Bad Cop, No Donut.

[Cryozombie]

<rant>
You know what I wanna know?

Why is it the cops "Lack the manpower and resources" to make regular patrols of the neighborhood to keep people from breaking the **** into my house and stealing my ****...

But apparently don't lack the manpower and resources to regularly patrol the parking lot of the movie theater or Chinese food restaraunt often enough to continue to repeatedly write tickets to my roommate for not purchasing his village sticker yet this year... (Think about it... they have to drive thru and run the plate of every single car in the lot to determine if its local, and therefore requires a sticker or not... its NOT a 2-3 minute process, its a busy stripmall with 100's of cars...)

Oh, yeah... no money in the first one...

Nowadays, it would seem... Police = Governmental Revenue Generation Systems... no more, no less.

Yet... we continue to assign them power, Because We The Sheeple, want the illusion that we are safe.

</rant>

(Please note, for the most part I don't blame the individual officers, (tho I know of some that seem to rather enjoy that brand of police work more than any other) but rather the system that abuses the money and authority we give them for policing. Well, and those supervisors, you know who they/you are... that demand, despite quota being illegal that their patrol officers write so many tickets to stay employed... THEY can lick my testicles.)

That is all
​

 

[terryl965]

Glad you was able to vent, but remember we do have some greta police officer around

 

[Cryozombie]

Glad you was able to vent, but remember we do have some greta police officer around

And if you notice, I don't blame the officers... I blame a system that misuses those officers.

 

[terryl965]

And if you notice, I don't blame the officers... I blame a system that misuses those officers.

I know you did sir I was just making a blank statement and I'm glad you still got to vent we all need to once in a while

 

[MJS]

<rant>

You know what I wanna know?​

Why is it the cops "Lack the manpower and resources" to make regular patrols of the neighborhood to keep people from breaking the **** into my house and stealing my ****...​

But apparently don't lack the manpower and resources to regularly patrol the parking lot of the movie theater or Chinese food restaraunt often enough to continue to repeatedly write tickets to my roommate for not purchasing his village sticker yet this year... (Think about it... they have to drive thru and run the plate of every single car in the lot to determine if its local, and therefore requires a sticker or not... its NOT a 2-3 minute process, its a busy stripmall with 100's of cars...)​

Oh, yeah... no money in the first one...​

Nowadays, it would seem... Police = Governmental Revenue Generation Systems... no more, no less.​

Yet... we continue to assign them power, Because We The Sheeple, want the illusion that we are safe.​

</rant>​

(Please note, for the most part I don't blame the individual officers, (tho I know of some that seem to rather enjoy that brand of police work more than any other) but rather the system that abuses the money and authority we give them for policing. Well, and those supervisors, you know who they/you are... that demand, despite quota being illegal that their patrol officers write so many tickets to stay employed... THEY can lick my testicles.)​

That is all​

Well, I can certainly relate to your rant. I've been a dispatcher in a fairly large city now for just about 5 yrs. There are nights when I have more cops than I know what to do with and other nights, where I'm looking at the pending calls, and scratching my head, wondering where I'm going to get cops to send! The city in which I work is broken down into 6 districts, with one officer assigned to each dist. There are also times when there are Rovers, which are assigned to 2 dist. They act as a backup and can move freely between the 2 they're assigned to.

While I'm not sticking up for the cops that I work with, as some tend to not be as proactive as others, they can't be everywhere. I've had people call because they've waited a half hour for a cop to take a vandalism report and others that say they never see a cop on their street. Depending on the call, it can drastically drain resources. As an example. I worked this past Friday night. I work the 4pm-12am shift. It was non stop until about 10pm! We had a 3 car major accident about 5:30 during rush hour, that tied up 4 cops. A few hours later, at the same time, we had 2 more major accidents in different parts of the city. As you can see, the resources dwindle quick. Of course the domestics, fights, and juv. complaints continue to roll in.

In all honestly, and I'm not saying this to put you down, but do you know for a fact how often a cop drives thru your neighborhood? I mean, unless you're sitting in the window, its possible they can be making a pass thru, and you're not seeing it. They could drive thru with the bad guy watching, and once they pass, he does the illegal activity.

If you're not getting satfisfaction, it may be a good idea to contact the PD and ask for more patrols. If you're not getting anywhere with the PD, you may have to address the concern with someone else.

