"Public Image" Memo

I found the public image memo that was emailed today to be quite entertaining. For those not privy, a citizen wrote down the tag numbers of police vehicles that he somehow determined to be speeding and sent them to Sheriff Gee. He wrote down about 38 HCSO vehicles allegedly speeding over the course of six years, including the tag, date, time, location, and speed according to him. One particularly egregious violation was 48 MPH in a 45 MPH zone. Most speeders were in the 10 over range.

What I find most entertaining is that HCSO thought sending this memo out would be worthwhile. No mention was made whether or not any research was conducted to determine what calls the deputies were responding to. No mention was made whether or not the citizen had any speed measurement training or if his speedometer was calibrated, or if he was speeding to pace the speeding police vehicles. Instead, they author a passive-aggressive memo telling us to drive carefully. From the look of this document, it seems he is likely the citizen who constantly calls the D4 desk to ask why he saw a deputy running code. Every documented speeders on his list was in D4, the same district that has an unwritten rule from the major to never run code for any reason. You don't want to get caught with your overheads on in D4.

Thanks Colonel Brown. Sometimes I forget that all of us HCSO deputies are children who need constant "re-direction" from our parents on appropriate behaviors. We certainly aren't trained and mature adults who use our discretion to arrive as quickly and safely as possible to calls for service. Let's continue to operate dangerously short-staffed in huge zones, so that deputies can continually be frustrated that it takes 20+ minutes to arrive on a priority call. God forbid we step up our response a bit to better serve the public. Instead, we cater to the complainers who have nothing better to do than document 38 HCSO vehicles over the span of six years. We don't cater to the thousands of citizens who are subjected to our ridiculously slow response times and dangerously thin number of deputies on a daily basis.

Some things around here never change, because the command staff thinks the deputies are insubordinate and purposefully speed around the county for no reason. The command staff doesn't know the feeling to get dispatched to a violent domestic, an armed subject, or a robbery that you are 25 miles from and the closest unit. The HCSO deputy running 10-15 over the speed limit is doing so because they feel the need and the urge to quickly arrive and assist the citizen who called us. This nut job who documents alleged speeders for six years will be the first one to complain when we didn't get to HIS 911 call fast enough.

That is totally unreal. I say this without any hesitation at all.....this place is so screwed up and the priorities are so backward that I have grown to despise each & every hour spent at this hellhole. This memo and so much other crap are the textbook reasons why. OMG....please don't get caught with your overhead lights on & drive 5 miles above the speed limit or they will pull your GPS history and discipline you if they don't feel it was enough of a absolute life & death reason! Since it's impossible to see or get an appointment with the Sheriff, maybe I'll just write him a letter, afterall, I am also a citizen of Hillsborough County. Of course since I work at HCSO, all of my rights have been stripped. Am I a malcontent, you better believe I am. With memo's like that trumping any & all common sense, how can anyone with a brain not be! Don't woory, summer is coming on and all the little hoodlums will be out of school again. I'm done hurrying up to any calls, even if my sixth sense & common sense tells me to, because this office will not back me one bit......sorry to all the good citizens out there, we have no choice as you can read from the above post from our Colonel.

And some people wonder why after only working here less then 2 years that In between dispatched calls, that I drive to veerryy slowly, I return to my apple tree parking spot and read my books. Like I also said before, my paycheck is no smaller then the few deps left here that try to be proactive and keep getting either complained on or Monday morning quarterbacked or second guessed every single time a supervisor has to do a blue team report.

On top of this, the supervisors hate having to do the required blue team paperwork, therefore they take it out on their troops and make it known they prefer their deps to just answer only the required calls and knock off the proactive stuff.

No problem, I catch on quick and I'm happy to do just that until the economy improves a little more and my college degree allows me to obtain the job I am seeking elsewhere. I may be young, but I don't need to be treated like a second grader by this office. Some of what is said about sheriff Gee is so true and honestly puzzling. Like the fact that I have not seen or met him in person since being hired a little less then 2 yrs ago. I just find it pretty odd, but again just par for the course here.

Oh well, again back to my book. :devil:

[Average Joe]

And some people wonder why after only working here less then 2 years that In between dispatched calls, that I drive to veerryy slowly, I return to my apple tree parking spot and read my books. Like I also said before, my paycheck is no smaller then the few deps left here that try to be proactive and keep getting either complained on or Monday morning quarterbacked or second guessed every single time a supervisor has to do a blue team report.

On top of this, the supervisors hate having to do the required blue team paperwork, therefore they take it out on their troops and make it known they prefer their deps to just answer only the required calls and knock off the proactive stuff.

No problem, I catch on quick and I'm happy to do just that until the economy improves a little more and my college degree allows me to obtain the job I am seeking elsewhere. I may be young, but I don't need to be treated like a second grader by this office. Some of what is said about sheriff Gee is so true and honestly puzzling. Like the fact that I have not seen or met him in person since being hired a little less then 2 yrs ago. I just find it pretty odd, but again just par for the course here.

