Carpundit

On the Chicago Police Blog

Typepad's pimping the Chicago Police blog on its front screen, so I clicked over.  Police blogs are good ideas, if they're designed to get information out to the public like, say, this one.  I'm not sure about the Chicago PD one.  First off, can't they host their own domain?  I mean, it's Chicago, not Peoria; what's with Typepad?  Typepad is for people who barely know how to use the internet (me) and don't have an IT department (me again).

That aside, the motto is "Of the Police...By the Police...For the Police," which is confusing.  It's not for the public?  Then why put out self-congratulatory crap like this?  They also run stuff like this, which isn't interesting unless you know what it means.

Well, maybe they'll sort out the kinks and figure out which way they want to go with it.  here's a hint: it's a good idea to push information out to your communities and it's a bad idea to run a cop-commentary site that turns into an anti-management bitchfest (that's what union meetings are for).  Trying for the middle ground -cop commentary that's all PR approved- is just a waste of bandwidth.

Arrested By the M.I.T. Police? You're a Student? Oh, OK. You Can Go Now.

When you're arrested and charged with a crime, the usual complainant for the crime is the arresting police officer.  If you're indicted, it's the District Attorney who takes the facts to the Grand Jury and the Grand Jury that indicts you.  If there's a victim, and the victim wants to drop the charges, that request may or may not be honored by the DA, depending on the character of the offense, its severity and whether he can prove the case without the victim's cooperation.

Police Details Again. Again.

I've beaten this to death, probably, but this came out today and I can't let it pass.  We need to reform the paid detail system.  How effective can a cop be at his job after working a detail all day?  Three or four times a week?  All year?  Not effective at all.

Paid details are a waste of public money and an embarrassment to professional policing.

Last Word on the FN-303

I've written a lot about this badly-named and irresponsibily-marketed weapon, the FN Herstal 303, and I learned from the Boston Herald this morning that Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis has banished them from his police department.  Good.  It's about time.  It should have been done before.  I called for it (and you know what influence I hold over the BPD) in October 2004, when I wrote of Deputy Superintendent Robert O'Toole, "[I]t's time for him to go.  And he should take the FN303 with him."

As I've explained, they can call it what they want, but it's a deadly force weapon in the end.  It shouldn't be used for crowd control -or anything else- unless deadly force is justified.  Shame on the police department for not banning it earlier.  Praise to Commissioner Davis for doing what should have been done by his predecessors.

Union President Calls for More Recognition of Police Works

Boston Police Patrolmen's Association president Thomas Nee is calling for more recognition of the good works done by his officers.  From the Boston Herald:

“Far too common is the criticism of cops, far too rare the recognition of good work,” Nee said.

Sounds familiar.  Maybe Nee reads Carpundit.

Nah.

Public Servants

Let's be as quick to praise our dedicated public servants as we are to criticize them:
Thank you, Firefighter Andrew Lee.
Thank you, Detective Mark Fleming.

You Think?

"Policy On Police Details Appears Safe."  (Herald) (Globe)

You think?

More yesterday.

Paid Police Details Need To Go

Every year or so, the papers print the ridiculous salary figures earned by police officers from paid private details, and there comes a chorus of complaint and calls for reform - but nothing ever happens.  The police unions are entrenched, the corrupt system long-established and the Commonwealth itself resistant to any change.  But I'll say it again.  Paid police details are mostly a waste of money - your money.

Boston cops making $200,000?  Troopers making over $150,000?  Look, I know that police officers' base salaries are pretty low.  (Although an economist might say they aren't low enough, because there are far more applicants than new hires.)  And I know that many officers have come to rely on their detail money to support their lifestyle.  It wouldn't be fair to switch it off overnight.  But I advocate a gradual roll-back, to the point where details are rare.  Once details are used only where needed rather than at every small pothole on every shoulder, we should increase police salaries on 5-10 thousand a year on average.

The cop who was making $65K base pay and $75K more from details won't be happy, but he isn't a very good cop anyway - he's too tired all the time.  The current system is a rip-off, and it's your money they're taking.

My earlier posts here, here and here.

Another Good Cop in Boston

A commentor on a post below left some obnoxious remarks about police officers.  I wasn't going to bump anything up until I read a paragraph in this morning's Boston Globe story about the Transit officer who risked his life to pull a man from the path of a train.  After recounting the event, the reporter includes this:

[Officer] Vieira, 27, [was] born and raised in Somerville [and has] two years in the job, a 5 1/2-month-old boy at home, and a wife who waits up for him to finish his late-night shift. He spent much of yesterday thinking about how bad things could have been and apologizing to his wife.

Does that sound like an evil high-school drop-out, Steve?  Not to me.  To me, it sounds like a regular cop, doing an exceptional job.

Boston Police Civilian Review Board

Well, this is interesting; I didn't know the police were getting civilian review.  Maybe I missed a story somewhere.  In principle, it's a fine idea.  Civilian review can imrove the public's trust of the police department, affirm the basic structure of a police force working for its citizens, and -in rare cases- ensure that disicipline is meted out when the department has refused to do so.  That's in principle.

In practice, it will probably wind up as a rubber stamp for police administrative decisions or as a roomful of angry people shouting at each other about racism in the police department.

Policing is a business dirtier than most people understand, or even imagine.  You can't apply the norms of your middle-class living room in review of what happened on the street.  If the board doesn't try, they may do some good.