Manpower Problems

Wast wondering if there is any relief in sight for D-2 and D-4 getting a BUNCH of new deputies soon? Honestly, the never ending calls for service, recent spikes in violent crime, many gun related, is taking a serious toll on the attitudes and stress levels of the deputies who are on the front lines. Everywhere you turn now, it's crime after crime report or suicide attempt after suiucide attempt calls. I mean every day & night now, it's S-20 call after S-20, where someone the complainant knows is feeling down and has either supposedly ingested pills, threatening to slit their wrists or threatening to shoot the police to go out by suicide by cop. I'm telling you it is nonstop now in D2 & D4 and only getting worse by the day. Then you have the ones who say these things just so they can get a ride to the hospital or crisis center on the county dime. It is being abused badly and this CRIT deputy stuff has done nothing at all to slow it down, rather it has actually gottten worse. It is tying up the little manpower we have now like crazy and constantly leaves nobody available to answer calls for service. I won't even touch that topic, referring to calls for service, because many of the calls we are being sent on have no business getting a deputy dispatched to handle it. Does anybody screen these calls at all anymore, or is the only requirement that somebody call in and request a deputy, or better yet DEMAND a deputy! It has really gotten crazy on the street now and it seems the office is allowing way too much of it to get out of hand.

[The Nitely Blog]

Wast wondering if there is any relief in sight for D-2 and D-4 getting a BUNCH of new deputies soon? Honestly, the never ending calls for service, recent spikes in violent crime, many gun related, is taking a serious toll on the attitudes and stress levels of the deputies who are on the front lines. Everywhere you turn now, it's crime after crime report or suicide attempt after suiucide attempt calls. I mean every day & night now, it's S-20 call after S-20, where someone the complainant knows is feeling down and has either supposedly ingested pills, threatening to slit their wrists or threatening to shoot the police to go out by suicide by cop. I'm telling you it is nonstop now in D2 & D4 and only getting worse by the day. Then you have the ones who say these things just so they can get a ride to the hospital or crisis center on the county dime. It is being abused badly and this CRIT deputy stuff has done nothing at all to slow it down, rather it has actually gottten worse. It is tying up the little manpower we have now like crazy and constantly leaves nobody available to answer calls for service. I won't even touch that topic, referring to calls for service, because many of the calls we are being sent on have no business getting a deputy dispatched to handle it. Does anybody screen these calls at all anymore, or is the only requirement that somebody call in and request a deputy, or better yet DEMAND a deputy! It has really gotten crazy on the street now and it seems the office is allowing way too much of it to get out of hand.

Don't worry about it my man. Just Street Check em all and IT will know what to do and sort em out. Baaahahahahahahahahaha.

The only to make them stop sending us to no leo calls is for EVERYONE to take at least 90 minutes on each and every call. Otherwise the supervisors will not step in and say "NO we will not respond to that call".

It will only work if EVERYONE does this.

The only to make them stop sending us to no leo calls is for EVERYONE to take at least 90 minutes on each and every call. Otherwise the supervisors will not step in and say "NO we will not respond to that call".

It will only work if EVERYONE does this.

Are you kidding? It's already being done. Certain deps stay on the juvenile probation checks or sex offender checks for at least a hour on each one. The CRIT deps also now spend up to an hour or sometimes more on each follow up as well. Now of all things, the office has pulled more deps away from their squads in order for them to monitor the homeless populations and give them rides to get drivers licenses, birth certificates, SS cards, health exams and you name it. All the while their squads are being tasked to produce more and more with less and less. honestly, it seems the shorter staffed the street gets, more the ideas get dreamed up that leads to pulling more & more manpower to do these special assignments. For anyone that has been listening at all out on the road, they know first hand the grief, anymosity and bad blood spilling over into each squad & platoon. Certain deps have even raised these concerns very LOUDLY at at least one rollcall and were told by a particular supervisor that if they don't like it, QUIT! All I know is that the growing anymosity among the road deps and the lack of any supervisory figure willing to listen to these very valid concerns and then actually have the guts to stand up for their people and try to correct the problems is a complete joke. To sum it up, HCSO has become a very difficult place to work if you plan on trying to do actuall police style work and expect to be answering mostly law enforcement oriented type calls. Plan on doing very little of that, writing a ton of delayed reports and spending many hours of your shift playing marriage counselor, psychiatrist, probation officer, mental heath coordinator, taxi driver, Baker Act specialist, crime analyst, crime scene tech & fingerprint specialist, photographer, accident investigator and the always enjoyable babysitting service & prisoner transport for our detective units. Gosh, I wonder why so many more deps working the street these days have so little knowledge about how to handle a actual REAL or IN-PROGRESS law enforcement related call for service? :shock:

Some deputies may be doing this, and that's good, but ALL OF THEM NEED TO DO IT in order to force change.

No, we will not quit, we will earn the money our way, whether the supervisors like it or not!

[The Nitely Blog]

Calls were holding before you and I started working here. I'm sure that there are calls holding as I sit here drinking my morning cup of joe typing this and I'm pretty dang certain calls will be holding long after you and I leave the job. Take care of yourself and your zone partners and don't worry about whats on the holding call list. If someone has to wait to tell you that thier landlord or neighbor is an assclown then so be it.

Calls were holding before you and I started working here. I'm sure that there are calls holding as I sit here drinking my morning cup of joe typing this and I'm pretty dang certain calls will be holding long after you and I leave the job. Take care of yourself and your zone partners and don't worry about whats on the holding call list. If someone has to wait to tell you that thier landlord or neighbor is an assclown then so be it.

I understand and agree with what your saying, however, the amount of non-law enforcement related calls seem to be growing by the hour. These calls totally hinder our already difficult task of trying to concentrate on helping the victims of wide spread violent crime and using our short staffed street deputies wisely. It's stupid to tie up multiple deputies on the hundreds of non-law enforcement public relation, civil matter or CYA calls that now get dispatched each day, when some districts are being overrun by criminals who show no fear of being caught. I also recall a recent post about the drastic decline in traffic citations being issued and the lack of traffic enforcement as a whole, despite the fact that polls show that aggressive drivers and speeding are a top concern for Hillsborough County taxpayers? This is no doubt related to the fact that supervisors highly discourage doing a traffic stop when a deputy is enroute to a call or when calls are holding. Well, that sure leaves very little time for traffic enforcement doesn't it! Heck, most deputies need all the down time they can get in order to catch up on their reports and the last thing they have time for is traffic enforcement. In essence, the office needs to quickly prioritize what types of calls deputies should get dispatched to and the supervisors on the street need to ALL get on the same page and do a better job of monitoring and cancelling most of these non-law enforcement calls. This just might be the step needed to start taking control of the streets back from the criminals!

[Average Joe]

Years ago we had to respond to every call by a citizen, but we also had a "Red Book". This book listed every agency in the County, be it local or state. Once you were on the call you could then direct the person to the right agency. This book worked wonders.

Today what is needed is a new "Red Book". However it should be the call takers that screen the calls and refer the callers to the right agency thus freeing the patrol deputies from handling such calls.