Oh well, again back to my book. :devil:

In my day we called you a "slug" and your squad mates would let you know.

Yawnnn....In these days the office encourages us to be Slugs. Just so happens that all the deps on my squad are membets of the book of the month club, as we don't want to deal with the wrath of our Sgt. Plus we all caught on to the fact that one of our adjoining squads is down to 2 deps left that still are proactive aggressive on crime and they are constantly getting complained on for every little thing they do. Not to mention that one just lost his take home priviledges for about a month because they did a (suposedly) random GPS check and found that he had driven over the speed limit enroute to what the office decided were not serious enough calls for service.

Sorry Joe, but I'll keep my Slug title all night long rather then deal with this nut house.

Yawnnn....In these days the office encourages us to be Slugs. Just so happens that all the deps on my squad are membets of the book of the month club, as we don't want to deal with the wrath of our Sgt. Plus we all caught on to the fact that one of our adjoining squads is down to 2 deps left that still are proactive aggressive on crime and they are constantly getting complained on for every little thing they do. Not to mention that one just lost his take home priviledges for about a month because they did a (suposedly) random GPS check and found that he had driven over the speed limit enroute to what the office decided were not serious enough calls for service.

Sorry Joe, but I'll keep my Slug title all night long rather then deal with this nut house.

This nut house is precisely why I have sent applications to other agencies. HCSO has no interest in fostering loyalty among its troops, which is why deputies are leaving any chance they get. HCSO will eventually realize you can't consistently take a dump on your deputies every single day and then expect them to want to remain loyal to this sinking ship.

[Average Joe]

Yawnnn....In these days the office encourages us to be Slugs. Just so happens that all the deps on my squad are membets of the book of the month club, as we don't want to deal with the wrath of our Sgt. Plus we all caught on to the fact that one of our adjoining squads is down to 2 deps left that still are proactive aggressive on crime and they are constantly getting complained on for every little thing they do. Not to mention that one just lost his take home priviledges for about a month because they did a (suposedly) random GPS check and found that he had driven over the speed limit enroute to what the office decided were not serious enough calls for service.

Sorry Joe, but I'll keep my Slug title all night long rather then deal with this nut house.

So I take it that the Office no longer keeps stats on you arrests, tickets, warnings FIR's etc etc etc?

[quote=Average Joe]

Yawnnn....In these days the office encourages us to be Slugs. Just so happens that all the deps on my squad are membets of the book of the month club, as we don't want to deal with the wrath of our Sgt. Plus we all caught on to the fact that one of our adjoining squads is down to 2 deps left that still are proactive aggressive on crime and they are constantly getting complained on for every little thing they do. Not to mention that one just lost his take home priviledges for about a month because they did a (suposedly) random GPS check and found that he had driven over the speed limit enroute to what the office decided were not serious enough calls for service.

Sorry Joe, but I'll keep my Slug title all night long rather then deal with this nut house.

So I take it that the Office no longer keeps stats on you arrests, tickets, warnings FIR's etc etc etc?[/quote:2dkw93q1]


The only thing looked at in my district is if you have at least 15 traffic stops a month.

[quote=Average Joe]

Yawnnn....In these days the office encourages us to be Slugs. Just so happens that all the deps on my squad are membets of the book of the month club, as we don't want to deal with the wrath of our Sgt. Plus we all caught on to the fact that one of our adjoining squads is down to 2 deps left that still are proactive aggressive on crime and they are constantly getting complained on for every little thing they do. Not to mention that one just lost his take home priviledges for about a month because they did a (suposedly) random GPS check and found that he had driven over the speed limit enroute to what the office decided were not serious enough calls for service.

Sorry Joe, but I'll keep my Slug title all night long rather then deal with this nut house.

So I take it that the Office no longer keeps stats on you arrests, tickets, warnings FIR's etc etc etc?[/quote:315vkfzj]

In my district, if you write an FIR (street check) you get called into the major's office to explain why you didn't arrest anyone on that call, then you get griped at and shamed as if you were a 4 year old child that did something wrong. The result, you ask? Deputies in my district don't write street checks anymore. :lol:

HCSO doesn't really care about your stats. They care that you handled all those calls with a smile on your face and that you didn't offend anyone, not even the criminal. As long as nobody was offended, including the citizens you drove past on the way to the call, then everyone is happy!

You see, HCSO deputies are like the battered wives and the command staff are the violent husbands. If you speak your mind, you get beat. If you step out of line, you get beat. So eventually you start living your life in a reserved manner so you don't get a beating by the violent husband. You do whatever you can to make them happy, but you know nothing will please them. They will only focus on your mistakes and the times you didn't fully please them. Eventually, you hopefully work up the courage to stand up to the beast and leave. Until then, you just do whatever you can to fly under the radar and hope he doesn't beat you today.

So in other words you're a pu$$y?