OFFICER SAFETY CRISIS!

OFFICER SAFETY CRISIS!

The crisis is the lack of Officers working the shift. 2 mids working with 6 Officers at times. All the shifts are running at minimums that have been lowered each year. How much lower can the minimums go? OT is plastered everywhere, but only for small segments of time like 5 hours, not the entire shift. And the department is only short 12(?) Officers? How is this possible? There are more OT cops on the shifts than the guys assigned to those districts. Heard in the halls that a solution is to go back to 8 hour days. That is bull hicky ticky. HOW ABOUT HIRING ENOUGH COPS TO DO THE JOB FOR A CITY OF THIS SIZE, LIKE 100 MORE, NOT CUT 12, LUDICROUS!

Does someone have to get killed for a change to be made?

There needs to be some serious manpower reallocations! Fluff everywhere. Start with putting those cops who are doing computer work back on the road as they swore an oath at one time to take a job as a cop, not as a second floor tech. Computer mess is a criminal negligence financial fiasco at this point. Someone needs to be held accountable for wasting millions of tax payer money over the years. Is is so hard to hire a tech company with good references to come in, sign a contract, and deliver a working system? Except Motorolla of course who has just about stolen millions of dollars from Lauderdale over the years.

Lucky for Lauderdale that the state's tax mess happened. There were scores of new hires in other PD's hiring processes when the freezes occured. Now they are stuck here until things settle out. Why are we one of the few PD's still hiring during this tax mess? Because the PD is in a desperate crisis mode and noone with a brain wants to work here, so they now apply by default.

"We do more with less" = less officers with seniority that city hall gets to pay at a lower pay grade. Who cares newbies leave, hire another one for the same low wage. City loves people with multiple years on to leave, then just hire another lower paid newbie to replace him, and hopefully cycle that guy out in a couple of years for another low pay scale newbie.

How was the 40 million reserve saved? How many cop spots are vacant?

Heard in the halls that a solution is to go back to 8 hour days.

Switch to 8 hour days? And you think people are talking about leaving now ?!?!

Exactly...People actually want the 12 hour shifts. How do you want more people to be hired when they can't even give us a raise?

Exactly...People actually want the 12 hour shifts. How do you want more people to be hired when they can't even give us a raise?

I haven't heard anyone saying they want 12 hour days and if you do, you are smoking crack. We are already criminally understaffed and you want to put in two more hours a day? Have at it!! I see the OT slots are filled everyday though. When are we going to stop supporting the bad behavior of our management? Stop volunteering for OT, action plans and all the other BS they shove down our throats. Let Hebert do more with less in his safe little office on the second floor. The Chief, Asst Chief Carter (I mean Major Carter), and most of the Majors have lost touch with reality and are just saying or doing whatever they have to in order stay in good graces. As far as staffing, Major Carter said they are cutting 11 positions starting Oct. 1 yet there is talk of promoting 6 Sergeants, 4 LT's, Majors Asst Chief etc. Who are these people going to supervise?? It's pretty easy to cut 11 spots when you have 40 something vacancies already. Specialty units are out of control. What do we have, like 3 separate units in district 2? SPU, TAC, Whiskey units..blah blah blah and you never hear from them or see them. Okay, I'm done..let's hear your thoughts.

Not much will happen until the $hit hits the fan. More than 100 officers have been hired in 2 years and about 50 have quit. What does that tell you??? Lots of rookies patrolling the streets that’s the reason why you need so many specialized units. The rookies have no idea what they’re doing, the slugs are sleeping and the PSAs are doing all the work. Have you seen what these FTOs are teaching the new hires? Yep! Straightout Reno 911 techniques.

I'm like a cheetah...a law enforcement cheetah!

Not much will happen until the $hit hits the fan. More than 100 officers have been hired in 2 years and about 50 have quit. What does that tell you??? Lots of rookies patrolling the streets that’s the reason why you need so many specialized units. The rookies have no idea what they’re doing, the slugs are sleeping and the PSAs are doing all the work. Have you seen what these FTOs are teaching the new hires? Yep! Straightout Reno 911 techniques.

Define sh*t hitting the fan? Things can get much, much worse before the city HAS to do something. The status quo survives much longer than most people think. Doesn't matter where you are, either.