How far can LEO go?

[Soundguy]

i would for sure not be a fan of random checkpoints and casual searches as a way of lfe... at least not with our constitution as it stands.

kinda sounds like 'travel papers' and whatnot..

soundguy

Man, I'll admit to having had a difficult time seeing where you have been coming from since the beginning of this but this last post takes the cake.

I have to seriously ask if you have had some serious problems with cops you haven't disclosed. Like, did your wife run away with one or what?

You seem to ave gotten the idea from what you've been hearing on a scanner that cops are pulling over every vehicle with equipment on it and putting the driver through the wringer just for fun. That's not happening and I can't see how you can get that idea from just occasional scanner traffic you are listening to.

Cops do get carried away sometimes and yes there are Aholes that make everyone wish they were doing something else for a living but what you are making it sound like is just not happening on a daily basis, consistently across the country.

I wish the average cop was checking equipment for stolen like you say. If they were we'd have a lot more recovered stolens, more crooks in jail and less overall thefts but it isn't.

Really.

 

[deepNdirt]

You Folks should get you a police scanner and listen in for a while:thumbsup:

you might then can hear things through the public eyes
yes I do hear more things about alert for speeders on the interstate, or someone been reported swerving all over the road, or someone reports that there welfare check been stolen, I actually hear all things even crimes being reported, looks to me they can stay busy enough with actual crimes, then worry about stopping citizen's to run numbers on the property they own,
I hear it all Folks... again all I can say is get you a police scanner, then come back to this topic 6 months from now and chime in....

 

[Bird]

Bird...this scenario is the normal life styles of the public

I don't think there's anything I, or anyone else, can say to change your mind. You're so far from reality that there can't be a logical response. Your scenario has never, and will never, occur, guaranteed! One bad officer is certainly possible, but several, in different states, violating the law themselves by stopping vehicles without a legal reason to stop them. Ain't gonna happen. And my first 5 years as a captain, I was commander of the communications division. Anyone who wanted to get a scanner and listen was welcome. In fact, if a person called to ask about it, I'd even give them the frequencies. But with your scanner, you only hear a very small amount of what is going on and being said, so you've gotten a very erroneous idea of what's happening.

I know being of LEO yourself you can only think in a LEO's point of view

Wrong again. I'm 71 years old and was only a LEO for 2 months and 5 days short of 25 years, so that leaves a lot of years for different viewpoints.:laughing:

 

[Soundguy]

yeah.. i agree.. I like conspiracy theories as much as the next guy.. but that one is a stretch past reality...

soundguy

 

[Ken]

Having read all 11 pages Just to see what is happening still undecided.

Is there a web site where stolen equipment or trucks stolen can be listed then when some ones see this equip. or what ever is listed could notify the law enforcement in the area.

My son-in-law. has a Hydro seeding company. May 1st.Sunday evening at 10 pm looked at and had ready for early morning start to the job site. Except some one has stolen entire unit 1 ton 2001 Dodge flat bed + FinnT-90 Hydro seeder and load of mulch and seed .
So far not one clue as to where abouts. Insured for replacement costs except insurance co. is bulking on amount.
Keep saying waiting for several weeks maybe turn up Yea. Total loss of business equipment and wait until middle of summer for possible return.
This is a 50 K loss and lack of concern by law enforcement and insurance is reason I asked if there is a web site to add to list.
ken

 

[deepNdirt]

yeah.. i agree.. I like conspiracy theories as much as the next guy.. but that one is a stretch past reality...

soundguy

:laughing: yeah right! they're no others willing to reply due to this same kind of ridicule, Once you have a LEO against you, You don't stand a chance.. that sometimes can be the problem at hand,

 

[Bird]

:laughing: yeah right! they're no others willing to reply due to this same kind of ridicule, Once you have a LEO against you, You don't stand a chance.. that sometimes can be the problem at hand,

I'm not against you, nor did I have any intention of ridiculing you. We've all made mistakes at times and this time you're mistaken. But I can understand it when all you have to go on is a scanner. I've seen them, I've used them, I used to have one in my car many years ago. They're interesting, but can be misleading.

 

[deepNdirt]

I'm not against you, nor did I have any intention of ridiculing you. We've all made mistakes at times and this time you're mistaken. But I can understand it when all you have to go on is a scanner. I've seen them, I've used them, I used to have one in my car many years ago. They're interesting, but can be misleading.

