Trying to think ahead

I used the letters from her PCP and Neurologist to show them.

Something similar happened with DW. I got her PCP to write an excusal letter. However, when DW saw it, she was incensed, because she didn't believe anything was wrong with her. I asked her whether she wanted to be on a jury, and she said, "No", so I just passed it off as a way to get out of her serving.

When I imagined her during the jury selection process, I knew it would be a disaster. She can't remember anything. She would get lost in the very big county courthouse. She would have trouble following directions. And I wouldn't be allowed to be with her to help.

I requested and received a notice from my wife's neurologist stating her Alzheimer's and that she was not able to care for herself or make her own decisions. When she was called for jury duty, I sent a copy, and she was excused. When she left home unexpectedly, I gave a copy to the police, and they put out an alert for her. It has come in handy at other times as well. If you have Power of Attorney, and you should, such documentation may be necessary for you to put it into force.

Honestly, IMO most PWD should not be getting access to any mail unless it’s greeting cards. It seems to just open cans of worms that must be dealt with. Same with phones + internet. Get rid of them or remove batteries as soon as possible.

The question about police is different from the one about jury duty. With jury duty, it's pretty well defined, but with cops it's completely different. What you need to convince a cop depends on the specific individual police officer's experiences and beliefs, what story they've heard (who gets to them first), and multiple other factors. The situation when police are involved tends to be very fluid and somewhat unpredictable by its nature, even before the police arrive. You have little control over what the dispatcher says or whether they review any materials that have been filed in advance.

Best advice would be to try to make contact first, as people are more likely to believe the first person they hear from and have some distance from the event that caused the police to show up. OTOH, if the event was a person attacking you, if that is not occurring the police won't be able to help.