There isn't a live person speaking to you, but a set of pre-recorded responses to statements or questions asked by the person being called. I believe that there is a live person listening who has instructions to use an appropriate response to anything the person being called says. It may be to solve a problem of a live person not being able to speak English properly and it also keeps the responses uniform.
Who Are They?
I know that this is an actual organization because they've filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the name of their treasurer is Robin Wimberly. According to their FEC filings, their physical address is 7901 4th St. N, Ste 4072, St. Petersburg FL 33702. This is not their actual physical address, but the address of a company called "Registered Agents, Inc.", which acts as their registered agent in the state of Florida. The Police Officers' Support Fund is registered in Florida as a foreign (i.e. out-of-state) not for profit organization as of March 28, 2019. According to the Florida filings, the home state of this company is Washington DC.
There are three principals on-record with this PAC:
- Melinda Wimberly (president)
- Robin Wimberly (treasurer)
- Timothy Sucher (secretary)
According to records, Robin and Melinda Wimberly have made donations to the Fund, with Robin claiming to be a disabled veteran. I found Facebook profiles which I think are theirs, but both have been inactive for a couple of years. Neither mentions anything about Robin being disabled or a veteran.
Their Website
The Police Officers' Support Fund has a website, which I found after a lot of searching:
The website was purchased through Godaddy and is registered anonymously with Domains By Proxy acting as the registrant.
Yeah, nothing like an anonymously-registered website to build trust with your potential donors.
The site is rather bare, using stock photos and includes contact information. The "services" they claim to offer are to lobby government on behalf of law enforcement personnel, help elect like-minded people to public office and to fight for tougher sentencing for convicted criminals.
They don't spell-out how their company is any different from others that do, pretty much, the same thing. The main difference I see is that these other organizations aren't making unsolicited phone calls to random people.
Are They Legitimate?
I really don't know if they are who they claim to be. A person named Robin Wimberly has been associated with other companies registered in Florida, supposedly to help wounded or disabled veterans. If it's the same Robin Wimberly as the Police Officers' Support Fund, she doesn't seem to have a good track record since most of the companies with Robin Wimberly listed as an officer have gone inactive and I'd advise anyone thinking about making a non-tax deductible donation to send it to another organization that has a proven track record, which has been around longer and which doesn't resort to spam-calling random people.
Seriously, these calls have even caught the attention of Nomorobo and Robokiller who have put the number is on their blacklists. Their number is currently listed on the Nomorobo website as one of the most-active robocallers in the last 24 hours as I type this blog!
The website gives the contact phone number as 888-983-2993. Assuming that it's still active, I called the number and left a message for them to remove my number from their calling lists. I don't seriously think that they will pay any attention to what I want, but it's worth a shot.
Should I Make A Donation?
Personally, I would not. I admit that I'm a little pissed about these people spam-calling me.
If you'd like to make a donation in support of police officers injured in the line of duty or their families, think about sending some money to Concerns of Police Survivors.
Duane Browning
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