neighborhood children

I was looking for some advice or guidance from the local LEO's on this board in regards to children between the ages of 8-14. They are soon to be out of school and have been a problem in my Seven Springs neighborhood. I know how overworked the SO is, so I rarely call. They play in the street making ramps to jump thier bikes and fail to move for vehicles making it dangerous to pass. They terrorize the elderly in the neighborhood and don't respect others or thier property. They ride dirt bikes and atv's on public roadways and abuse neighborhood pets. One homeowner has been waiting a year for a parent to pay for a broken window from a pellet gun. I have knocked on the parents doors and spoke with them to no avail. Now I know where the children get it! I've even had one parent refuse to answer the door or speak to me.
Aside from bothering the overworked SO for misbehaving children is there anything else that can be done? I understand that children need to play however, they should respect others and property that isn't thier own. Thanks for any input.

Buy a big dog and a weak chain. (Just Kidding) when you find an answer to your problem please share it with all of us.

Move :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Just a thought. Would we rather see the kids playing in the street on bikes, jumping ramps requiring drivers to take a more cautious approach to driving down the roadway? Or, would we rather the kids were made to park the bikes and find some other activity that wouldn't bother you?

I can assure you the latter is what helps them become bored and decide to commit acts of real vandalism and commit burglaries. Idle hands do the devile dirty work right?

I agree about the ATVs but these people do not stop for us and we will not chase them because if they crash, the supportive citizens of the state like to sue us. It is a fact that if you get sued for doing your job, the SO will look down upon you and your career will be stifled. Who wants that? This is why you might see a deputy make a little effort to stop the ATV and motorbike riders but ignore it when they bolt away. Besides, the deputies are already going call to call the entire shift and have no time for patrolling.

Good luck trying to get a deputy to respond to your complaints, we don't even respond to complaints of subjects selling drugs. Just know this, it is not the County Commission that has caused the reduction in man power on the street. This wonderful administration is the one to thank for that and now not only are the citizens suffering but the deputies are as well. We don't have the man power on the street to keep up with the calls for service. I now someone will get on here and say its not the Sheriff's fault its the County Commission, not so . If the Sheriff had asked for the amount of deputy positions needed over the years and not "low balled" the Commission we wouldn't be in this situation. Not only do we not currently have enough deputies, we are losing good experienced deputies to other agencies.

[fldeputy]

Need peace,
You might want to consider attending some of the county commission meetings and start voicing your opinions to them. If they don't hear from the citizens that service is substandard, you are not likely to see a change anytime soon. Good luck

To fldeputy and patrol, I do understand what you are up against and that is the reason I do not call for these complaints and try to address the parents. There have been acts of vandalism and funny enough a deputy and state po were out here last evening for one of the children. My fear with them being in the street is not the extra caution that needs to be taken by the driver but the lack of caution by the children. They grab your car bumper when on skate boards. I've seen them hop on the hoods of vehicles and it'll be the driver to blame. I would rather they get a wake up call now versus further overburdening our justice and corrections systems. As far as your department, it's had its share of issues over many sheriffs and commissioners. Sadly, its you the deputy that has to suffer when you put you life on the line on a daily basis, which I appreciate greatly. Other than attending commission meetings what can be done to help your plight? If if where up to me, you'd be fully staffed, pay raises and the best benefits package around.

Don't vote for Bob White in 08.

Patrol-no worries, he wasn't getting my vote.

I'm sorry but I don't know what to tell you, it doesn't look like anything is going to change at the Sheriff's Office. The only thing I could say is that if you have spoken to parents without any results the next step would be to call the Sheriff's Office if the juveniles are commiting a crime. Hopefully a deputy will be able to respond within two hours.

To "Need Peace" visit www.supportyourdeputies.com (http://www.supportyourdeputies.com)

Deputy01, I would never impose any more work on you. I will continue to handle this the way I have-dealing w/the parents. My hope was that as LEO's there would be insight on how to deal with juveniles since you do it on a daily basis but now realize that they can be just as aggravating for you unless it's a serious offense and even then you hope for a good witness. I have never and will never blame a Deputy or any other LEO for department or county politics..the real reason for response delays. You're jobs are not easy. You do the best you can on a daily basis and hope to go home safely to your families.

Road Dep. Thank you for the link. I'm now fired up and been trying to figure out what more can be done. Sadly, unless more of the public gets a clue and screams for change, little will.

FLDep, Patrol, Dep01 and RoadDep, thank you for your service. I will keep you in my prayers. Please continue to use this board to post as much information as possible on how the citizens of this county can help you.

To "Need Peace" if you want to help the deputies please inform your friends and neighbors of the site www.supportyourdeputies.com (http://www.supportyourdeputies.com) and hopefully we can get a Sheriff in 08 who knows how to run a Sheriff's Office.

The best thing I could tell you would be to wave at the kids like there are no bothers with what they are doing. The less adversarial you seem to them, the less they will try to antagonize you, or commit acts of vandalism to you. There is a reason the "officer friendly" approach still works with most kids in adolescence.

Hope this helps