My sister and her husband had there house broken into Monday while they were at work. The thief threw a concrete flower pot through the back door glass and went through thier entire house.

He stole my brother in law's stainless Ruger 10/22 bull barrel, his wedding ring, limited addition Harley Davidson watch, a couple thousand dollars worth of my sister's jewelry, my nephews knife collection, and his pocket watch that his father gave him.

They called the law and a female cop came out, didn't even look around and just told my brother in law to make a list of everything stolen and turn it in the next day.

She didn't take any finger prints and acted like she was being put out of her way to even come out there to file a report. What ever happend to cops actually doing thier job and trying to get thieves and criminals off the streets???

I know a couple grand worth of stuff isn't worth the cops time to try and track down but my sister and her husband are tax payers just like everyone else. And yes the cops are paid by tax money.

Most criminals are repeat offenders and he probably has a record. Wouldn't it be better to take fingerprints and try to catch this guy before he breaks into another home??

Even if he only steals a few grand at each house it could really add up over a lifetime of thefts.  

I think that most cops are useless, lazy, and are good for nothing. If it had been the house of another cop or a judge I'm sure there would have been an investigation.

They don't think its worth thier time unless they would get a little glory out of a big bust. They never worry about the little guys.

Another thing that really bothers me is the fact that the cops will print about the robbery in the paper giving out my sister and her husbands names, address, and a list of what was stolen. So then every two bit thug around will know they have jewelry and guns at thier house. Are cops smart or what??

So for my final thought. I have no respect or use for cops or any law enforcment we have around here. Most only want to write speeding tickets cause they can sit in an airconditioned car eating donuts and they actually make money writing tickets. Tracking down a thief doesn't make any money for the department.

Ok I'm through ranting, all the cops and cop lovers can flame away on me now.

Man that stinks.
[50]

I just expected them to do a little investigation. What do they have fingerprint dusting kits for if they don't use them??

I went over there after I found out and I atleast looked around. I know the thief was in a big truck cause of the size of the tire tracks and I know he smokes Marlboro reds cause he threw a butt out the window next to where the truck was parked.

I know this isn't much information now but you never know, it could come in handy later on putting things together.

What if he would have broken in when just my sister was there by herself? I just think it would be worth the effort to get people like this off the streets before someone is unlucky enough to get hurt.

The_Beer_Slayer

in that case, if it were me......

a little more than just look around.
i expect a little return on my investment.

colt

Yep we call them report takers with a gun.  They are good at paperwork.  I have been in the emergency service business for over 20 years....there are good ones and there are bad ones, be it cops, firefighters, medics, etc.

The PD has a good system...."there are never enough officers on the street"-->thus we need more officers.  Higher taxes...more officers, more patrol cars, etc.

Never mind they only show up after YOU call 911.  The stats for them preventing crime are rather low.....sometimes they catch the bad guy in the act.  If not, they are back to taking reports after the incident has happened.  

And by federal court ruling ... they dont have to respond to your call for assistance.  

If you want to see the real world, join the local citizens PD academy...ride along, spend Friday or Saturday nite in dispatch.  Buy a acanner and listen to the radio traffic on a Saturday nite (payday weekend with full moon.)  The crazies to come out.
See and hear what the officers have to deal with.

It aint fun.  And the public defender and "do-gooders" are ready to "assist" the bad guy, etc.  Everyone wants to second guess you and your actions.

And sometimes they really blow it...some bystander videotapes their professional behavior when they "interact" with the public.

You also see...the regular PD functions... here in College Station and Bryan, TX we have "numerous" motorcycle officers.  They work traffic....seatbelts, inspection stickers, radar....did I say radar?  We call it cash register justice.  They have a sweet deal in a college town with 45,000 students.
Income for the city from traffic tickets is a big business.  And it gives the PD presence on the street.  

Home burglary is not on their list of priorities.  So they show up...do the paperwork drill and off they go to the loud music call, domestic violence call, etc.

You got insurance...no big deal to them.  
They have the technology to do fingerprints and run them.  It works...it will tell who the bad guy is.  But it takes effort.  You dont get that unless you are a local vip, city council friend, etc.

The responding officer should have worked on her public relations, explained procedure, protocols, etc.

We do it on fire, rescue, ems calls all the time.  Yes ma'am...this is why we cut a hole in your roof, etc.  Many cops are lacking in the public relations dept.....call volumes, stress, etc.

There are good cops and bad cops.  But let me tell ya....it aint getting any better.  More bad attitudes...more on power trips, etc.
Divorce rates and domestic violence rates for cops is very, very high.  
 
