05-30-2009, 07:29 PM
The following is my opinion on the recent matter between the City of Largo, and two of our more senior officers. Before I get into anything I would like to voice my appreciation to Chief Aradi, Deputy Chief Carrol, and anyone else within the police department that helped defend their loyal officers and watch our backs every day. It is greatly appreciated and a comfort to me to know that you truly appear to care about your officers and staff, and will back us up and protect us.
Now...on to the matter at hand. I hope a city commissioner, mayor, city manager, or anyone else involved from the city side in the extremely heavy handed discipline and attempted firing of our officers read this. SHAME ON YOU! So an officer voided a ticket as a personal favor to someone he knew. This is wrong, yes. This should be punished, sure. But to demand that the officer is fired? Not even close. One of these officers passed up better career opportunities with a much better department. He turned it down out of loyalty to his city.
When you are in a leadership position of anyone, in any field, the most important thing is to show loyalty and defend the people under your responsibility. This means that when they make a mistake you should deal out fair and proper discipline. You do not hang them out to dry and forget about all the years of loyalty, hard work, and accomplishments they have accomplished. I was extremely disturbed to hear that you wanted one of the two officers involved in voiding a ticket FIRED for something that should have been handled quickly and fairly.
The two officers are both relatively senior officers and high examples of what an officer should be like in their respective fields, K9 and Traffic. Did they make a mistake? Yes. Should they be punished? Yes. Fired? Absolutely not. What the heck are you thinking up there? Do you really despise your law enforcement community and city employees so much that you would turn your back on them so quickly and with such conviction? You should know that what happens to one employee will effect all of us. I have to wonder if you would turn on me so quickly and vehemently if I make an honest mistake? What if I have a use of force and some yokel hiding in the bushes turns his camera on AFTER the suspect hits me, has a weapon, or refuses to stop fighting. The camera will only show me throwing him to the ground and physically arresting him...would I be fired if the liberal media portrays me as the bad guy? How about a, "Fry lady" incident like in Clearwater, am I fired then too?
The officers in your department work hard each and every single day. Read the daily emails on what kind of crap we deal with. People fighting, people on drugs, people with contagious diseases, dangerous traffic, guns, knives, and a quite literal risk that we can end up breathing out of a tube for the rest of our life, over someone or something we know very little about. The only thing that keeps moral up is the knowledge that I can trust the people around me and my superiors to understand and protect me from the elements that I have no defense: The bias media, uneducated citizens, and even the occasional problem with fellow officers.
The chief used to have a very well written policy on the City of Largo webpage, I was unable to find it or I would have posted it in a link. The city seriously needs to listen to the following statement that is based on what Lester Aradi wrote. If a person makes a mistake and is willing to learn from that mistake, and improve from it, they should be given a chance to do so. Nobody is perfect and everybody will mess up. It is inherant not just in life, but in the type of career we are involved in.
Protect your officers and employees and learn some loyalty, DO NOT HANG US OUT TO DRY. Without law enforcement your city will collapse, without quality police officers your, "City of Progress" will turn into one large ghetto. I hope that this is not all just a large wall of text and that you actually read it and understand that your actions equate to you acting and being a piece of crap for all I am concerned.
Now...on to the matter at hand. I hope a city commissioner, mayor, city manager, or anyone else involved from the city side in the extremely heavy handed discipline and attempted firing of our officers read this. SHAME ON YOU! So an officer voided a ticket as a personal favor to someone he knew. This is wrong, yes. This should be punished, sure. But to demand that the officer is fired? Not even close. One of these officers passed up better career opportunities with a much better department. He turned it down out of loyalty to his city.
When you are in a leadership position of anyone, in any field, the most important thing is to show loyalty and defend the people under your responsibility. This means that when they make a mistake you should deal out fair and proper discipline. You do not hang them out to dry and forget about all the years of loyalty, hard work, and accomplishments they have accomplished. I was extremely disturbed to hear that you wanted one of the two officers involved in voiding a ticket FIRED for something that should have been handled quickly and fairly.
The two officers are both relatively senior officers and high examples of what an officer should be like in their respective fields, K9 and Traffic. Did they make a mistake? Yes. Should they be punished? Yes. Fired? Absolutely not. What the heck are you thinking up there? Do you really despise your law enforcement community and city employees so much that you would turn your back on them so quickly and with such conviction? You should know that what happens to one employee will effect all of us. I have to wonder if you would turn on me so quickly and vehemently if I make an honest mistake? What if I have a use of force and some yokel hiding in the bushes turns his camera on AFTER the suspect hits me, has a weapon, or refuses to stop fighting. The camera will only show me throwing him to the ground and physically arresting him...would I be fired if the liberal media portrays me as the bad guy? How about a, "Fry lady" incident like in Clearwater, am I fired then too?
The officers in your department work hard each and every single day. Read the daily emails on what kind of crap we deal with. People fighting, people on drugs, people with contagious diseases, dangerous traffic, guns, knives, and a quite literal risk that we can end up breathing out of a tube for the rest of our life, over someone or something we know very little about. The only thing that keeps moral up is the knowledge that I can trust the people around me and my superiors to understand and protect me from the elements that I have no defense: The bias media, uneducated citizens, and even the occasional problem with fellow officers.
The chief used to have a very well written policy on the City of Largo webpage, I was unable to find it or I would have posted it in a link. The city seriously needs to listen to the following statement that is based on what Lester Aradi wrote. If a person makes a mistake and is willing to learn from that mistake, and improve from it, they should be given a chance to do so. Nobody is perfect and everybody will mess up. It is inherant not just in life, but in the type of career we are involved in.
Protect your officers and employees and learn some loyalty, DO NOT HANG US OUT TO DRY. Without law enforcement your city will collapse, without quality police officers your, "City of Progress" will turn into one large ghetto. I hope that this is not all just a large wall of text and that you actually read it and understand that your actions equate to you acting and being a piece of crap for all I am concerned.