability to react fast has been greatly improved with the aid of technology. The telephone and police radio, already in use, assist greatly in the reduction of police response time. In more recent times there has been the introduction of the "911" emergency system, which allows the public easier and faster contact with police, and the use of the police computer system, which assist police in planning patrols and assigning emergency requests to police officers nearest to the scene of the emergency.

2 

An important part of police strategy, rapid police response is seen by police officers and the public alike as offering tremendous benefits. The more obvious ones are the ability of the police to apply first-aid life-saving techniques quickly and greater likelihood of arresting people who may have participated in a crime. It aids in identifying those who witnessed an emergency or crime, as well as in collecting evidence. The overall reputation of a police department, too, is entranced if rapid response is consistent, and this in itself promotes the prevention of crime. Needless to say, rapid response offers the public some degree of satisfaction in its police force.

3 

While these may be the desired consequences of rapid police response, actual research has not shown it to be quite so beneficial. For example, it has been demonstrated that rapid response leads to a greater likelihood of arrest only if responses are in the order of 1-2 minutes after a call is received by the police. When response times increase to 3-4 minutes - still quite a rapid response - the likelihood of an arrest is substantially reduced. Similarly, in identifying witnesses to emergencies or crimes, police are far more likely to be successful if they arrive at the scene, no more than 4 minutes, on average, after receiving call for help. Yet both police officers and the public define "rapid response" as responding up to 10 minutes after calling the police for help.

4

Should police assume all the responsibility for ensuring a rapid response? Studies have shown that people tend to delay after an incident occurs before contacting the police. A crime victim may be injured and thus unable to call for help, for example, or no telephone may be available at the scene of the incident. Often, however, there is no such physical barrier to calling the police. Indeed, it is very common for crime victims to call their parents, their minister, or even their insurance company first. When the police are finally called in such cases, the effectiveness of even the most rapid of responses is greatly diminished.

5

The effectiveness of rapid response also needs to be seen in light of the nature of the crime. For example, when someone rings the police after discovering their television set has been stolen from their home, there is little point, in terms of identifying those responsible for the crime, in ensuring a very rapid response. It is common in such burglary or theft cases that the victim discovers in crime hours, days, even weeks after it happened. When the victim is directly involved in the crime, however, as is the case of a robbery rapid response, provided the victim was quickly able to contact the police, is more likely to be advantageous. Based on statistics comparing crimes that are discovered and those in which the victim is directly involved, Spelman and Brown(1981) suggest that three in four calls to police need not be met with rapid response.

6 

It becomes clear that the importance of response time in collecting evidence or catching criminals after a crime must be weighed against a variety of factors. Yet because police department officials assume the public strongly demands rapid response, they believe that every call to the police should be met with it. Studies have shown, however, that while the public wants quick response, more important is the information given by the police to the person asking for help. If a caller is told the police will arrive in 5 minutes but in fact it takes 10 minutes or more, waiting the extra time can be extremely frustrating. But if a caller is told he or she will have to wait 10 minutes and the police indeed arrive within that time, the caller is normally satisfied. Thus, rather than emphasizing rapid response, the focus of energies should be on establishing realistic expectations in the caller and making every attempt to meet them.

Rapid Police Response IELTS Reading Questions Sample

Questions 1-6

Do the statements given reflect what the writer is trying to say in the passage? In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write:

• TRUE information if the statement agrees with the given
• FALSE Information if the statement contradicts with the given
• NOT GIVEN if there is no information given on the statement

Guidelines/Tip for Answering These Types of Questions: Candidates need to read through the text carefully and then write whether the answer would be true or false.

1. Police believe there is a better chance of finding witnesses to a crime if response is rapid.

2. A response delay of 1-2 minutes may have substantial influence on whether or not a suspected criminal is caught.

3. The public and the police generally agree on the amount of time normally taken for a rapid response.

4. Physical barriers are the greatest cause of delay in contacting police.

5. Rapid response is considered desirable in handling cases of burglary.

6. Research shows that some 75% of crimes are discovered by victims after they have been committed.

7. Police departments are usually successful in providing a rapid response regardless of the circumstances of the crime or emergency.

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Rapid Police Response IELTS Reading Answers