And….this week’s silver medal for Olympic class bad judgment by a public servant or servants goes to (drum roll, please)….the groups of Lakewood-located LA County Sheriffs who have been having (I am not kidding about this) ARREST CONTESTS.
(Sorry officers, but the gold medal for mind-bogglingly hideous judgment by a public servant has already been awarded to Judge Keller in the post below.)
This morning’s LA Times has the story. Read the whole thing, but here’s a clip or two to get you started:
One recent competition, described in an internal Sheriff’s Department e-mail obtained by The Times, was called “Operation Any Booking.” The object was to arrest as many people as possible within a specific 24-hour period.Other one-day competitions have included “Operation Vehicle Impound,” a contest aimed at seizing as many cars as possible. And another challenged deputies to see how many gang members and other suspected criminals could be stopped and questioned.
(Forget putting Fluoride in the water, lets see if we lace the County’s water system with whatever drug promotes common sense. Or maybe aerial spraying would work.)
After being called for comment by The Times on Wednesday, Sheriff Lee Baca said he spoke with the Lakewood station lieutenant. Baca called the competitions a well-meaning but ill-conceived idea that promoted “the wrong values.”
Gee. Ya think?
You should put this post and the one before it under a new category–Worthless Government Employees.
I was really hacked off the other night about 10:00 PM when I got a call from my son, who had just started driving on his own and had been pulled over by a an officer from the Sheriff’s office. There was no reasonable cause to pull him over, no speeding or unusal behavior…nothing.
He was asked for his license and insurance card, which he produced. The policeman couldn’t find the insurance on HIS computer, so he gave my son a ticket for not having proof of insurance! I thought that we had to have proof of insurance–not that we had to have proof that the State was incompetent in updating its files.
When I got my son’s call, I was immediately on the phone to the Sheriff’s Office and let some people have it. They claimed that the reasonable cause was that he had a new car with a temporary tag from the dealer and that people use temporary tags on stolen cars. Give me a break.
They said that if I wanted to file a complaint, that I could file it with…guess who…the Sheriff’s Department. It wasn’t worth any more of my time.
I talked to the head guy there that night and politely read the riot act to him, thus, the ticket was torn up in an hour.
Years ago we had only two police cars for the entire county. Now, we have a police car for every street, a police helicopter for fun, really exotic police cars seized in drug cases, and more people pulled over than a small town speed-trap catching Yankees going to Florida.
Maybe we should have the same contests for the ICE agents.
Lt. James Tatreau said ……………..
Like every station, Tatreau said, there are “good, hardworking deputies and there are the lazy guys.” He said he was trying to encourage the less motivated deputies to get more involved in proactive police work. Tatreau said he joined the Lakewood station about 18 months ago and noticed that some deputies weren’t pulling their weight. Some patrol deputies made 15 to 20 arrests a month, while others made seven arrests in an entire year, he said.
Hey I almost agree with Woody on this story, what I noticed about the article were the comments from Lt. James Tatreau, that he noticed some employees weren’t pulling their weight.
From my own personal experiences I would guess about 20% of employees at any large company are NOT pulling their weight. I make my living as a self-employed engineer thanks to the 20% of these types of employees. Years ago I put in charge of a problem project and the manager asked me what I needed to get the project done I asked to replace 4 people with 4 other specific individuals and the manager says â€ÂWe aren’t the New York Yankess, my team is not all-starsâ€Â. So I was given 2 all-stars. This cynic/realist you will never have a large organization where everybody pulls their weight but always work toward that goal.
Sheriff Baca says …
“We’re not into numbers, we’re into quality,” he said. “I don’t think it will occur again.”
Sheriff Baca does need to look at the “numbers†(increased productivity) the day of the contest and work to achieve that more often.
Woody says …
He was asked for his license and insurance card, which he produced. The policeman couldn’t find the insurance on HIS computer, so he gave my son a ticket for not having proof of insurance! I thought that we had to have proof of insurance–not that we had to have proof that the State was incompetent in updating its files.
This same thing just happened to a friend of mine, he told the cop he would call the 1-800 number on the insurance card to prove the cops computer was wrong. The cop told him he did not have the time for such non-sense, of course my friend was smoking mad at that point. Welcome to the computer age.
Gee Woody bitching about Law Enforcement!
What’s that old saw?
Ah yes, a civil libertarian is a conservative who’s just been arrested!
