Priorities

While you have officers working the shopping areas trying to prevent thefts and burglaries, the usual and predictably heaviest traffic congestion of the year is occurring on your highways and byways. How many lives were saved in the shopping areas? If, as the Times points out, you have a concerted effort to save pedestrian lives, why are there not SROs assigned to traffic duty instead of the parking lots. Your volunteers could do the parking lot thing. It could be because volunteers are working DAVs and other duties so officers don't have to. Great idea, so get the SROs some ticket books and put them to work on something worthwhile and potentially life saving. I know jc doesn't have a traffic background, but surely lester, you can see the efficacy of more traffic workers. And don't, as the Times also has done, blame all this on the pedestrian. If that were the case we would charge those misguided shoppers for leaving their cars unlocked.

It is amazing that you can offer an opinion about something you know nothing about. If you rely on Bay News 9 or the St. Pete Times for an accurate assessment of Largo Police priorities you are a fool. SROs are not assigned to parking lot patrols, and traffic enforcement remains a priority. High visibility in crowded shopping centers helps curb violent crime and it makes citizens feel safer...."Reduce the Fear of Crime".

It sure looked like cb on camera, but maybe he's not an SRO anymore. No need to call names poster, unless you are jc or lester. Your agency operations are no secret and what I said has a ring of truth to it. Reread it and take a less defensive stance. Constructive criticism should always be welcome. Did you reduce the fear of all the motorists who passed the mangled body on Missouri? How many died at Largo Mall?

Yes, cb is a SRO. No, he is not assigned to parking lots. Yes, he was participating in a staged media release regarding what the POP Team has been doing. I will not dignify your remark about the victim of the crash. Have a safe holiday.

Ok then. No need to solicit input from the community. Whatever you do must not be questioned, nor should an opinion be offered. But, you distract from the message by feigning some outrage over the use of the word mangled. By your earlier response I would not have suspected you of being so sensitive. Insensitivity, not to mention mismanagement, is not placing your resources where they can do the most good. At least you didn't call me a name this time.

Ok, I'll call you a name: jacknutz.

How about this: far more crimes occur in the parking lots of Largo Mall than fatality wrecks in the entire city. Look up the stats. While you, jacknutz, may be interested in more tickets being written, I imagine most of the public would prefer us preventing robberies, auto burglaries, etc.

While you have a valid concern (traffic fatalities), you have to understand that the department has LIMITED resources. We don't have enough officers to do everything. Ultimately, we have no legal duty to protect you, but damn it we try anyway. Given the choice between extra patrols to prevent violent crime or traffic accidents, preventing violent crime wins every time.

So until the city officials decide that public safety is more important than building more memorials, cultural activities, and recycling initiatives, the citizens will only get what little we got.

Jacknutz? You must have searched far and wide for that one. It's a little frightening that you are carrying a weapon and are responsible for other people's safety. Judging from the time your post came out, you must be a midnighter. Everyone is either a midnight police officer or they are an enemy. How many burglars or robbers have you caught? I doubt you have caught any and you probably haven't written a ticket since fto. But, occupying the car is really what it's important right, riding around looking all bad. You probably have your windbreaker tucked into your pants too. Good night darling. Sleep well. You've used up your quota of gas and you can tell you family and friends what a tough assignment you've got.

What could be more violent than getting slammed by a pickup truck while riding a scooter? You do call it a traffic homicide investigation don't you?

Fellow Officers,

In case you haven't figured this out yet, the person who keeps entering their username as "To Guest" or whomever they are addressing is the same person. They've been on the board for a couple of weeks and are dragging all of us into pointless pissing matches. Worse yet, they are manipulating the debates to make it look as though we are a bunch of insensitive, uneducated, biggoted fools who could care less about our citizens. Nothing could be further from the truth. The people I know and work with are outstanding police officers who care about the decent, hard-working, tax-paying citizens of our City.

Remember, this is a public Internet forum. Everything you type on here is accessible by the general public. If a person were to try and make an argument against our PD or in favor of PCSO, how better to convince the citizens of Largo that we don't care about them than by coming on this message board and luring us into this kind of juvenile banter. Then simply print off the messages and share them with the newspapers or commisioners, etc. I'm not trying to say there's some great conspiracy. And in truth, NO message on this ANONYMOUS message board has any credibility whatsoever. But why give someone the opening.

Don't get dragged in. Just let this knucklehead blow until their wind is gone and they will disappear. Don't fuel the fire!

Be safe!!!!!

While you have officers working the shopping areas trying to prevent thefts and burglaries, the usual and predictably heaviest traffic congestion of the year is occurring on your highways and byways. How many lives were saved in the shopping areas? If, as the Times points out, you have a concerted effort to save pedestrian lives, why are there not SROs assigned to traffic duty instead of the parking lots. Your volunteers could do the parking lot thing. It could be because volunteers are working DAVs and other duties so officers don't have to. Great idea, so get the SROs some ticket books and put them to work on something worthwhile and potentially life saving. I know jc doesn't have a traffic background, but surely lester, you can see the efficacy of more traffic workers. And don't, as the Times also has done, blame all this on the pedestrian. If that were the case we would charge those misguided shoppers for leaving their cars unlocked.


