It is a problem for the Navy with their shipboard systems: https://www.usni.org/magazines/proce...and-fight-ship
It is a problem for the Navy with their shipboard systems: https://www.usni.org/magazines/proce...and-fight-ship
Not sure about Houston's, but in general yes, and I would imagine Houston's does as well.
People are people, and are going to be people. Nobody can stay concentrated in an elevated state of awareness indefinitely. When we stand post, we usually try to do 30 minute rotations with someone being "down". Anything longer than that and people start zoning out hard core and finding something other than counting tiles to take up their attention.
Last edited by TGS; 05-17-2019 at 05:05 PM.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
My chief bitch here isn't lack of attention, because none of us is 100% on all the time. But if you give up, get proned out, consent to restraint, get taken to a back room, or get stuffed in a trunk, you're going to die. As LEOs we learned that lesson more than fifty years ago. If you're behind the curve at least die fighting.
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
I work with a guy who is a top notch cop. He's not in love with being a cop, but he is damn good at it.
However he has a variety musical ringtones for the different people who call him. They are LOUD! It comes across as very unprofessional to have that on duty.
At times I wish we could go back to the days before streaming, smart phones, etc, that make it even easier for people to escape the real world.
Unfortunately, many officers just switch off when working off-duty gigs. They just assume these jobs are easy money and why pay attention?
I agree on the extreme risks of submitting to a suspect, especially when you've been identified as law enforcement. That said, one theme of Wambaugh's "The Onion Field" was that many officers survive hostage-taking incidents. Indeed, I have two friends who were disarmed by prisoners and survived. That said, one began taking a shotgun out every day because she really could have used one as her prisoner scampered off into the distance. The other officer, who prided himself on his lightening fast presentation from his personally owned :death from behind"holster was wearing his department's issue security holster (which I wore as a personal purchase) when next I saw him.
I understand that security gigs are usually boring, but both the business and the officer would be better served if the officer standing post for hours was not immediately approachable. I would agree that being on point for the entire off-duty gig would be preferable, but it may not be realistic for many officers.
Last edited by jnc36rcpd; 05-18-2019 at 12:25 AM.
I am a security guard.
I pay attention to what's going on around me because I have learned the hard way that people that would never consider attacking a cop wouldn't think twice about jumping me.
I've said it before I do my reports on my company phone. It's my time clock. It's my watch clock so my employer knows that I hit all my inspection points when I'm supposed to hit them and it's a GPS so they know that I'm walking my complete rounds when 'm supposed to be walking them. It also sends an alarm to my supervisor should it leave site. A guy that murdered a security guard in Denver was caught because the gaurd's company phone sent an alarm as soon as the murderer took it off the site.
It's a valuable tool but I hate it. I hate it because I don't want some tweaker seen me pulling it out and thinking it's an iPhone and trying to steal it. I hate it because when I pull it out and light it up it draws attention to me. I hate it because I have to turn my back to the street to do my scans and I hate it because the client employees have seen me doing reports on it and called my boss and complain that I was playing on my phone.
It's 3 A.M. I am at work right now, I am posting this from my personal phone, I am sitting locked in my "patrol" car with the back of the car to the fence and the front of the car facing the gate. (FWIW I'm actually watching some random tweaker wander down the street and wondering where a homeless person got the money for a full-blooded Rottweiler) and that's the only time my personal phone ever comes out of my pocket.
Based on the little that you can see in the video I think that woman would have been okay if she hadn't been dicking around on her iPhone. She looks like she had time to notice that the robbers were coming before they were even in the frame. I don't know what the setup was where she was at but I do know that if somebody comes through the gate where I work I pay attention to who it is.
I think I told this story before but I was walking my round one day on a different site and I ran into a black guy with dreads wearing a New York Jets Jersey and black knee-length shorts. he was riding a bike West down the fence line and when I saw him and just to be polite I said "Hi how's it going"
He came off the bike and almost came unglued wanting to know why I was talking to him. I told him I was just being polite, I apologize for the inconvenience and told him have a nice day I'm leaving and he went his way and I went mine
Long story short I got back to the front gate and my supervisor told me that there had just been a robbery at the credit union across the street from our site and the robber that she described was the guy that I ran into. That's when I learned to be very cautious around any unknown person I approached at work. My point is that I got a good lesson at a cheap price and I took it to heart.
I'm not saying that I would have handled that situation better than her but I bet they wouldn't have caught me napping like that and it's not because I'm super ninja it's because I've had things go south on me enough times to know to be paying attention.
Last edited by Cypher; 05-18-2019 at 04:10 AM.
"Can you hear me now?"
Troubling, at best. That said, I wonder what the numbers would show if such scenarios were routinely caught on video. I'd like to be pleasantly surprised...but wouldn't be too surprised if I wasn't.
There's nothing civil about this war.
Sorry....that requires the outdated and no longer required warrior attitude. Best to hope they don’t take your iPhone. (Insert horribly depressing truth icon)
Never give up, die trying and take the SOB with you isn’t a bad way to go. Proned out and executed isn’t what I want carved on my tombstone.
Last edited by LSP552; 05-18-2019 at 10:45 AM.