This post will be long so for the TL/DR crowd....your 3 second attention span is part of the problem with America...so go back to GD.  

For the anti-LE crowd out there....this is not the thread for you.  Don't post in it.  No one wants you here.  If you have something intelligent to add to the conversation and aren't just here to bash LE, LE or not, feel free to contribute.  If you just want to bash LE, wander back to GD and surround yourself with the rest of your fellow sovereign citizen retards.

This post will be applicable to most communities in the US but not all since there are some differences in how local government is structured in some places.


Many of us want to make a difference in our government but we always think about the federal government.  Most people, and that includes most people on this site, never think about influencing their local government leaders.  They spend almost no time talking with local leaders in their community.  They have the nerve to bitch about their local community leaders but refuse to actually do anything about it.  Below is some ideas on how local politics work and how you can potentially make a difference in your local community.  


Sheriff's Office:
For most of the US...the sheriff is very powerful locally.  If you wish to influence local politics, you need to get to know your county sheriff.  Put together community events and invite the local sheriff.  Ask him/her if he/she would be willing to talk about local issues of concern.  The sheriff likely won't be able to attend every event but invite him/her to every one you can.  The sheriff might be willing to meet with you individually about a concern but unless he/she knows you personally, it might be hard at times to fit into his/her schedule.  But, if you know the sheriff personally, you'll find it easy to get him/her to make time for you.  Remember, if you have concerns, the world doesn't revolve around you.  The sheriff has lots of things he/she is dealing with and your concern might be low on his list of things to worry about at that particular time.  

I had a friend who was a sheriff in a conservative state in an conservative county.  As pro gun as you can get.  He told me he would get tired of pro gun people coming to speak to him and only wanting to talk about gun rights issues.  Gun rights issues weren't a concern in his county and state but he did have a whole lot of bigger and more pressing issues he was always dealing with but the pro gun people were never interested in finding out what issues he was having and trying to help him solve the problems he was facing.  

So, find out what problems the sheriff is having.  Maybe the local county government is making things hard on him (elected county government officials try to control the elected sheriff by controlling the money he needs to run the sheriff's office).  Once you find out what kind of problems the sheriff is having, your next step might be to contact your county elected officials and express your displeasure to them.  

Look for quality sheriff candidates to support.  As a general rule, if the sheriff is reasonably well liked, the sheriff will continue to get re-elected.  Once a sheriff decides not to run again, the election process is a free for all.  Look for good ones to support. Officially, deputies in a sheriff's office will not be able to endorse a certain candidate.   But, if you are friends with deputies on the department, they will usually privately tell you who not to support.  Gun people are often single issue voters.  Don't be that way.  You will never agree 100% with the person you support for sheriff and the one who gets elected.  Support the sheriff even if you disagree with him/her on some things.  I'm not saying to support a bad sheriff but a sheriff who you disagree with about a certain topic does not mean he/she is a bad sheriff.  Sheriff's will make mistakes from time to time.  They are human.  Don't throw out a sheriff just because he/she makes a mistake or a single decision you disagree with.  


Police department:
Don't bother trying to influence the police chief like you would a sheriff.  It takes a lot of people to remove a sheriff.  It takes very few people to remove a police chief.  Depending on how the city government is structured, let's say there are 5 city council members.  It usually just takes a simple majority vote to remove a police chief....so that means it only takes 3 people to remove a police chief.  You need to focus your influencing efforts on your city council.  The police chief will simply follow the directions of the city council.  If he/she does something the city council doesn't like, they will tell him/her to stop it.  If he/she doesn't change, they will remove him/her.  There is very little a police chief can do if you have a bad city government.  

I know someone who was a police chief of a very large and extremely liberal western city.  He is politically conservative.  How he got selected to be the chief is a mystery.  That said, he was gone within a few years once he became the police chief because it was impossible to be a police chief of that city.  

I'm not saying you shouldn't get to know the local police chief.  Just realize, your ability to influence the police chief is much less than your ability to influence a sheriff.  A police chief might agree with you in principle but be unable to change what you want changed because he/she always has to mind what the city leaders want.  A police chief can't step out too far before he/she gets put back in his place.  If you have a good city council, you will likely also have a good police chief.  


Chamber of Commerce:
The Chamber of Commerce in MOST areas is the biggest local threat to freedom.  The Chamber of Commerce is full of socialists and outright communists.  They wield a TON of influence over the local community and ESPECIALLY the city government. They usually don't have the same level of influence over the sheriff although there may be some influence on the sheriff too.  The Chamber of Commerce will lie and encourage lies from the local government.  They HATE any increases in crime so will put pressure on the local government to lie on reporting crime stats just to keep the perceived crime rate low.  They constantly look for ways to use government to protect business at the cost of freedom.  The Chamber of Commerce should never be trusted and you should watch everything they do.  Not everything they do is necessarily bad but nothing they do should be trusted.  That said, don't write off a sheriff or city council just because they have connections to the Chamber of Commerce.  Politicians have to play politics.  Just be wary of ANY politician who is TOO cozy to the Chamber of Commerce.  

Good points. I realized a long time ago that I couldn't do much on a national or world level. I've been devoting my time to bettering my community where I can make a difference.

Bumping this back to the top since this may help explain some of what you are seeing in major cities.

Our sheriff is a good guy, I've known him since we went to law school and OBC together, but a lifelong Dem.  I still don't have a problem with him.

My chief, on the other hand, is an absolute politician, and was for 20 years I was there.  When he got to our place, it was because we were bigger than his last department, and we were going to be his stepping stone to even bigger and better things!  That never worked out, for a wide variety of reasons.  So he proceeded to make himself indispensable to our elected officials, always looking for good press, jumping on bandwagons, and they never, ever got rid of him.  He didn't leave till he did TV ads and appearances and got one of our local politicians elected AG.  Then, remarkably, there was a position for him at the state level!  Unfortunately he also got one of our worthless commissioners elected as our US House rep before he left.

A lot people don’t understand how little control a police chief really has over the department. The city government runs the PD and throws the chief under the bus when anything goes wrong. They take credit for everything good and blame the chief for everything bad. The best police chief in the world can’t do much with a bad city government. A bad police chief and a bad city government are a disaster.