The article adds the only area where numbers were up dramatically was in impounds, from something like 5/day per officer to 35. That’s a very profitable offense, and a huge pain to the driver to pay the fine and get the car back. IF those were the cars of illegals which aren’t registered, or where the driver has no license, fine; but it sounds like an all-out net. Hassling drivers in cases like this, or hiding in a bush behind a stop sign in the hills where people roll through because no one else is every there (except the cop lurking invisibly) are a way to just get average people mad at law enforcement. Another popular trick is ticketing people just after they park and before they put money in the meter — like when I wanted to make sure the mechanic was there first, and was never more than a couple yards away at the entrance to the shop. They (Sheriff and LAPD) need to consider the negative PR ramifications, as they offset the extra bucks collected from these overly zealous efforts.
I wasn’t “bitching about law enforcement” and I didn’t get arrested. I was complaining about counties that use the police department to boost county revenues by setting up speed traps and whose police pull over people without reasonable cause. Those activities are outside law enforcement. Those are abuses and represent bad government.
I’ve thought about this in advance…. I see on COPS (I know that all of you secretly watch it) that the police ask the people who are pulled over if it would be okay with them for the police to look in their trunks. Everyone agrees and then tries to run off when the police find drugs. If I were pulled over and they asked to open my trunk, I would say, “Only if you have reasonable cause and can convince a judge to sign a search warrant.” I’ve got nothing to hide, but I don’t like police or anyone using threats or force to do something contrary to our Bill of Rights. Of course, they may impound my car and hold me until then, but they would regret it more than if I were Rodney King.
I audit some cities that drive me crazy with their police fines. One town has 220 residents and over $400,000 in traffic fines a year. That kind of activity has to be stopped.
Every police station, no matter what agency, there is your group of donut eating lazy asses that never arrest anyone period -they even bitch at an arrest that lands on their fat laps. Dont even bring up the idea of chasing a gang member on foot….that’s like a holy bible no-no.
So, in my personal opinion, its a good thing to indirectly force these officers to go out and make some good felony arrests. Catch the guys who are about to break into your car or house. Tell their asses that “this city dont play that game.” I think the law abiding citizens of Lakewood and Hawaiian Gardens should be thrilled at the thought that there are good outstanding officers willing to clean-up their cities. But, then again, if you have city with gang members families tied into city hall (not metioning names), sooner or later their is always someone to change the story and point the finger, bringing a negative image toward the Sheriff’s dept. Like I have always said, the LA Times SUCKS. They never get the facts or the story straight. They need to learn how NOT to write acticles full of bullshit.
poplock, maybe we should be grateful those donut eating cops don’t even try to run. It’d require an ambulance crew to follow them and scrape their sorry butts up off the pavement.
Listener, there is actually some truth to that comment. Zine the former cop has been quoted (in the Times, Poplock — they do get some things right, and I appreciate that they’re more cautious than some about printing stuff that can have negative ramifications for the city, for their own “scoop”), that the new crop of cops going through the Academy isn’t what it was. They’re heavier and in worse shape, and just don’t look like the near-physical perfection they used to be. I believe he’d requested that the recruits’ weight and condition be toughened up back closer to what it used to be.
This comes along with the worse working conditions: endless dissing the cops over everything (poplock is right there), damned if they do, damned if they don’t (do their jobs), making public their personal info, the overall loss of independence and prestige. Sure, there were guys in the old LAPD who let their powers go to their heads, but the pendulum has swung so far in the other direction, it’s hard to recruit the kinds of cops which gave the LAPD its “hot” reputation. Some of these cops couldn’t outrun Zine himself.
I vote Pilates for the lot of them. At least they could get 6-pack abs out of the deal. Before the laughter, Pilates was a training regime orginally designed for boxers by an expat German.
Actually, I think Joseph Pilate was a German POW in a British camp (kind of an involuntary expat), and came up with the method by tying bands to hospital beds which he made incline at various degrees — no wonder the current Pilates contraption looks like something of a torture device. But once you’re in good enough shape and know what you’re doing, mat Pilates without the medieval-looking rack “reformer” device is very effective. No laughter here. Plus it’s great for guys who are already macho pumped-up cuz it stretches out all those muscles that traditional weights just shrink. Wonder if cops do any Pilates crunches/ workouts, or is still old-fashioned boot camp stuff? I’m pretty sure Zine, Smith and Parks don’t do Pilates.
Well, Maggie. At last! We FINALLY have something in common. I didn’t think it could happen.
I did the Cadillac -> Reformer -> Mat series up to the advanced level. Took years. Now I’m into Gyrotonics. http://www.gyrotonic.com/
The reformer and Cadillac aren’t torture. But, Gyrotonic comes close.
I draw the line at Yoga. It bores me senseless. I can find a Zen space on a good loooong run. 😉
The LAPD is not the only organization which has “softened” up its physical requirements, if you watch the new show about the L.A. sheriff’s Academy you will see the same thing. Even the U.S. Marines now accepts shorter, fatter people it would not accept 20yrs ago.
