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Not LA County, but SFPD - I was hit by a car that ran a red while out for a run. Hard enough to knock me down but not break anything. I managed to remember half

Not LA County, but SFPD - I was hit by a car that ran a red while out for a run. Hard enough to knock me down but not break anything. I managed to remember half the guy's license plate before he drove away, so I called SFPD. An hour later two officers showed up to my house and took a report. They said someone would follow up. No one ever did. A couple of weeks later there was a report of a hit and run on an SFPD officer. Very similar circumstances - he was not in uniform, he just happened to be a police officer who was hit by an inattentive driver. Hard enough to knock him down but not break anything. They caught the guy within a couple of hours. Cops care about cops. If they can protect the citizens that they're supposed to, that's a nice little bonus, but given the choice between protecting other cops vs. non-cops, they'll always choose other cops.

MichaelZuo 5y ago
That’s a bizarre conclusion. Do you not believe in the efficacy of technology like video cameras? In the second case you mentioned it’s easy to imagine they got a full recording of the event and thus had more to work with than half a license plate number.
- nickff 5y ago
  Where in the parent's comment did you get the idea that: >"In the second case you mentioned it’s easy to imagine they got a full recording of the event and thus had more to work with than half a license plate number." It seems like you're deliberately imagining circumstances favorable to the police.
  - MichaelZuo 5y ago
    SF police have bodycams last time I checked, which almost guarantees the presence of one recorded video at least. And also many locations in SF are heavily covered by cameras? Like the downtown cores of many cities?
    - fineIllregister 5y ago
      >...he was not in uniform... Why would the officer have a body cam if not on duty? GP is correct, you're ignoring what was written and fabricating details.
      - MichaelZuo 5y ago
        Isn’t the presence of cameras on buildings in the second case and not in the first case also easy to imagine. Unless you believe that’s implausible in SF? It’s interesting that you ignored addressing the second part of my two part comment while also throwing the same accusation.
        fineIllregister 5y ago
        You don't get credit for throwing crap against the wall, even if some of it might hypothetically stick ("hypothetically" being the key word, you are still imagining details that weren't in the original account). That's indicative of bad faith.
        MichaelZuo 5y ago
        Making an accusation of bad faith is different from giving credit. The standard behaviour on HN for disagreement is not to immediately jump to accusations of bad faith but to have a polite discussion without necessarily giving credit. I can make the same accusation of bad faith against you but that leads nowhere.
    - Talanes 5y ago
      Your first scenario is unlikely given that he wasn't otherwise uniformed, the second we could assume for both scenarios.
    - jjeaff 5y ago
      They don't wear body cams while off duty, in plain clothes.
namelessoracle 5y ago
Beat cops aren't really empowered to do what a normal person would consider an "investigation". (their "investigations" are stopping people and asking them questions) They write citations and reports of incidents they directly witness to and statements by people they directly talk to. No way in hell 2 patrol cops are gonna do all the paperwork or are encouraged to go track down the various video footage to find out who hit you. They might refer it to a detective. Who wont action something that will likely result in a misdemeanor offense or very light straight to probation felony at best. Especially when you consider detectives workloads. It makes a certain degree of sense when considering prioritization. The detectives supervisor would probably lambast them for deciding to spend the half day to track all that down when more serious crime could have been pursued instead. Meanwhile the detective has way more incentives in his social group to prioritize finding the person who hit the SFPD detective. The detectives supervisor might even tell them to drop everything and prioritize to help internal office politics!
- awillen 5y ago
  Right - that's the point. If it's a low priority crime, fine. I understand they can't track down everyone and prosecute everything. But the same crime shouldn't get vastly higher priority because the victim is a cop (situations in which a cop is targeted because they're a cop excluded, but that wasn't the case here).

MichaelZuo 5y ago

That’s a bizarre conclusion. Do you not believe in the efficacy of technology like video cameras? In the second case you mentioned it’s easy to imagine they got a full recording of the event and thus had more to work with than half a license plate number.

nickff 5y ago
Where in the parent's comment did you get the idea that: >"In the second case you mentioned it’s easy to imagine they got a full recording of the event and thus had more to work with than half a license plate number." It seems like you're deliberately imagining circumstances favorable to the police.
- MichaelZuo 5y ago
  SF police have bodycams last time I checked, which almost guarantees the presence of one recorded video at least. And also many locations in SF are heavily covered by cameras? Like the downtown cores of many cities?
  - fineIllregister 5y ago
    >...he was not in uniform... Why would the officer have a body cam if not on duty? GP is correct, you're ignoring what was written and fabricating details.
    - MichaelZuo 5y ago
      Isn’t the presence of cameras on buildings in the second case and not in the first case also easy to imagine. Unless you believe that’s implausible in SF? It’s interesting that you ignored addressing the second part of my two part comment while also throwing the same accusation.
      - fineIllregister 5y ago
        You don't get credit for throwing crap against the wall, even if some of it might hypothetically stick ("hypothetically" being the key word, you are still imagining details that weren't in the original account). That's indicative of bad faith.
        MichaelZuo 5y ago
        Making an accusation of bad faith is different from giving credit. The standard behaviour on HN for disagreement is not to immediately jump to accusations of bad faith but to have a polite discussion without necessarily giving credit. I can make the same accusation of bad faith against you but that leads nowhere.
  - Talanes 5y ago
    Your first scenario is unlikely given that he wasn't otherwise uniformed, the second we could assume for both scenarios.
  - jjeaff 5y ago
    They don't wear body cams while off duty, in plain clothes.

namelessoracle 5y ago

Beat cops aren't really empowered to do what a normal person would consider an "investigation". (their "investigations" are stopping people and asking them questions) They write citations and reports of incidents they directly witness to and statements by people they directly talk to. No way in hell 2 patrol cops are gonna do all the paperwork or are encouraged to go track down the various video footage to find out who hit you. They might refer it to a detective. Who wont action something that will likely result in a misdemeanor offense or very light straight to probation felony at best. Especially when you consider detectives workloads. It makes a certain degree of sense when considering prioritization. The detectives supervisor would probably lambast them for deciding to spend the half day to track all that down when more serious crime could have been pursued instead. Meanwhile the detective has way more incentives in his social group to prioritize finding the person who hit the SFPD detective. The detectives supervisor might even tell them to drop everything and prioritize to help internal office politics!

awillen 5y ago
Right - that's the point. If it's a low priority crime, fine. I understand they can't track down everyone and prosecute everything. But the same crime shouldn't get vastly higher priority because the victim is a cop (situations in which a cop is targeted because they're a cop excluded, but that wasn't the case here).