Officer Safety

It's funny to see the midnight LT and Sgt handling calls for service. They panic when the calls are getting up to the 90 minute mark. God forbid that they have to write a memo explaining why the call held. It should be a cut and paste memo. "The calls held because WE Need More Cops" Instead, they have one man units handle two man calls, or pull another unit from another area. News Flash!! By the time the unit arrives from the other area, the first arriving officer can get hurt or killed. When the first officer gets hurt, the family is going to sue the Sgt all the way up to the mayor. Bottom line is that we are extremely short. Services are being cut. Who would have thought that the property room would close on the weekends and on the midnight shift. How many DUI get released because we have a minimal mickey mouse DUI unit. Calls get handled half assed, criminals are let go, and traffic enforcement is non-existant. Yeah, let the citizens save the $200/year in property taxes. The lawsuit is going to be huge.

What district do calls hold that long?

All Districts hold calls that long. The 90 minute mark will generate a trace, so right before them, the supervisors scramble to get them cleared at whatever cost.

back in the day (Central, Early to Mid-80's), we would be mortified if our Sgt had to handle a call (because it would have meant we, the squad, were failures at doing our jobs, i.e. handling calls). And we certainly never expected to see or hear the LT, except maybe once in a while at R/C, and even then only for an Atta-Boy or an Aw-sh--. If y'all are listening to or watching your Lt's and Sgt's handle calls, then the last thing you should be doing is making it known, because it says ALOT about YOU, and none of it is good.

Well thats all nice and dandy, but this isnt "back in the day". There isnt enough man power, and they rather handle calls than address the real problems. None of them have any balls enough to go to the higher brass. The higher brass doesnt give a crap and cater all the way up to the mayor. God forbid they lose their 3 hour work days at headquarters or cant go golfing on county time. What needs to happen is a hefty law suit on each level of supervision all the way up to the mayor. God knows that if I get hurt, my wife has instructions to pull the communication tapes for the whole shift and also the line up. So dont come over here saying about how its a reflection on one's work ethic in today's environment. You are either retired or havent worked the road in so long that you have no clue.

Don't worry, help is on the way. Read the Herald today and see that the remaining unincorporated area of Northest is going again to form a city. This will allow for more help in other districts.

[MOD 646]

While its obvious that there's a manpower shortage, except for some of the favorite specialized units, there isn't much the road sergeants/lieutenants can do about it. We've gone to the District Command Staff and complaint and complaint, but are told to do the best with what we have. Complaints to the PBA fall on deaf ears.

The Sgts and LTs are scared to lose their gold badges, Not one of them will actually risk their position for the officer. That's why they are handling calls. They rather hump calls and send officers all over the place while putting lives in danger. Lets call it how it really is. The system is set up perfectly that way. There will always be an ass kisser who will make others look bad. There is zero unity. Many months ago, the PBA sent out an email suggesting that we slow down. Something about not writing citations during such "hard time" While it went over some peoples heads, other chose not to get on board. If every officer stops writing citiations, the county will see a dramatic drop in revenue. The court system and employess will be twittlling their thumbs. Thats how you send a message without going on strike. We still have discretion. But what happens. The Sgts and above, ***** out and start threatening with monthly evals and then they start handling calls. If calls don't hold, and everything stays status quo, then we will never get our court time pay back, night diff back or more officers. Just look at how many are retiring. There were hired during a massive wave in the early 80's. You cant replace them with quality people. I guess that history repeats itself. Remember the river cops, and the homicide detectives from this department that would steal from the homicide scenes?

Hey Guest:

I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment that "there is no unity". And i do remember seeing the PBA post about slowing down, but i don't think that is good advice, for some of the side-effects you actually mentioned.

I have a suggestion for you (that i actually implemented years ago in Central when i was on a squad of old timers that would take 13s to eat breadfast in hialeah and not clear for nothing forcing me and the other junior guy to handle all the calls. Not being a sit on your hands kind of guy, i signed out the radar gun everyday for 2 months straight and gave out radar tickets for the whole shift for 2 months- that got the message across and got me great montlys evals).

so my suggestion is different from the PBA's, dont slow down, speed up. Go 09-19 every day, all day, and actually write everybody you stop a ticket, you will have a boatload of cite's and quite a few B/W's (if you 24 everybody). Before you pooh-pooh this idea, consider the benefits/side effects.

1-it will be good for the individual officer because you will have loads of stats at the end of the month and your evaluations will be great

2-because nobody in dade county can ever admit they are wrong, it will be good for the officer because your court time will increase exponentially (eventhough it has been reduced from 4 to 2 hours).

3-the resultant increased ticket revenue should help the department budget, relieve some of the current budgetary stress, thereby improving conditions for all of us, across the board

4-you will be giving all the citizens you cite a philosophical "thank you" for putting the police-hating mayor in office.

5-and the calls will still hold (translation: another philosophical "thank you" for the miami-dade voters).

Oh, and even BITD (back in the day) there were plenty of no balls running the show, you might want to inquire about the pretty wooden sign that hung in the Central Roll Call Room that had only 3 simple letters on it - NFB. Because only the silver badges on one squad knew what it meant, it hung there for quite awhile. PS: it's in a safe place, being preserved for prosperity by a real cop (not me by the way).

Well it was only a matter of time for this perfect storm to hit. This is what happens when you have a useless PBA, an idiot for the Mayor and worse of all a powerless Director. Obviously the potential candidates aren't going to get in the way of this mess and whoever is appointed won't say anything. Nothing will happen until the following:
1. Violent crime stats increase and citizens begin to complain. Driveway robberies and home invasions always get immediate attention.
2. Increase in tourist crimes
3. LEO is killed or seriously injured
4. Poor LEO morale leads to widespread corruption or unacceptable service. Think of Opa-Locka, Medley, Miami Beach, Miami Gardens, and all the others.
5. Someone important is involved in some police incident where there's a late response, lack of resources, etc. BTW over the years each one of these events has occured when the politicans and/or administration have cut MDPD services. And each time the services were restored so it's just a matter of time. Of course that Time article Paradise Lost still smarts.