Mike

 

[Drac]

<rant>

You know what I wanna know?​

Why is it the cops "Lack the manpower and resources" to make regular patrols of the neighborhood to keep people from breaking the **** into my house and stealing my ****...​

Because we CANNOT be everywhere....Now speaking for myself and my department sitting too long at one place will insure a call to the Chief office...​

</rant>

(Please note, for the most part I don't blame the individual officers, (tho I know of some that seem to rather enjoy that brand of police work more than any other) but rather the system that abuses the money and authority we give them for policing. Well, and those supervisors, you know who they/you are... that demand, despite quota being illegal that their patrol officers write so many tickets to stay employed... THEY can lick my testicles.)​

That is all​

Me I hate writing tickets, if I issue one its because someone got REAL stupid when I attempted to warn them about their driving habits...Cruising through lots just to issue cites about residental tags is *********** police work and its just for the money...

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I think it is incumbent on everyone to take the proper precautions to insure that their valuables are protected. Whether it be your personal well being or your property. Simply put it is almost impossible for law enforcement officers to be eveywhere all of the time. They simply cannot do it. So look at your individual situation and figure out a way to keep yourself and your property safe. (ie. dog, alarm systems, martial arts training, etc) Also realize if a law enforcement officer can help you they generally will go above and beyond to do so. Almost all LEO's that I have met will do this! (because they are generally great people

)

 

[grydth]

Most police officers, like most of any other occupation, are decent and hardworking people. There are a few bad apples who'd rather loaf or harass regular folks - but the huge majority are brave an dedicated. I've worked with them for a good part of my career.

The real villain here is the perverse mindset of those in charge, who see police primarily as revenue producers.... just as they see soldiers as armed social workers.

 

[Blotan Hunka]

Perhaps the officer assigned to the commercial district has that duty (parking lot patrol) as part of his assignment? Its not like every cop in town was in the lot running license plates. If your friend got the tag hes supposed to have there wouldnt be a problem.

My uncle was a cop (retired). He always said that many people who got tickets made rants like that. Bottom line is none of us really know what "the cops" do day in and day out. For all we know that cop was told to write those tickets because some other person was ranting about all the people who park in shopping lots without the proper sticker. "Why do I have to obey the law when you just let all those other people park wherever they want to? What am I paying my tax dollars to you for? Do your job and write those tickets!"

 

[Cryozombie]

You guys all make valid points, but I think you miss mine... probably because I was in rant mode...

The police get assigned to do a job by the powers that be...

My question is, if they lack the manpower and resourses as they claim, why are we wasting the manpower and resources we do have making the officers sit and run plates in a parking lot for sticker violations, or thinking about it worse, I have seen them use 5 squad cars to do seatbelt enforcement... 2 parked squads to write tickets, 1 squad to stand in the road looking at cars stopped at a traffic light, and 2 chase cars for the cars that don't pull over for their tickets...

I guess what I am saying is, why are we alocating the limited resources we claim not to have for somthing that is only of real benefit to the governing powers?

And to Blotan Hunka, the answer is Stickers dont actually go on sale until June. He cant have a current sticker yet, The tickets assumed he would have last years sticker, but he didnt have the car then. He will get out of them in court, but he has to waste his time on 2 court dates now. My Dad was a cop... I have a pretty good idea what they do on a daily basis.
​

 

[Blotan Hunka]

I do know that the state supplies departments with grant money to do traffic checkpoints on overtime. So many of those "manpower wasting" checkpoints are cops in on their days off doing seat-belt enforcement because if they dont use that state money they dont get it the next year. My uncle Jim used to get his vacation $$ (and hunting trip$$) from the state of Texas every year.

For every person bitching about tickets theres 2 others bitching not enough are being written. Remember the Son of Sam killer was caught because of a parking ticket.

 

[Cryozombie]

I do know that the state supplies departments with grant money to do traffic checkpoints on overtime. So many of those "manpower wasting" checkpoints are cops in on their days off doing seat-belt enforcement

This is absolutley correct... but... again...

If they have that money to "waste" on overtime to raise more money...

I... um... er...

Either they don't need the revenue as badly as they claim they do ("we need the ticket money to pay for street repiars" is the Village's answer here) or it could be spent on more policing... either way, I'm not buying the "we lack the resources and manpower" BS if they can afford overtime for THAT.

 

[Cruentus]

I think that there are sometimes misplaced priorities. This is usually do to city/community politics and financial motives. I see this more in wealthier suburban town departments rather then big cities, county sheriffs or small towns.

Example; a local bar in a neighboring town (that is quite large, with a dance floor, etc.) pays the police department a few thoursand dollars a year for a city cop to post outside or inside the establishment on friday and saturday nights. If someone creates an issue, instead of the bouncers throwing the person out, the cop comes in, tazes the individual, and takes them outside.

Hmmm...?