As I said...I have worked fire and ems for over 20 years.  I wouldnt want their job, seen it up close and personal.

Afraid I gotta atree with Nighthawk on this one.

If you noodle it out, it's not hard to figure out why it is the way it is.... Why you end up with a ton of idiots who are more interested in making a girl cry at a traffic stop than in catching a burglar.

Think about the job for a minute...Shit pay, for the most part. Shit hours. Surrounded for the most part by shit people. Hell, your JOB is to be around shit people. Badge of authority, gun. What types of people are attracted to this?

Total zeros with no future at all, and total, selfless heros. You've got on one side people who wanted to help, to serve and protect, and those who want to harass and hide behind the color of authority. It's like politicians....The ones who want to be one are exactly the type of people you don't want. Not too many Cinncinituses (sp) out there these days, if there EVER were.

Look at me...decent income white kid (and if you think that doesn't help, you're nuts) from a good town..No criminal record...No problem with my boss. No problem with authority. Not a huge fan of cops. I am exactly the kind of person that should be a HUGE fan of cops, and I'm not. Maybe cops should ask themselves why that is.

I can tell you it's because of the years of blowoffs when I've had a problem. I can tell you it's because of the disrespectul, perfunctory way they treat me any time I have the bad luck to have contact with them. Maybe it's because of the time my brother had the nerve to ask a desk cop, after being told the permits person wasn't in, when she WOULD be in, he was told to leave before he wasn't allowed to leave anymore. Don't know. I think it's all these things.

I've watched cops tell people to move along or get arrested. I've watched cops tell them, when someone questions their almighty authority (and NOT criminals....someone saying, for example, that they know it's not illegal to park in a certain spot when a cops says it is) that they better do as they're told if they don't want "trouble". I am amazed by cops arresting people for telling them they're assholes. THIS is a crime? Maybe horrid taste, but hardly a crime. Sure, no charges, but a nice ride to the copshop.

I saw on one of those "World's Stupidest Criminals" shows a southern trooper being SCREAMED at by some dipshit in an SUV...The guy was going NUTS. The cops just kept going along, giving his spiel, telling the guy where to pay the ticket, the guy called him EVERY NAME IN THE BOOK, and the cop just kept going, guy took the ticket, and left. Cop just looked at his dash cam and started laughing. THAT is a good cop. Nothing personal. THERE CAN BE NO PERSONAL when you have that authority. THAT is how cops should be. What if he had decided to arrest the guy? Sure, dude is an asshole. Maybe he had a horrid day. Did he commit a crime? Well, after the cop maced him and pulled him out of the car, I am sure there would have been a charge.

At the end of the day, police are supposed to be human garbage collectors. That's it. The average citizen should have nearly zero contact with them unless they need help. Unfortunately, you're likely to have lots of contact with them, and it's likely to be a string of negative experiences.

People that I went to highschool with that are cops now....Well, let's just say they were the biggest loudmouths, the biggest wannabe's, and the most likely to end up in jail when we graduated. It scares the shit out of me that they have some sort of nominal authority over others.

For the good cops out there, keep the faith guys. You're very few, and if you're a good one, you know that I'm 100 percent right, because you work with the pricks every day.

Rant off. Flame on.


Live Free or Die.

Vass

Actually, it's not the cops that print the crime stuff.  Police reports are public info.  It's the newspapers that get this info and print it.  You might want to talk to somebody at your newspaper to get them to change their policy regarding personal info in reports.  Many papers will just publish basic info, like the block number where it happened and the value & type of property.

This thread smells like cop bashing.  [BD]

c-rock

This thread is really going places. Damn, gotta go back to NYC to be useless, lazy, and good for nothing. Sorry that your local PD's have pretty much lived up to your expectations during your time of crisis.

Call it bashing ,but I call it the truth!
Vass said it better than most.

Just had a thought (frightening, I know)...

Cops I do know always bitch that the cops down south don't give a rat's ass about this "Brotherhood of the Badge" thing and ticket, search, and treat them rather poorly.

Maybe the southern cops know how things go down up here, and they don't like it, and aren't inclined to cut the average Northeastern cop a break.

Never thought of it that way. I'd be pretty pissed if someone was giving my profession a bad name too.


