Mandatory ride alongs for Congress Members

[Coyotesfan97]

Marc MacYoung posted this article from Greg Ellifritz today on FB. Its timely for this thread on the disconnect between staff and line. The first paragraph were my thoughts before I even read the article.

The Need For Truth

A common discussion when cops talk is how it seems that those at the higher levels of the organization are divorced from the realities faced by field personnel. It is frequently observed that those in charge were promoted quickly, spent little time on patrol, and tried to get away from the streets as quickly as possible. While there are some in the higher ranks who had the reputation of the being a strong working cop, these folks are the exceptions rather than the rule.

[UNM1136]

We have a rather unique process that the brass can hire outside for the ranks of Lt and above. In theory they can hire their elementary school best friend at the paygrades of Lt, Cdr, or DC, then send them to an academy. It hasn't happened yet, but a lot of sworn staff jobs go to academy classmates and shiftmates from 25-30 years ago. 2/3 of the staff positions were hired to those positions and most of the remaining skipped ranks, and spent as little time as possible on patrol. We hired a Lt who had two years experience as a dispatcher, and less than four years as a cop, and was under investigation by his old agency when he left for shooting an unarmed black man with all the slurs. He lasted less than five years, and when he left us during a reorganization resulting from a sexual harrassment complaint he was involved in he was about to get Googlio'ed and had burned many, many bridges with a rather large department we relied on for help.

Every newbie that goes to a staff position promises to attend briefings and ride along with each troop (we are 45 sworn) to "get a feel for the community" and the Operations Division of the department. I can count on one hand with fingers to spare how many times it has actually happened.

Another unique position we find ourselves in is hiring patrol officers who retired from staff poistions with other agencies, particularly the largest agency in the state. Yes they have 20-25 years experience, but they retired as out of recruiting, academy staff, or investigative/divisional commands at the ranks of Lt or above. So they spent more time in the last decade of their career in admin slots than actually working on the streets. I had one for FTO with a month on who retired as the Tactical Commander (SWAT, Canine, Bomb Squad, and ERT) and instead of learning how he was expected do things in his new job went on and on about how stupid things were and how he would change them if he were king, based on his experience. So screw learning about the new job he applied for, and and piss on all his new coworkers and shiftmates.

Another couple retired out of SWAT and told their FTOs that they weren't interested in learning what the FTO had to teach them and that they just had to gut out FTO for the assigned period of time and they would be released. They were right: they were released from FTO, and had short term careers when they couldn't function at a basic level. They resigned, but were in enough with upstairs that they could have stayed if they wanted to, despite the complaints of their coworkers and the public. When you have lunch with the chief on a regular basis you are forgiven all kinds of sustained complaints that many would get gigged on.

Sorry. Sore spot. Been up 20 some hours now. Need to get to bed...

pat

[Chuck Whitlock]

I'd have some small hope for the program if Capt. Higgins (R-LA) gets to mete out the assignments.

https://clayhiggins.house.gov/about

[Erick Gelhaus]

Marc MacYoung posted this article from Greg Ellifritz today on FB.

Ellifritz isn't the author, he is merely the gentleman who got to share it. The author, sadly, must remain anonymous.

I'd be happy is agency administrators would out on ride along & see what their cops are dealing with. The same for local politicians. Congress should ride or shut up in re things they know nothing about - we'd never hear from them though.

[Coyotesfan97]

Ellifritz isn't the author, he is merely the gentleman who got to share it. The author, sadly, must remain anonymous.

I probably should have said from his site. To be fair I never said he wrote it and there is a disclaimer right at the top saying he isn’t the author.

[Jeff22]

The decisions made that most affect most police officers are made by members of the City Council, Town Board, Village Board, or County Board of Supervisors. Or State Legislators. The U.S. Congress does have much to do with local law enforcement.