Law enforcement and the military are not as attractive to young people as they used to be, so all of these jobs had to “expand” their waist/weight requirements.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0123/p03s02-ussc.html
Gee, LA Resident. Maybe I should have returned that Army recruiting brochure. They promised me a free “dog tag” if I returned the enclosed card requesting more information. I almost took it to the local Army recruiting office to ask just exactly what it was they had in mind for me to do. If you knew my hair color, you’d find the anticipated looks on their faces hilarious.
What real man would be doing pilates? I’m from the old school of dead weights, none of those silly nautilus machines or rolling around on a bright colored big core training ball. Legs lifts and knee lifts while hanging from a chin-up bar is a great core/abdominal builder. Only because of age and bad knees now have to use a life-cycle bike instead of running for aerobic exercise.
LA Resident, you should see my Pilates instructor. He looks like he’d spend all day in the weight room. Not so. His muscles have muscles. He’s done several Iron Man competitions. I got started in Pilates to avoid some recurrent running injuries. I had to re-pattern some old (and, apparently) hard-wired neural pathways. I’ve been running injury free ever since. I range between 30 – 70 miles a week depending on weather and where I am in a periodic training schedule. The studio I go to caters to a lot of marathon and triathlon competitors. For me, pumping iron is right up there with yoga. I’d rather spend 4 hours at a ballet barre, or a dozen hours on the ice in school exercises. But, to each his/her own. What ever moves you (in time and space) is a good thing. A very good thing.
ps, LA Resident. I guess it’s okay to post this. Had to consider the odds of that Pilates instructor checking in here.
Many of his students *affectionately* refer to him as Magilla Gorilla 😉 He’s a lot more ripped than MG was though.
I made a couple of phone calls and this is what I got from my inside and exactly what I thought happened.
The guy who dropped dime on this story is a Sheriff brass officer at Lakewood with no balls.
well, maybe blue balls.
Thanks for the insight, Poplock. Knowing a little more about the personalities involved in any situation is always far better.
So, in your opinion, was there any thought among the Lakewood sheriffs about how this contest idea would look on the outside? I can imagine that it might have been considered harmless, in house, but in a world in which most of us have entertained the notion at one time or another that we’re being given a ticket (or whatever) to fill somebody’s quota, the image of sheriffs engaging in a competitive arrest tally….Well, it just doesn’t sit right—especially in neighborhoods where the history with law enforcement has not always been the most ideal.
Honestly, the Sheriffs let a whole lot of people get away with all kinds of violations daily. You and everyone here should know better – that if an officer really really wants to give you a ticket – he can.
Now lets get back to the real topic.
No one likes a lazy co-worker, especially one that crys and bitches about everyone getting promoted except for him.
When there are outstanding officers in a certain station and patrolling a certain area – criminals move away or just hide under a rock.
Shit, I’ve even seen them walk into a police station and turn themselves in.
They explain it this way, “I know your going to come and get me, so I decided to turn myself in – because its better me coming here than you knocking at my door at 2am and bugging my mom and little brothers….”
That’s when an officer kicks ass…..
For starting YES im an “undocumented” or “illegal” alien born in Mexico and yes i write and speak english almost perfectly.
So, i was stopped the other day by the l.a.p.d.of course i got “no license” and my car wich WAS NOT ON MY NAME even,got impounded 3O DAYS cause of the BRILLIANT CRMINALISTIC IDEA of some s(tu)pid motherfckr ahole whoever “invented” that shit. Note that like me a HARD WORKING guy that DOES NOT harm nobody eixist maybe MILLIONS of people.ITS TIME to STOP and put an END to this SHIT! if u think that THIS however DOES NOT AFFECT YOU WHOEVER U ARE..u need a little knowledge in ECONOMICS i think.
WE as latinos cant be denied our numbers..meaning u know we are here and we are many people wich one way or another affects the economy of the state (mostly for good,and i dont wanna get in to the bullshit that i hear about us getting free medical and other bull wich is the biggest LIE of the world)what im saying is at least with this “law” about the “30 days impound no license bussines” how i call it MANY people its NOT even going to go to L.A. area to do ANY SHIT and i mean BUSSINES!..YEAH MONEY cause afraid of the stupids implementing this unfair shit…and there u have AT LEAST BUSSINES IN L.A. affected DIRECTLY by these things…do i need to tell u how its going to make a “domino effect” or u can figure this by urself?..ENOUGH IS ENOUGH…so if are a good person and can do SOMETHING to help stop this crap..please do.And forgive all my bad language but im really pissed cause of that.At the end we just wanna get along with each other lets NOT be stupid and just cause some wanna get ILEAGLLY rich support crazy things like that “law”..wich i hacve to say NEVER seen written NOWHERE. 🙁