Vass

Wave,I have read your posts and you're the exception not the rule and you should know that.
God forbid law and order had a total breakdown and TSHTF for real,ask yourself,would you keep that uniform on ?
If you answer yes then you had better have a big [size=5]S[/size=5] on undedr your shirt and a red cape.
If you ain't him ---->[img]http://a1259.g.akamai.net/f/1259/5586/1d/images.art.com/images/PRODUCTS/shdws/regular/10073000/10073466.jpg[/img]
you should shed that uniform as soon as TSHTF  

Waverunner,

Don't drop WTC on me. I spent the day on the JC waterfront lugging water and clean towels for the emergency hospital they set up in the building next door to mine while scanning the skies and shitting my pants. What I did was no different than what anyone did that was able to help, and in most cases, what I did was a whole lot less. It is not a permanent get out of jail free card for bad behavior on my part, and it certainly isn't one for police, although I will say that MOST very big city cops are way better to citizens than smaller town cops up here. Like the guy said in Copland to the small town cop, "No my friend. I am a cop. You are in law-enforcement."

I'm sure you're not a bad guy Waverunner, but I think we all had a pretty horrible day that day, and to use the death of some guys who were doing their job, in every sense of the word, as a cudgel and and a rhetorical bomb to throw at me while speaking on a whole different issue is pretty weak.

Jesus, now that I read that a little closer, "Lived up to your expectations in your time of crisis"? You truly are an ass. I guess my buddy that died at Cantor automatically beatifies and puts above all reproach every bondtrader in the world.

Vass, I think you've got Waverunner wrong here. He didn't say anything about the World Trade Center here. He said he has to go back to NYC, not WTC. I read "Sorry that your local PD's have pretty much lived up to your expectations during your time of crisis." as just a straight out acknowledgement that there are police out there who are not consummate professionals, and that you apparently have run into some. Take another look at it and maybe you'll see what I mean.

"This thread is really going places."

Obviously sarcastic.


"Damn, gotta go back to NYC to be useless, lazy, and good for nothing."

Who said anything about NYC?

"Sorry that your local PD's have pretty much lived up to your expectations during your time of crisis."

Time of crisis? What time of crisis? I didn't say anything about a crisis.

My assumption, bringing NYC and Time of crisis into it was that he was referring to the cops who died on 9/11, as a kind of "shame on you, you say most are bad, what about these". If I'm wrong, then I stand very corrected, but I hope you can see how I would take it that way. If I'm incorrect, accept my sincere apologies...Not for being wrong, but for accusing you of being so crass, Wave.

Ack...That's just great...Bee, I remember you from way back, before the upgrade, probably 99 or so.... You were always pretty stand-up. Shit, I guess I'm 100 percent wrong.

I won't go back and edit the post, because I'm not a weasel.

Well,  I'll take a stab at it.  Let's see what we have for evidence.  

Witnesses.  Don't have any.

Cig butts.  No good there. Regardless of where found,  no way to tie it to the individual.  A useable amount of DNA is iffy, and VERY expensive to process.  like fingerprints, we need a suspect to compare to.

Tire tracks.  Only worth investigating in the movies. Don't have the equipment to process them anyway, and need a suspect vehicle to compare them too. Lots of people have trucks.

Fingerprints. Ah yes. Just like in the movies.

I'm going to practically destroy your house.  Print dust, both black and white, and reactive agent (cancer causing at that) on every surface. Some surfaces are going to be permanently stained. I'm also going to fingerprint you, the family, and any recent guests or workers.  (recent meaning about 4 months). This is to narrow down the hundreds of prints to one that just might be a suspect. This assumes that the print is there in the first place.  Most bad guys wear rubber gloves,  they watch the same movies you do.  All this is going to take 4 officers about 10 hours, dependent on the size of the house.

Inspect the crime scene. Why?  What do you expect to find? Someone chunked a flowerpot through a window and removed loose items from the house. Not gonna be a whole lot there. We're not talking the great train robbery here.  

It boils down to priorities.

What good will I accomplish?  Is my time better spent elsewhere?  

I am certainly going to do this for a murder, rape, or home invasion.  I'm not going to do it for a simple property crime, probably the 8th that shift, that is almost impossible to tie to a specific individual.

Let's take a look at the stolen property/property damage.  

It would have been a good idea to make the house a little harder to target. Leaving things such as concrete flower pots next to big windows makes it a little too easy.  A good safe would have been the next step.  If your relatives had used even a small safe,  this would be an attempted burglary instead of a completed one.

Jewelry.  Not likely to be recovered unless you took pictures and had them engraved with an identifying number. Your wedding ring looks a lot like everyone else's wedding ring.  Most expensive pieces are broken up anyway.

Knife collection. Ditto. However this is a possible clue. Most burglars wouldn't bother with this, it's not easily translatable to cash, and probably does not have a high dollar value.

