HIRING NOW

His activity was not well rounded. He focused his work on traffic. Period. USFPD is about well-rounded officers or at least it should be. MH?s loved traffic and he is good at it. He shouldn?t be faulted for that.

This is going to sound insulting no matter how I put it, but I promise you - that is not my intent.

Other than traffic/DUI enforcement, the occasional 21 or domestic, what much else is there to be done @ USF? Again, I don't mean to insult, and I'm an outsider (TTPD), so I just don't know how it works there - I could very well be way off base.

The high level of activity just isn't there, just like oft-times, it's not there in Temple Terrace, compared to TPD and HCSO.

Either way, I have never met an officer from your agency that I didn't like, and I'll still continue to throw my waves your way when I see you. Stay safe.

LOL!! Your absolutely right. Other than DUI and traffic enforcement, there is not much other areas of high activity. The fact is, that it is nearly impossible to be a well rounded cop here. Not enough REAL POLICE WORK. Now, don't get mad and post an angry reply because your offended, and disagree. It's a fact.

True, but we do have a new special unit that will be beating the bushes for underage drinkers and people smoking marijuana.

I heard from a friend that works at USF that they have started a warrant squad that focuses on nothing but pick ups for overdue library books, is it true?

No offense taken.

Yes, USF has a slower activity rate that our surrounding jurisdictions. But I can tell you from many years of experience that there is a lot more to do here than just DUI?s and traffic enforcement (granted those are an important part of ?basic police work?). Very good police work just put a career criminal back in jail. (Check out Robert Lee Brown in the HCSO web site. Good job #44) Certainly the activity is not to the level of the surrounding jurisdictions but there is enough to keep a well-rounded officer comfortably busy and thinking. The officer at USF has to be creative in their ?Real Police work?. As for other areas of ?high activity? you just have to look around and be creative. Get out of your cars and walk the halls for example. Sit on a high spot of land with binoculars and just watch the lots for a while. You?d be surprised what you might find. You might see a DUI, an assault, an auto burglary, a coyote or a fox, or any number of things, or just plane old nothing. You never know. ?You never know? is a part of what I think real police work is. It?s funny. People complain that there isn?t enough ?real police work? at USF but look at the flip side. If you were going call-to-call, report-to-report, logging BS complaints all day you wouldn?t have the time for traffic enforcement. Then the complaints would come in that it is too busy to do any other type of police work. USF is not TPD, TTPD, HCSO, or any other big agency. It is university with a wide variety of crimes. All though the crimes don?t smack you in the face, a well-rounded cop can find them. They do happen. They do exist. The officer at USF has to be willing to adapt to this particular type of police work.
For the person that posted:

Not enough REAL POLICE WORK. Now, don't get mad and post an angry reply because your offended, and disagree. It's a fact.

Could you please describe to the post your definition of ?Real Police Work?. I am curious to understand what you think it means. Thanks, Be Safe

Sure thing partner, My point is that there is not the opportunity to do "real police work" because we are too busy doing: Card access, Opening doors for professors, closing doors for professors, opening car doors 4 times a shift, jump starting cars 4 times a shift, jump starting MY patrol car, dropping off paperwork so "more" doors can be opened, open more doors on the weekends, get every "possible" release of liability waiver signed for any and every little thing imaginable, conduct fire drills, oh yeah, and open more doors. I am not an officer who is leaving, i am in for the long haul, and want to change things here for the better. But these are things we will HAVE TO CHANGE if we are going to start taking over outside jurisdictions, and actually start answering "police calls"..Thanks, and you be safe as well.

Thanks for the reply but you didn?t answer my questionL. What do you think ?real police work? is? Sure you answered what you think it isn?t. I?m not saying those things don?t reek of pure security guard work but even though we get the same paycheck from the university we obviously don?t work for the same agency. I?ve never done that many security related calls in one shift. Everything you mentioned is very low priority and can wait as long as needed until an officer can get to them. I would hope no one is telling you to not do police work in order to get to those calls. Sure we have to do those calls and we probably always will but I guess we will disagree on the volume of those types of calls that an officer takes in any given 12 hours shift. I?m saying this in jest but thanks for taking all of those calls so I can keep looking for more important things to do. Seriously though. I do think things are changing for the better. It will just take some time.

The Mouse has excellent post, and I dont mean to bring them down, but he must be working all night shifts When, the majority of the University Community for the most part, ( USF is the most populated place in Tampa during the day per square mile; 50,000 people in a area- 1600 sq ft acre), has gone home for the day, and there is nothing to do but look for people violating the law.

This is a great place to work, but dont think that you won't be doing some type of security guard work...Carrying a lot of keys, unlocking classrooms, jump starting cars, unlocking cars, turning off a bunsen burner left on by a student, and in general taking BS "Information Reports" (deemed University liability).

You will be responsible from everything to a water leak in a building to changing the flags in front of the Administration Building, and everything in between. Anyone with any sense at all should realize that signing onto the University PD is not going to be what's going on at TPD or HCSO. There is some of it, but not at the same level of intensity no matter how sophisticated we get.

I always thought that that nickname was kind of silly for MH or for that matter any cop. Let?s look at the definition of the nickname:

Other than the furry little animal and a swablike device for cleaning excess mortar from the interiors of newly laid tile drains, the word badger means:
6. to harass or urge persistently; pester; nag

Another dictionary describes the word like this:

tr.v. badg·ered, badg·er·ing, badg·ers
To harass or pester persistently. See Synonyms at harass.

His activity was not well rounded. He focused his work on traffic. Period. USFPD is about well-rounded officers or at least it should be. MH?s loved traffic and he is good at it. He shouldn?t be faulted for that. But where did the nickname came from?

?Run off?. I would hope not. Asked ?to slow down?. Probably not, however depending on his supervisor at the time any conversations could have very well come across that way. Asked to be better rounded. Probably.

As I have said before. USFPD is not for everyone. That?s okay. Those that post on this site about rumors and speculation should do some research first.

"Other than the furry little animal and a swablike device for cleaning excess mortar from the interiors of newly laid tile drains, the word badger means:
6. to harass or urge persistently; pester; nag -Ya!

Another dictionary describes the word like this:

tr.v. badg·ered, badg·er·ing, badg·ers
To harass or pester persistently. See Synonyms"- Ya!

I was and am good friends with the Badger. He had a lot of other activity besides traffic. Plenty of under age drinking arrest and marijuana arrest. He was told by the higher ups to knock it off or he would be put on foot patrol. Those same people that told him to stop his aggressive behavior would love to have him back now! The Badger was rules!

And a shout out to our armed forces !