Police Harrassment

[Poor_Dog]

Stole this from a motorcycle forum, probably not true but I figure the LEO community here might get a kick out of it:

 

Recently, the Chula Vista, California Police Department ran an e-mail forum (a question and answer exchange) with the topic being, "Community Policing."

One of the civilian e-mail participants posed the following question, "I would like to know how it is possible for police officers to continually harass people and get away with it?"

From the "other side" (the law enforcement side) Sgt. Bennett, obviously a cop with a sense of humor replied:

"First of all, let me tell you this...it's not easy. In Chula Vista, we average one cop for every 600 people. Only about 60% of those cops are on general duty (or what you might refer to as "patrol") where we do most of our harassing. The rest are in non-harassing departments that do not allow them contact with the day to day innocents. At any given moment, only one-fifth of the 60% patrollers are on duty and available for harassing people while the rest are off duty. So roughly, one cop is responsible for harassing about 5,000 residents. When you toss in the commercial business, and tourist locations that attract people from other areas, sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is responsible for harassing 10,000 or more people a day.

Now, your average ten-hour shift runs 36,000 seconds long. This gives a cop one second to harass a person, and then only three-fourths of a second to eat a donut AND then find a new person to harass. This is not an easy task. To be honest, most cops are not up to this challenge day in and day out. It is just too tiring. What we do is utilize some tools to help us narrow down those people which we can realistically harass.

The tools available to us are as follows:

PHONE: People will call us up and point out things that cause us to focus on a person for special harassment. "My neighbor is beating his wife" is a code phrase used often. This means we'll come out and give somebody some special harassment.

Another popular one: "There's a guy breaking into a house." The harassment team is then put into action.

CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, cars with no insurance or no driver's licenses and the like. It's lots of fun when you pick them out of traffic for nothing more obvious than running a red light. Sometimes you get to really heap the harassment on when you find they have drugs in the car, they are drunk, or have an outstanding warrant on file.

RUNNERS: Some people take off running just at the sight of a police officer. Nothing is quite as satisfying as running after them like a beagle on the scent of a bunny. When you catch them you can harass them for hours.

STATUTES: When we don't have PHONES or CARS and have nothing better to do, there are actually books that give us ideas for reasons to harass folks. They are called "Statutes"; Criminal Codes, Motor Vehicle Codes, etc...They all spell out all sorts of things for which you can really mess with people. After you read the statute, you can just drive around for awhile until you find someone violating one of these listed offenses and harass them. Just last week I saw a guy trying to steal a car. Well, there's this book we have that says that's not allowed. That meant I got permission to harass this guy. It's a really cool system that we've set up, and it works pretty well. We seem to have a never-ending supply of folks to harass. And we get away with it. Why? Because for the good citizens who pay the tab, we try to keep the streets safe for them, and they pay us to "harass" some people.

Next time you are in my town, give me the old "single finger wave." That's another one of those codes. It means, "You can't harass me." It's one of our favorites.

For those who do have, or have had a close association in the Law Enforcement industry, I am sure that this will have a special meaning.

 

[Spots]

Go spend some time in San Diego and you will find out the email person was serious. I got pulled over 17 times in 6 months. All 17 were for smog checks, on a modified (turbo, injectors, exhaust, r compound tires, yada yada) 2004 WRX wagon with TN plates and I was an out of state resident due to military, which means I am not required to smog my vehicle or follow their smog laws. 17 times I explained this to the officer, and 14 of those still wrote me smog violation tickets in excess of $500 for car modifications. I went to court with all 14 tickets and all 14 ruled in my favor. I had the same cop do it 5 times. I was never once pulled over for speeding or anything else other than smog checks, so they had no reason to "know" my car. Yep sounds like they were serving and protecting to me. What that police officer failed to mention was that Socal cops get put on traffic duty, or did then. I don't kniw if thats shit duty or what, but they have a chip on their shoulder and a hard on for any car or truck that looks or sounds modified. Not to mention walking around drag strips, autocrosses, dyno days and car meets writing down makes, models and tag numbers in UNIFORM. Thank God the LEO's around here aren't like that.

Sent from the backwoods of Nowhere

[NRA]

LOL

[Wyldk2]

I guess in some areas Police are viewed as nothing more than revenue generators. Around here i never had a problem with a cop pulling someone over violating a traffic law. I have had 2 tickets in my life( for speeding). I don't speed anymore( just go with the flow of traffic).

 

I live out in the country and it is nice to see the sheriff deputies "harassing" cruising the neighborhood from time to time. Least make their presence known. Soon I'll be moving back to Tullahoma and having a city cop down the road isn't going to make me feel one bit "harassed".

[buck1032]

Spots hit it, well on the spot. I spent 16 years in San Diego at the request of the USN.

[Sam1]

As Spots said, they are full force out to do policing for profit there as far as modified cars go.  Some of the people on the car forums I frequent said it is so bad if you own anything that doesn't look like a completely stock vehicle, that they have left the state.

 

Pull them over, look for CARB stickers, paperwork from installations, any unauthorized mods, any serial #s removed all right on the side of the road... just looking for a reason to impound their vehicle.

[Guest Darth Maul]

Any unwarranted contact with police is harassment as far as I'm concerned.

[Pain103]

Does your back get tired from carrying that chip on your shoulder? Edited May 4, 2013 by Pain103

[Guest Darth Maul]

No worries. Strong back cuz.

 

Does your back get tired from carrying that chip on your shoulder?

[Randall53]

I've worked in California a few times, but for short periods of time quite a few years ago.  It truly is the "Land of Fruits and Nuts"....if ya know what I mean....I was never so glad the last time I saw WELCOME TO CALIFORNIA in my rear view mirror.