Here is a little something to read, its rather old news but still goes on today,
its about a local city, and once all the surrounding cities found out they too had to jump on the ban wagon, Plenty incentives behind this when looking at the potential revenue,
Pendergrass again the top ticketer in Northeast Ga.
Story Photos - Click to Enlarge
Pendergrass police Sgt. Bill Garner uses a device to measure the darkness of window tint before issuing a citation recently on U.S. Highway 129.
Trevor Frey / Staff
Click thumbnails to view
By Merritt Melancon | Story updated at 10:55 PM on Sunday, October 7, 2007
In the nine years he has patrolled a stretch of U.S. Highway 129 through Pendergrass, police Sgt. Bill Garner has developed a philosophy about giving tickets, getting drunks off the road and busting illegal drivers.

"I don't care what they've done," Garner said on a recent Friday afternoon on the road. "Being mean to people isn't going to make my day any easier."

He's not sure how many tickets he's given in his tenure with the Pendergrass Police Department, but there's a good chance that the tall officer with the clean-shaven head has given more than his fair share.

Pendergrass, after all, holds the title for collecting the most revenue from traffic fines and seized assets per resident in the Northeast Georgia region for the second year in a row. In 2006, the department took in about $558,020 in fines - enough to pay the police department's $312,636 budget in 2006 and then some.

That $558,020 represents about $1,136 in fine revenue for each of the town's 491 residents. That's nearly five-times the revenue per resident collected by the town with the next highest police-revenue-per-resident numbers.

The Arcade Police Department, which the Georgia Bureau of Investigation regularly reviews and clears of speed-trap allegations, only took in $264 for each of the town's 1,900 residents.

The city of Madison Police Department, which collected about $118 per city resident in 2006, came in third in a ranking compiled by the Athens Banner-Herald from data collected by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

The Jefferson Police Department, which collected about $99 per resident, came in fourth.

Pendergrass police Chief Rob Russell says his officers don't follow overly aggressive tactics or practices. The fine revenue the city collects from its 1-mile stretch of U.S. 129 is just a product of protecting the roads in its jurisdiction - the most traveled and most lucrative of which is U.S. 129 near Interstate 85.

"You could put Stevie Wonder out there, and he'd still give out as many tickets and make as many stops as we make," Russell said. "It's just a function of our location."

Editor's note: A reference to collections made by the Madison County Sheriff's Office was incorrect in a previous version of this story. The city of Madison Police Department collected about $118 per city resident in 2006.

 

[Soundguy]

:laughing: yeah right! they're no others willing to reply due to this same kind of ridicule, Once you have a LEO against you, You don't stand a chance.. that sometimes can be the problem at hand,

I have to agree with Bird on this one.. I don't see any ridicule handed out.. but I do see some real far stretched if/then situations that would liely be very hard pressed to actually happen.

you are entitled to your opinion.. and I don't intend to try to change it.. not that I think anything written here would.

soundguy

 

[Bird]

Having read all 11 pages Just to see what is happening still undecided.

Is there a web site where stolen equipment or trucks stolen can be listed then when some ones see this equip. or what ever is listed could notify the law enforcement in the area.

My son-in-law. has a Hydro seeding company. May 1st.Sunday evening at 10 pm looked at and had ready for early morning start to the job site. Except some one has stolen entire unit 1 ton 2001 Dodge flat bed + FinnT-90 Hydro seeder and load of mulch and seed .
So far not one clue as to where abouts. Insured for replacement costs except insurance co. is bulking on amount.
Keep saying waiting for several weeks maybe turn up Yea. Total loss of business equipment and wait until middle of summer for possible return.
This is a 50 K loss and lack of concern by law enforcement and insurance is reason I asked if there is a web site to add to list.
ken

Ken, yes, there are such websites, but I don't know enough about any of them to recommend one; have no idea what their success rates are. Go to both Bing.com and Google.com and enter "stolen property list" and you'll find a number of privately operated websites. Law enforcement uses the NCIC (National Crime Information Center) run by the FBI and then Texas (and I don't know how many other states) have their own version. I think (but can't say for sure because I've been retired too long) that most Texas police departments have their computers programmed to check both the NCIC and the TCIC when an officer runs a serial number for stolen.

I can well understand your feeling about the "lack of concern by law enforcement", however, it's usually not so much a lack of concern as it is a lack of leads or information to work on. Almost every officer I've known likes nothing better than catching a thief/burglar/robber. As a sergeant for 15 months (late '68 and all of '69) I supervised 6 detectives "investigating" burglaries and thefts. It was a very frustrating time in my career because you can't work cases like the TV cops do. I assigned an average of more than 3 cases per day to each detective. Now they had to turn in a written supplement on each case, even if it was only to say "no further information", so if 2 of them worked together all day on a case on which they had something to investigate or an arrest to make, you know what happened to the other cases, and remember, I'm going to give each of them 3 more cases tomorrow. Very frustrating at times, and the officers understand why it seems to others that there's a lack of concern.