Dear Guest 9,

I understand your frustration. It stems from being misinformed. We have an oustanding traffic unit with very aggressive officers who write hundreds upon hundreds of citations. If I'm not mistaken, we've dramatically reduced the number of pedestrian fatalities within our city limits. Good job TSU guys! If you talk to the TSU officers, violations are becoming harder and harder to come by. That's the direct result of strict enforcement which has encouraged compliance with traffic laws.

We also have an excellent DUI unit which aggressively enforces DUI violations within the city. Unfortunately, the problem is rampant. This past weekend's events with the cruiser wrecks underscore the need for an expanded DUI unit. Drunk driving is out of control. On any given Friday night, while driving home in my personal vehicle, I observe at least two and sometimes more DUI drivers as I travel through other parts of the county. I call in the bad ones and sometimes CPD and PCSO can make it in time to stop the driver, sometimes they can't. It's not the individual agency's fault, it's just a matter of having a car in the right place to intercept that drunk on that night. But to get more DUI cars, we need more staffing, which has to be approved by the city commission. It's out of the command staff's hands.

On top of that, when staffing permits, Sgts routinely assemble traffic details to target problem areas, pulling officers from the road in order to write tickets for a few hours. Obviously, calls for service come first and if it gets busy, those special details are broken to handle the needs of our citizenship.

You could likely point out several areas where we can improve at our jobs - that's true of any organization! But one thing you can't legitimately pick on is our traffic enforcement. Our city has a reputation throughout the county as being overtly aggressive with traffic enforcement. When you tell people you are a Largo cop, the first thing they say is, "Don't give me a ticket!" They are joking, but not really. So in reality, your fears are unfounded. The tragic death of the citizen in the electric assistive mobility device was a combination of unfortunate circumstances. Not being certain of where the investigation is, I can't disclose any details.

It sounds as though you don't understand the appropriate usage of VIP resources. Again, it's not your fault. VIP's only partly deter crime in parking lots. Criminals know exactly what they are and what they can and can't do. Even if they ran across a crime in progress, they could not and should not be expected to take enforcement action. Those outstanding volunteers are ideally suited for performing residential checks for out of town folks, waiting behind DAV's, etc. Why on Earth would you have a uniformed officer who has powers of arrest and enforcement authority wait behind a disabled vehicle for 45 minutes until AAA shows up? Again, it's not your fault... just a lack of understanding of the police business.

Having lurked in the shadows and read a number of your posts over the past few days, I've come to the conclusion (perhaps incorrectly) that you are disgruntled with the police department. If that is the case, I truly encourage you to come in and make your complaint. We have the most unbiased and fair complaint process I have ever seen. You're truly wasting your time and effort here. Give us the chance to resolve whatever issues you have!

BTW, I'm just a regular ole' beat cop who has some pride in this department. I hate to see someone so unsatisfied with our service. Good luck to ya!

This is really a double edged sword. I am a traffic officer..all I do is pull traffic. You want to know what I hear every time that I pull somebody over for a violation? "Why aren't you out there getting the real criminals?" What these citizens are implying is that I am out here working on my traffic "quota" instead of targeting real criminal (a.k.a., burglars, batterers, murderers). I am very glad that you understand the seriousness of traffic enforcement. Believe me, you are actually one of the few. But understand that no matter what we do, somebody will always feel that we would be better suited doing something else.

Try to understand that this is a thankless job. Yet, we do this everyday. Crime will never go away, no matter how hard we work. Traffic deaths will never go away, no matter how hard we work. Burglaries, homicides, thefts, etc. will never go away, no matter how hard we try. I am sure that you know this. And if what you are thinking is "Well you could at least reduce these horrible things from happening", then my reply is "We have". As a previous post has mentioned, we have reduced all traffic related incidents greatly. That is coupled along with busier roads, denser populations, and more and more road work being done everyday.

Before you come onto this post bashing us for the bad things that you see happening, please try to think about the bad things that you have not heard. Thnk about the days that you turn on the news and do not see our city as a headline.

If you are still unahppy, I invite you to go to the city commission. Did you know that we have the lowest officer to citizen ratio. We are at approx. 1 officer for every 1000 people. You try keeping 1,000 people safe at the same time.

Well, let's examine your position. Ninety percent of those thousand are law abiding citizens. So, you must only concentrate on the 10% percent remaining. The officer per thousand ratio is an old argument and full of holes. If you think most of the violators are going to thank you for the cite, think again. Put yourself in their shoes. "Thanks for the expensive ticket officer." The reason you have a bad reputation is because of your fishing holes, such as the officer lying in wait on Ridge Road at 16th Avenue, a six lane road with no significant crash history, for the motorist speeding at 10 to 15 over. Or the officer ambushing motorists at a 4 way stop with no crash involved and the same officer not issuing a tick at a crash site where fault is easily established because, "Policy says it's discretionary." You don't have a clue youngster. When you begin to think you know everything, try broadening your perspective.