However,  it is something a kid would steal. You don't say how old your nephew is,  are any of his friends old enough?  Any that would know the family schedule and home layout?

The only stuff worth attempting to find is the weapon and the limited edition watch.  They have serial numbers and can be entered into a nationwide database. If a police officer anywhere in the country picks them up, or if it goes into a pawn shop,  we'll know.  However,  somehow I get the feeling  none of those numbers were recorded by the owner.

I find it interesting that nothing heavy or large was taken,  things that I would expect.
Computers, stereos, televisions, microwaves. This makes it possible entry was made for specific items known to be there, there was no truck used, or it was kids.

Someone entered the house, went straight to the most valuable, quickly convertable, easily transportable stuff, and boogied. Probably took less than 4 minutes.

Family know anyone with drug problems?  


 

you are 100% correct. The people on the thread ranting have been watching too many late night black and white movies. fingerprints are useless unless you already have a suspect. Cigarette butts???yeah right I'm sure my dept will pay to send it to the lab. I sympathisize (SP?) with the victim, but lashing out at the PD is counterproductive. The only way to solve this is if any of the stuff with series nos starts showing up at pawn shops....

Vass:

Take a deep breath - you are sounding like a dick.

FYI - you should note that Waverunner is a cop in NYC. I saw nothing in his post insinuating some noble untouchable status because of the WTC attack.

Going "back to NYC to be useless, lazy, and good for nothing = going back to [the city I work] to be [what you have stated my job is] - as simple as that.

Also, read the other threads - some good stuff there about the cost / benefit of releasing the entire resources of the FBI on a misdemenor property crime.

I have been a victim of theft myself - lost thousands of dollars in stuff, never expected the cops to even come to look at the scene. I just wanted to file a report so I could file my insurance claim. I guess I had different expectations.


Adam

Hold on just a damn minute, Vass. Waverunner is one of the good guys. If it wasn't for the icon you wouldn't know he was a cop to begin with. Living in NJ, him, and 20 of his friends will likely be at the next AR15.com shoot you attend, and will probably be the ones that organized it. Why don't you get more than 40 posts under your belt before you start ripping on longtime members like that.

Lets see, he smokes Marlboro reds and drives a truck with big tires. I bet he drinks Budweiser beer too. Show me a toothless, red neck, hill billy who doesn't. Go buy some shoes Jethroe.

Vass, you are a complete moron. Here are some of the reasons why the PD may not have the time to invesitgate the burg to your satisfaction.

1. The housefrau driving the minivan who just plowed into the back of the car in front of her because she was on her cell.

2. The person who just locked her/his keys in their car for the 10th time and thinks the PD is their locksmith.

3. The idiots who can't read their gas gauge and expect us to drive then to the gas station, find them a can, and then transport them back to their car.

4. Mommy and daddy who have not taken the time or effort to raise their brats, and expect us to save the day about 10 years too late.

5. Being asked to talk to their neighbors about a loud radio or a barking dog, instead of picking up the phone and calling the neighbor themselves. But, that would require having a set, or god forbid getting to know their neighbors.

6. Invesigating a B&E when the dumbass was too stupid or naieve to lock their doors.

7. Dito the above when she has her purse taken off the front seat of her unlocked car.

These are just a few of the reasons why LEO's get frustrated and may not always have the best bedside manner.People create the majority of their problems and expect us to mop up the mess. It's an impossible task.....

For all you people out there who think I'm blowing this out of proportion, let me ask you this.

Lets say you live in the same area as I do. My house was broken into and the cops did no investigation to try and find the criminal.

You think its no big deal, they have more important things to do and it wasn't a major crime anyhow. You think I'm just overreacting.

2 months later you come home to find your wife dead. She came home and surprised a thief in your house and was shot. Now there is a murder to investigate.

The cops finally find the guy who did it. He's responsible for many thefts in the area. Actually he was the same guy who broke into my house.

What would you think now?? Wouldn't you think if the theft was investigated when it happend at my house and the guy was caught, maybe your wife would still be alive today? Or would you think that you were still right and it just wasn't worth investigating?

You never know what could happen in this world. There are ALOT of bad people out there. Wouldn't you atleast want the cops to TRY to get as many of them as possible off the streets??

Look at it this way.  I'm not here to hold your hand, supply you with a Kleenex and listen to you bitch about how unfair it was that you got burgled.  I'm here to catch bad guys and recover property.

ESPECIALLY the firearm. Right now some store clerk could be leaking through ugly red holes in his person, because your relatives are too lazy to have a gun safe.

