Procap

i've heard recently that "what we've been doing isn't working". i've seen patrol shifts tasked with reducing numbers even though they are working with 6-7 people per district.

any thoughts here?

Nothing new about that. I used to sork Central and the Ridge and we were always short. Most nights on the Ridge we had 5 plus the Sgt. 850+ square miles with 6 people because we had to have people TDY to ECHO or BSI. Some things don't change.

"What we've been doing" is very subjective depending on who you work for and with. I agree that the manpower issue is a big problem. But we also need to look at other areas and the people that ARE making it work and do a little introspection. This includes stacking on manpower to match the population boom. But it also includes making the most of the wealth of knowledge and experience the agency has. We have people who know what will work if we only listen to them and let them do their job.

All we hear about in briefings is how WE are letting crime increase... how WE have to PROCAP .... WE have to pull warrants.... WE have to run radar... WE this WE that... but wait... I look around and see 4 or 5 other deputies in the room !!!! To cover 1/4 a county the size of Polk ??? I tell u i do NOt hesitate to tell people WHY their houses keep gettin broken into and WHY it takes that long for us to respond... because we working at BELOW officer safety level.

PROCAP is a joke. PROCAP does not work. How many echo and procap shifts do we have and crime keeps increasing ??? And WE (patrol) have to hear about it when all we have time to do is hump calls for the whole shift and MAYBE JUST MAYBE grab a warrant.

And all we hear is excuses about manpower and how we are fully staffed... Yeah well if you take the actual number of deputies taking calls on the streets... you will see what a joke this is becoming.

I have to agree with Burned out. The S.O. says all positions are FULL on the road and in Detention. But if you work in these jobs, you know darned well that they aren't. It would be different if you worked at an office job. You know your work is gonna be there for you tomorrow. But when you work in a job that you rely on your numbers (back-up) then reality counts! Pro-cap doesn't work. It would if you had more people and better tasks. Arresting everyone for open containers and littering is not what I consider getting the BAD Guys off the street. Its jams up the jails and the court rooms. Realize, yeah you got em off the street. Woohoo guess what they bond out 3-4 hours later and get a court date. All that manpower time and money and you could have gave em a notice to appear. But then that wouldn't get the numbers up in the jails would it...Hmmmm takes a rocket scientist....Not. God Bless our Deputies....Thanks for a job well done even though you are stressed and understaffed.... :roll:

Can you say Pro-Crap :roll:

From what i see comparing numbers year to year.. the numbers have gone down since procap started.. Just b/c you go up from one month to another doesn't mean that we've not went down in year to year comparison!! Procap lets u know where ur problems are w/ the analyst's help so that you can go to that area & help it stop.. Altho I agree that has been a shortage both sworn & civilian. That does make a difference in why the numbers would go up...

If Procap isn't working then why are other agencies seeing our drop & crime & coming to meetings & etc to adopt our Procap process?? I've known of atleast two other counties & a few PD's that are looking into or have started a Procap type system.

ProCap works, but it makes cops accountable and takes the "fun" out of the job.... It got you the $$ for the toys you have.. Either work for a progressive dept. or find a fun one

i agree every crime does not warrant an arrest but if the guy\gal is a target,they need to go. it doesn't matter how stupid the crime is.
to say procap works is a touch inaccurate. it worked out great when it started, good reduction in crime, good focus on sending resources to target areas to reduce crime.

to say we have a reduction every year is a tough sell. procap has been around for 10 years now. if procap is a success,year after year,we may just procap ourselves out of a job. the population has incresed by 75,000 since i started here. how is it that polk county defies probability and has a reduction in crime and a popluation explosion at once? the answer is clever book keeping an reclassification.

we are drawing just as many 1096's each year. we have as many or more calls for service. we are doing it fewer deputies and they want stats.

other agencies may be looking at starting a program,and that's super. its a good concept but we are constantly worried about reductions,there can't always be a reduction. procap need to focus on trends and targets only. let the echo guys we have deal with the serious problem children and stop worrying about the random s21 of an unlocked car or s39 of a lawnmower the victim left outside.