Or how about when influental community member #1 calls the Chief and says, "We have a real problem with kids loitering and unauthorized people parking in a mini-mall parking area, can you have an officer post their regularly?" On certain shifts, a cop will then post regularly in that parking lot. With nothing better to do and following orders, tickets for loitering and parking start flying. This could be happening when in a community blocks away is being regularly burglarized and not patrolled.

So, misplaced priorities do happen. It is definatily not the officers fault who is following orders. It is generally due to politicking; and I don't know of a solution other then getting involved. Get to know your chief and become an influential member of the community and work for positive change. Or, get to know other influential members of the community and see if they can help.

I don't know of any other solution, unfortunatily.

 

[Cruentus]

Either they don't need the revenue as badly as they claim they do ("we need the ticket money to pay for street repiars" is the Village's answer here) or it could be spent on more policing... either way, I'm not buying the "we lack the resources and manpower" BS if they can afford overtime for THAT.

Understand, too, that this has to do with misappropriation of funds on a political level (city government, etc.) rather then anything within a departments control. Just because a department writes a lot of seat belt tickets, that doesn't mean that they will see any of that money. It all depends on how the budget is layed out.

There is often a lack of funds in departments because governments don't allocate the funding to the departments.

 

[Blotan Hunka]

This is absolutley correct... but... again...

If they have that money to "waste" on overtime to raise more money...

I... um... er...

Either they don't need the revenue as badly as they claim they do ("we need the ticket money to pay for street repiars" is the Village's answer here) or it could be spent on more policing... either way, I'm not buying the "we lack the resources and manpower" BS if they can afford overtime for THAT.

Er..they (your city or town) arent paying the overtime. The state grant $$ is. The state gives the cops so much $$ to put out checkpoints. If they dont use it, the state wont send it (or will send less) the next year.

http://www.ntxe-news.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=10&num=26124&printer=1

 

[Grenadier]

I certainly sympathize with both the civilian and law enforcement populace.

For the civilian folks, they pay taxes, they obey the laws, and should be reasonably protected. I will not, however, hold it against the police for patrolling less-serious areas, since they are doing their jobs.

For the law enforcement folks, sometimes, they're not busy and have nothing to do. Other times (and unfortunately, too often), they're being pushed to the limits, and many of the LEO's are forced into working overtime.

However, in the end, we must all remember, that it is *not* the duty of the police to protect the individuals, and that their duties are to serve and protect the community as a whole. One need only read the case of Warren v. DC to see that they are not obligated to protect the individual's well-being.

In a later case, this was upheld in court in the Nichols case:

"the fundamental principle that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen." See p. 4, infra.

 

[Cryozombie]

Understand, too, that this has to do with misappropriation of funds on a political level (city government, etc.) rather then anything within a departments control. Just because a department writes a lot of seat belt tickets, that doesn't mean that they will see any of that money. It all depends on how the budget is layed out.

There is often a lack of funds in departments because governments don't allocate the funding to the departments.

I know, and you see that I laid most of the blame on the system, and a small amount on the supervisors who make up stats they expect the officers to uphold... (and that particular piece came from a cop I was talking to at a cop party on saturday night... dont ask why I was partying with cops)

Gren, I've arrguned that point many times on here... I know they have no responsibilty to the citizens... BUT that's never the argument when you complain... its always "we lack the manpower and resources..." yadda yadda...

 

[Blotan Hunka]

The fact of the matter is that in many areas there is a major lack of manpower and resources. My uncle worked for a county dept and at any one time there were 3-4 cops working with backup usually 20-40 minutes away. If one or two guys were taking reports or at an accident he was the only guy left and had to hope some town or state cop nearby was available. If there were enough cops to post on every street corner then there would be bitching about the "police state".

 

[Tames D]

Not sure about cops cruising parking lots and giving tickets, I haven't seen that in my area. But I do see them on a regular basis cruising through my tract. I like seeing that.

I will say that the Sheriff's Deputies in my city have gone 'above and beyond' so many times that I'm convinced that they really care about the neighborhood. Their good people.

 

[Cryozombie]

The fact of the matter is that in many areas there is a major lack of manpower and resources. My uncle worked for a county dept and at any one time there were 3-4 cops working

You seem to be missing my point... so let me put it another way... I'm not talking about a major lack of manpower and resources. I'm not talking about your uncles county departmnet. I'm talking about the system here making excuses why they don't have enough cops patroling the neighborhoods while they have them parked in a parking lot, not looking for crime, but enforcing code violations... in a town where, by the way, they have a non-police department for that, the Village's code enforcement department.