Posted: 6/15/2008 7:51:26 PM EDT
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Typically, what is everyone's lunch break? The town here has 3 hour lunch breaks. Every single day three or four town cops (sometimes a state park officer or a sheriff's deputy will fill in for one of them) will plop down inside a restaurant for an average of 3 hours. ~2 hours sitting at a table eating their meal and then another 45 minutes to an hour spent hanging out in the parking lot sitting on their hoods chatting. |
If I was the Lunch Police I'd set up video cameras to record their daily 3 hour lunch sessions and forward copies to all local departments and news agencies. Since I don't really care what they do with their time I was more curious than agitated. |
Don't post this crap in this forum. Take it to the GD, if you just want to stir it up.... |
Well if they REALLY are spending 3 hours a shift dicking around, then maybe you should do something about it. My initial response when someone makes claims such as yours is to be skeptical. Often it turns out that those claims are exaggerated in the name of internet drama. If you're not exaggerating, then perhaps something should be done. Even if it's a low crime area, those cops should at least be out on the streets issuing traffic tickets to the hard working taxpayers. 
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One more thought. Assuming you aren't making this all up in order to still the pot. Sometimes officers work uniformed security while off duty. It could be a bank, bar, restaurant, shop, etc. This is particularly common in high crime areas. So you might see a cop sitting around for several hours, because that's exactly what he's getting paid to do. Of course that will typically only be one or two officers, not three to four. Just out of curiosity, how do you find the time to watch cops for three hours every single day? |
Same for us. If you can eat and sit for 30 min, good for you. |
They sit at my place of employment 5 out of 7 days and the other two days are spent at the employer of my girlfriend that reports identical behavior. I was only asking here to see if this behavior was typical or aberrant as I'm considering a Reserve position with this department and didn't want to get in the middle of a bunch of drama if they are, in fact, fucking off for 3 hours a night and not on a sanctioned break. |
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No sanctioned breaks, for lunch or anything else. Eat when you can, but if a call comes in, most of the local restaurants are very accomadating about holding checks or keeping food warm. We eat when we can. We work hard and play hard and nobody worries too much if we finally can sit down and relax a bit. I've had time to sit down at a comfortable restaurant and order, and then I've had to toss my half eaten hamburger back in the sack b/c someone came through my stationary radar too fast. |
Is it possable they are coming off duty and have take home units and they all just like to talk about the events of the day? |
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Driving a desk: fixed one hour lunch break. I pack my lunch, then go to the gym for 50 minutes and gobble my meal in ten minutes. Working patrol: I don't get very hungry for some reason, so I usually just nibble on the fly, a couple of minutes here and there, and I usually have so much damn paperwork to do I don't have time anyway. I haven't eaten a sit-down meal while patrolling in years. |
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We don't get an official lunch break. We work 10 hour shifts and get paid for all 10 hours. We try to eat when we can, but our policy is no "sit downs" in a resturant. We have to eat on the go. I find it kind of funny how people always accuse cops of sitting around for 2 or 3 hours. Is that the magical number? I guess it's the same as when we ask a drunk how many drinks they've had-----same answer everytime ---2 or 3 
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By contract, we get an hour. If we miss it, we are entitled to an hour of overtime. I work Wed-Sat 2200-0800 and my lunch is at 0500. I don't know what it is, but for some reason the alcohol sets in at about 0430 and we usually start getting some sort of incident right around then and I miss lunch. I have never put in the OT for the missed lunch though... just part of the game. |
Around here, the only people I don't see doing sit-downs are the PD folks. FD, EMS, SD..... all of them I see doing sit-downs. I have no idea if the PD has a policy like yours, or if my lunch just doesn't coincide with their theirs. Neither option would surprise me.
That is a hilarious farking observation! 
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I'm pretty sure LEO positions are exempted from whatever OSHA/DOL standards mandate a lunch break. |
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We are allowed 20 minutes, but thats not a set-in-stone 20 minutes without interuption. They can call you up and you're on your way to a call. I have my meals down to a 12 minute system; in the door, order, eat and out the door. If theres a long line it'll screw me up. We can't have two officers together in one spot unless one is a supervisor. I find the small village PDs doing more of that long lunch thing; they sorta work it into their whole community policing thing where they spend their lunch hours talking things over with the locals. They also dont have the call volume bigger agencies do, either. |
+1 same here |
+1 Can't remember the last time I got to enjoy 30minutes of eat time. |