I carry the stigma of a troublemaker. Thus, the vast majority of anything I post is taken out of context, looked over, or is followed by random phrases I've become famous for prior to my forum ban.

I just saw the video, by the way, and the kid was assaulted by the police officer. I'll be right back once I've removed the foot from my mouth.

 

New Video Surfaces - same cop

17 year veteran keeping the streets safe.

17 years on 'the force' and nobody ever noticed his tendancies. That's pretty amazing. All those good cops out there and yet he thrives and survives for 17 years working among them.

Maybe he was just having a bad day. Or 2 bad days. And there just happened to be a video camera going on those 2 specific days. That must be it. Simple.

 

Two bad days out of seventeen years ain't too bad if you ask me.

It's amazing how people only remember the bad things you did. I wonder how many people he's helped/rescued in his career. You don't see any video's of that, do you?

 

Yup.

If it were not for the video recorders, he would've had a perfect career record and never exhibited inappropriate behavior.

 

Good question.

I think we need to increase controls. All cop cars need to have GPS data fed to central departmental computers. The data points fed to the system include times, speeds, locations, stops, g-force.

At the end of the shift, a cop will get a report generated from the computer and need to fill in reasons for variances.

Every stop the cop makes will need to have a reason code provided. What was the purpose of the stop, what was the disposition in the end. We should not rely on the cop filling out a report with only what he wants to report. He needs to report on reality. This type of report would go far in achieving more transparency. Better data means better analysis means fewer behaviors slipping through the cracks undocumented.

Yes, it will take more time to do this. Let's say it takes 2 hours per day per cop to fill out this report. Is it worth it? I think so. This will incur higher departmental costs, and more personnel, but over time, I am guessing that the quality of the officers that make the cut and the reduction of lost time by on-duty time wasters will pay for the program multiple fold. This will take time and will not be an overnight change.

I would push full compliance with law and no less. A bank teller has a ton of checks and balances...down to the penny, and life and death are not at stake.

Further there is a BIG picture here. A BIG win.

Imagine the collateral benefits and savings that could be achieved with a truly clean force in it's interactions with the public, with true, earned respect and trust. Changes in public behavior borne from respect. More open testimony from citizens regarding crimes when they trust the motives of the police. How much time and money would be saved from this achievement?

It will cost money. It will take time. It would pay for itself in the long term.

 

worst idea ever.

thats like status reports i used to have to fill out at my last job detailing all my activities for every minute. what a complete waste of time and added stress...in theory yea it sounds awesome, but nobody likes being watched all the time and filling out useless reports. people start getting creative with explainations and it gives incentive for people to work slowly and take less chances. 2 hours a day is 1/4 of the work day dedicated to filling out reports...

 

if you want good workers, u need to start from the beginning, hire highly trained/educated workers and give them incentives to do good work, not pointless hoops they have to jump through before going home each day.

otherwise at the end of the day you will be left with a bunch of officers that are good at filling out forms and explaining variances.

 

And what is a 'good worker'?

For a teller, it would be attention to detail and tracking pennies. That's what the job is about and how it's graded.

For a cop, it would be honesty, integrity, effectiveness, and not abusing the tremendous power you have been given by the people.

Is it pointless to measure and track the data needed to make a better employee or better company?

Do we impede a cop's ability to be a great employee by having him accountable?

Regarding education, did you know that you can 'fail' the employment pre-screen if you are to smart?cop sues for job - IQ to high

There are some valid reasons for this elimination criteria. A smart person is more likely to become bored with the routine tasks in a job where routine and consistency are key. The propensity for corruption is so great, that if you hire smart people, the risk is they will be able to covertly operate under the radar too easily. A cop needs to follow orders, not question them or consider them.

We need more transparency and measurements on their ability to follow orders and not rely on keeping smart people out.

 

i agree we need more transparency but creating additional reports and monitoring/managing them is not a good solution.

i used to work in a bank as an internal auditor, so i know a little something about control environments. some controls are good while others just wasted time and resources. but one thing is for sure, there is no such thing as 0% risk control environment, and if somehow it existed, the resources needed far outweighs the benefits provided.

for a teller it is easy to implement a control to meausure the tellers efficiency, but how do you measure how well a computer programmer or any other knowledge worker does their job??? u cant until its usually too late, all you can do as a manager is cross your fingers and crack the whip when its obvious they are not doing well.

there is no real metric on how well a cop does their job. so yes, i believe its pointless to meause and track data to the degree you suggested.

of course cops should be accountable for their actions, but the real question is how much resources are you willing to allocate in order to obtain a satisfaction rate without affecting other areas of law enforcement. i could easily offer up many suggestions to clean up corruption, thats the easy part, the hard part is find the resources neccessary and bypassing other political contraints.

 

True enough.

People recognizing there is a problem is the first step.

Evaluating the cost of ignoring the problem vs. the cost of the fix is the next step.

Political recognition that the view (result) is worth the climb (cost) and ensuing legislation is the final step.