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I don’t know. I’m a pretty typical law-abiding citizen living a boring life and all my interactions with the police are negative. Aside from the really annoying

I don’t know. I’m a pretty typical law-abiding citizen living a boring life and all my interactions with the police are negative. Aside from the really annoying ticketing to raise funds, I’ve had the following interactions: 1) had a cop yell at me and bystanders because someone not even with me said “excuse me sir” the cop yelled that he should say “excuse me officer” and the two cops next to him laughed 2) I was hit as a pedestrian and police said they were too busy to come take an accident report that I had to come to that station. I and the driver gave conflicting reports, there was no cop at the scene. Witnesses offered to testify but police wouldn’t contact them. When I went to the station there were lots of police sitting around. 3) I lived across from the police station and my car was broken into. It took four hours for the police to come over, investigate and prepare a report. Cop said next time I should call the private neighborhood security company that is all off duty copy’s getting overtime. 4) neighbor conflict with neighbor violating a judge’s order. City police said they wouldn’t do anything because they don’t enforce violations from those kids of judges per city policy. I asked what kind of police do, he said none. I’d have to call state police. These aren’t huge issues and I’m still alive, etc. But I think it’s indicative of systemic problems where there’s not a good feedback loop to make sure cops are effective. I’m grateful for police and they do do good work, but everyone I know has a litany of stories like this. And since police seem to do stuff like protest collection of data, routinely lose/not record body cam, and other indicators of a corrupt org; I think there’s need for serious police reform.

gamblor956 5y ago
2) This doesn't appear to be a crime if it wasn't a hit-and-run, and generally police do not send cops to the scene for incidents like that. Also, not all cops are patrol officers. Many of them actually have desk jobs. Are you really getting mad at people for doing their jobs? How would you like it if someone came to your office, saw you on GitHub, and got mad at you for browsing the internet? 3) Four hours to investigate and prepare a report is ridiculously fast. So, there was a lot of latency, but it sounds like they were actually quite efficient once they arrived. Note: I'm not sure I believe the bit about calling a private security company, as that wouldn't make any sense; they couldn't have filed a police report for you. 4) Sounds right. Cops are bound by jurisdiction as a matter of law. If something isn't in their jurisdiction, they aren't allowed to do anything. This usually happens at county/city borders (where it's a case of figuring out which set of cops has jurisdiction to act), but it also applies to court orders. You haven't provided sufficient facts to say why state police would be enforcing a judicial order in this case.
- prepend 5y ago
  For #2, I don’t care what kind of cop comes out, but there are traffic cops for this type. It’s a service that’s needed and only police can write police reports. So the police aren’t responsible, who is? 3) it was 4 hours to arrive across the street. The report was ready the next day. The private security company is off duty cops so they can do everything police can since they are police. 4) it is in their jurisdiction as it’s in their city and the crime occurred in their city, they just don’t enforce it unless requested by some outside party (like the state court). The state police don’t respond to minor issues like contempt. So again, who should handle this issue. My point is that police don’t do what is needed. And the bit about being busy and underfunded is hard to believe given the massive funds that go to police.
avs733 5y ago
It’s worth high lifting the summarize pattern in your experiences. Police unwilling to meet the basic needs of doing law enforcement. In each case you asked for obvious and basic effort at investigating crimes and they just opted out. It begs the question what are they doing instead?

gamblor956 5y ago

2) This doesn't appear to be a crime if it wasn't a hit-and-run, and generally police do not send cops to the scene for incidents like that. Also, not all cops are patrol officers. Many of them actually have desk jobs. Are you really getting mad at people for doing their jobs? How would you like it if someone came to your office, saw you on GitHub, and got mad at you for browsing the internet? 3) Four hours to investigate and prepare a report is ridiculously fast. So, there was a lot of latency, but it sounds like they were actually quite efficient once they arrived. Note: I'm not sure I believe the bit about calling a private security company, as that wouldn't make any sense; they couldn't have filed a police report for you. 4) Sounds right. Cops are bound by jurisdiction as a matter of law. If something isn't in their jurisdiction, they aren't allowed to do anything. This usually happens at county/city borders (where it's a case of figuring out which set of cops has jurisdiction to act), but it also applies to court orders. You haven't provided sufficient facts to say why state police would be enforcing a judicial order in this case.

prepend 5y ago
For #2, I don’t care what kind of cop comes out, but there are traffic cops for this type. It’s a service that’s needed and only police can write police reports. So the police aren’t responsible, who is? 3) it was 4 hours to arrive across the street. The report was ready the next day. The private security company is off duty cops so they can do everything police can since they are police. 4) it is in their jurisdiction as it’s in their city and the crime occurred in their city, they just don’t enforce it unless requested by some outside party (like the state court). The state police don’t respond to minor issues like contempt. So again, who should handle this issue. My point is that police don’t do what is needed. And the bit about being busy and underfunded is hard to believe given the massive funds that go to police.

avs733 5y ago

It’s worth high lifting the summarize pattern in your experiences. Police unwilling to meet the basic needs of doing law enforcement. In each case you asked for obvious and basic effort at investigating crimes and they just opted out. It begs the question what are they doing instead?