A gun safe would have stopped this guy COLD. This as well as 90% of burglaries out there,  is called a smash and grab.  In and out under five minutes.

If there are no witnesses and no USEABLE evidence, to include serial numbers,  My time can be better spent elsewhere.  Not an old burglary where the family already tramped through the house.

Elsewhere would be defined as a fresh crime scene with USEABLE evidence, witnesses, and a responsible victim that recorded serial numbers, or a crime scene where someone was hurt. (Physically hurt.  Not because their feelings were ruffled)

As for just driving around.  I've heard of departments where you can do that,  never been in one.  When you come on shift here there is an average backlog of 5 calls per officer.  

Again, it comes down to priorities.

But,  I'm willing to listen to people who have a better idea.  Since you obviously have a better grasp of the job than I do,  Please tell me what SHOULD have been done in your instance.  

I don't expect you to hold my hand you cocky SOB. As far as gunsafes go, he has a safe but this rifle was sitting out cause he was cleaning it the night before and he planned on shooting it that day. People shouldn't have to live in a locked up compound cause of lazy cops such as yourself wont take the time to even question neighbors to see if they even saw anything much less try and catch a criminal. My brother in law had to call the neighbors  himself. If you would get off your fatass and do your job, maybe crime wouldn't be as bad as it is now.

Your attitude is what I expect of cops. Your useless and good for nothing. I bet if I found the guy and dished out justice the way I see fit you would be all over me. That is if you ever found the evidence, which as lazy as you are, you wouldn't.

So if someone was shot with the stolen gun, its my brother in laws fault for not keeping it in the safe huh?? I'm no detective but I would think its the fault of the man pulling the trigger.

If you came to my house over a theft and started coping an attitude with me, I'd tell you straight up, you can either take your worthless ass off my property or you better call you some major backup cause I'm about to give you one hell of a bad day pig.

And if you think I'm affraid of a piece of tin hanging on your chest, you better think again. I have less respect for cops than I do criminals. Atleast criminals work for a living steeling. Cops just collect a check.

So.  Your family has a safe but does not use it. Weapons, thousands of dollars in jewelry, just laying around.  REAL bright.

The term for that is "Irresponsible".

Then you rag out the cop on scene because she apparently does not wave a a magic wand and make everything all right.

Thank you for proving my point.  You DON'T have a better idea.  

You just have a lot of bile and hate.

Feel better?  Where do I mail your Kleenex to?

Nighthawk, your "opinions" are nothing but massive over generalizations resulting from naïve expectations fueled by too much TV. If you can tell us what “cops” are like, I bet you can also tell us what blacks are like, or Jews, or gun owners, or any other large group of people.  
Sparky, you don’t have a damn clue about law enforcement, and you’re just standing on the sidelines bitching. You’re nothing but a punk sitting behind a keyboard. And as far as calling Johninaustin a "pig" goes, go back to sucking your Daddies dick, you little fuck.
Oh, and by the way, it's 'afraid', not 'affraid', and 'stealing', not 'steeling'. Remember that for your GED test.

Motion seconded.  

As far as expecting the cops to do something:  perhaps if you went downtown, and asked to talk to the shift supervisor, and asked, in a polite manner, what exactly is the norm for this situation and why, you may get some polite answers in return.  In my small experience,  the rookie buzztop/whitewalls GREEN Beret that shows up for something like this is about worthless while the supervisor is generally a street cop with experience who is more likely to empathize with you and at least make an effort to give you some answers.  If that fails, most departments provide recourse through a complaint process.  Cops hate getting these, I know.  My guess is that you didn't even attempt it.   You probably just hopped right on to the one forum where a lot of cops will actually hang with us like minded civilians to spout your shit.

Why would you come somewhere where the few cool cops hang out and then call them names for something some greehorn on your local podunk PD did?  Go back to the hole you crawled out of.  We don't need assholes like you to piss off the few cops most of us would actually have a beer with, you dink!  




 

In before the lock..another cop-bashing thread.


What went wrong:
Vass craps on leo's in general, good leo Waverunner shows up to show humor and goodwill, Vass jumps on first leo to appear. Showing why leo's are apprehensive in the first place...Vass is an ass for "blanketing" all leo's. And can't decifer initials.

Nighthawk...you know what the leo did and did not do...call the department and complain and [b]ASK[/b] for further investigation. Duh. Why come on ARfcom and whine? What did you accomplish in getting your stolen goods back? Nothing. You just pissed off half the board. The police "person" has a superior...call him or her. They will come back and investigate further...try it.

Again...in before the lock.
[b][blue]NAKED[/blue][/b]