You seem to be intelligent and possibly have law enforcement experience, or at least familiarity with it. If so then you know that what the other poster said is true, we can never do right. No matter what we do, ever. It will never change so all we can do is the best that we can. One poster will say to do more traffic because we never do any. The very next will say all we do is traffic and we are doing nothing to stop crime. If you want to do anything other then be another negative voice in the crowd...try giving suggestions instead of criticism. If going before the commission is not your thing, and its not mine either...try posting them on here. Then maybe you can accomplish something other then start a pointless debate.

Please ask your closest confidant what the difference is between then and than when used in sentences. Now, I don't think pointing out futile traffic posts is meaningless. Just ask yourself why an officer would cite someone for an infraction that did not result in a wreck, then not cite someone who did cause a crash. Because they can get away with it? No supervisor can make them? It's discretionary? If you find all this commentary meaningless, then you are pretty dense.

Why work traffic on 137th Street or Vonn Road or Keene Park Drive or Ridge Road when the safety issues are on Missouri and Keene and Belcher and 19? But keep deluding yourself that you are doing all you can and that posters such as I do not know of what we speak. It's safest when you don't think outside the box and get tickets where they're easiest.

I seem to remember a black chevy blazer north on ridge rd in the area of 16th going way too fast crosssing the median and striking a vehicle heading southbound killing the innocent driver. The THI revealed that the blazer lost control due to excessive speed. That seems pretty significant especially if you were the poor lady heading southbound that got killed....please realize that sometimes the cops know more than you do about when and where to run traffic details!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing will get fixed by posting on this forum, other then getting into arguments and debates with anonymous posters that may or may not be cops. If you have a problem, write the chief, newspaper or commission meeting.


And as I have said before, this is NOT a college exam, NOT an official police report, this is an anonymous forum. So if you want to point out mistakes..point out relevant mistakes about what we talk about...not about the difference between then or than. Unless of course it makes you feel intelligent. Would not want to take that away from you professor.

guest 9 is an idiot. especially thinks he believes this is truly an "anonymous" website. use some of your free time to take a computer class.

As others have stated, you (the original poster) do seem to be an intelligent, articulate, and seemingly informed individual. For these reasons, I do respect your concerns and your opinion. With that being said, I do believe that we have answered you questions and commented on your concerns with all sincerity. We have tried to inform you of the reasons for what we do. If you are looking to argue over specific examples of details and "speed traps" that you feel are useless, then you will most assuredly be dissapointed that there are very few of us with the time or interest to do so.

We have informed you that we do our best. This is not us getting defensive or trying to prove you wrong. We say this because we feel this way. You look at what we do from a citizens point of view. You only know about the problems and dangers that you see on the daily news and read about in the paper. You do not have access to the statistics and the hundreds upon thousands of citizen complaints that we get in reference to traffic problems and other areas throughout or city that need attention. For this reason, I would hope that you would understand that we may have a slightly better perspective to judge when and where differant issues need to be addressed.

Did you know that every time we get a single complaint from one citizen we have a duty to address that issue? Have you ever thought that maybe the reason that you see an officer checking for speed or traffic control violators in an area that you, personally, may feel as unneccesary is because a fellow citizen has requested this. Next time that you see an officer patroling in an area that you feel this way about, I invite you to stop and RESPECTFULLY ask why he is doing so. I am sure that the answer you recieve will satisfy you concerns.

As I have already said, we all here at Largo Police Department feel good about the job that we do. A very, very high proportion of our citizens feel the same way (We know this based on the results of our yearly random citizen surveys). If your intentions are to make ourselves feel inadequate about our duties or to change our behaviors, than you are wasting your time. The majority has already spoken about the job that we do. You have already been informed as to the best way to effectively voice your opinion. Your continuance to criticize and argue on this website, and refusal to take your concerns to the city commission, can only lead me to believe that your sole interest on this website is to spark controversy and create meaningless debate.

We have done everything that we can to answer your questions and address your concerns. For this reason, I hope that my fellow officers choose to ignor your rants from this point on.

"hundreds upon thousands...." Never heard it phrased quite that way before. Look, I can only guess that the roadies are doing what the bosses tell them. According to the CM's report a couple months ago, lpd put some thought and effort into the gershwin drive business. Best thing was hooking up with the county and using a trafffic counter. I can't tell from the report sent to the cm if one was used, but based upon the data provided, it sounds like it. Then there is the deal down on adrian or dryer or 20th avenue, can't remember which. Traffic complaint was handled by 90 minutes of sitting there by a radar/laser person with no significant results, according to some lt. That info. was actually provided to the elected officials and appeared in sptimes. Who decides who gets the full treatment? The socio-economic status of the neighborhood? No response is required, just wanted to let you know that the citizenry do read weekly reports by the cm and learn from other sources as well. Your operation is more transparent than you may think.

The End?

By the by, Guest 9 is definately NOT a citizen. in his posts he makes comments about the time of day someone is posted and knowing the shift (wow complex idea huh?), policies and procedures and other terms that show he is NOT a citizen. Rather he is just another officer...or.. deputy...that has nothing better to do then debate points over and over and over again. As the previous posters have said...ignore him, end the thread and start a new one about something hopefully different.

I wonder if you mean civilian instead of citizen. Anyway, I am both.