drama

At the last epac (East Side Community Meeting) , meeting it was asked what was the status of the police department. The reply consisted of how the citizens would benefit if the sheriff provided law enforcement services. The police department is not equipped to provide the necessary services currently required and lacks the resources to address future requirements. The officers do not receive the same level of training as deputies and have a limited exposure to a verity of crimes that would further prepare them for the future. The equipment is out dated and will require a tremendous amount of funding to restore the agency.

Present at the meeting;

City Manager
Dir. Williams
Commissioner Longworth

What is your opinion on this explanation?

Heres my response. That is complete nonsense. The fact is, we have better training than the Sheriff's Office. Compare training of the majority of the officers at Bartow to the Sheriff's Office and you will see the difference. The So routinely only approves classes they teach themselves, while BPD Officers are allowed to go anywhere within the state. Aggressive officers have taken up to 4 one week specialty classes a year which is unheard of at the SO. The officers carry new equipment on their belts and do not lack anything that is carried by any other agency. That includes Tasers. The pay scale does need to be adjusted, but officers are there. If the pay was that bad, Im sure they would have left, like others have done in the past.

Service, you want service back to normal levels, simply let us hire the positions that are open and have been budgeted for. The city would rather let all of the open positions contiue to go vacant so they can later claim they have no choice but to let the sheriff come in.

If you want to save money, and release yourself from most of the liability of running a police department, then man up and simply vote on it. Stop yammering around with your tails between your legs. Make the decisions the public expects you to make. AND MAKE THEM TODAY, NOT NEXT MONTH OR NEXTR YEAR. Sheesh..........in short....GROW A PAIR!

Oh, one last thing......The idea that BPD or local officers are not exposed to the same crimes as the SO. Whoever stated that is a complete retard. It has been known for a long, long time that officers that wanted to work a MORE diverse variety of crimes and learn how to work those crimes should go to a local police department rather than a sheriff's office. The reasoning is simple, at a smaller police department, you have to work those crimes, you cant rely on specialty units to come in and work them for you. More often than not, simple felony crimes are handled by most local poilice department officers, while this is completley unheard of with any sheriff's office. The patrol units respond, secure the scene and make arrests if the bad guys are still on scene. (Even then the invest. is turned over to a detective.)

I disagreee with the above 2 statements. IF you are one of the in peeple u get to go to good schools. IF not you don't.

I have nothing personal against your statements-above poster-but i disagree with pretty much all your posts.

bpd employee

I guess it depends on where you are in the food chain.

I am also an employee of BPD, and I agree with most of the comments of the previous posts. The officers are required to work most scenes from start to finish. They are required to notify the Detective Bureau on certain types of scenes, but that procedure is no different than any other agency. FDLE requires specific mandatory retraining for all officers in the State of Florida. This training does not vary from agency to agency. What is required for BPD officers is not any different than what is required for PCSO, LPD, WHPD, MPD, TPD, MDPD or any other agency in this state. All BPD officers are in compliance with FDLE requirements. Sometimes an officer may not be able attend a couse that does not specificlly relate to their current assignment, but that happens in every agency.