IDOL

[Chuck Whitlock]

What changed was better trained and organized law enforcement, and better communications like telephones and radios provided a reasonable chance of catching fleeing felons if you lose sight of them vs the old days where if you didn't slow or stop them with a bullet they were gone.

Additionally, we are catching a lot of burglars/thieves with DNA nowadays.

[Hambo]

I know that is common opinion, but as a pd myself, I can tell you there are lots of good ones. There are some hospitals you want to go for brain surgery and there are some you want to go to when you’ve sustained major trauma. Talented people work in both places, one is nicer than the other.


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Another point is that they don't start new PDs on murder trials. Here, they get misdemeanors until they get experience, then they move up. If you get a PD for a murder trial, you're getting one with years of trial experience. They still lose almost all trials, and for every loss in court there are a couple hundred that took a deal. The objective in life is to never have criminal charges filed against you. If you fail to do that, your hope is that they get dropped for some reason, which is not a free lunch, but it's better than the alternatives. I have the numbers of a PD supervisor and two good criminal defense attorneys in my phone. I never want to use them except to ask if they want to meet for lunch.

[blues]

During my career, I met two attorneys that I went up against and came away respecting so much that I told each of them that if I ever needed an attorney, I would reach out to them. (They still lost at trial, but they were superb in giving their clients the best defense possible under the circumstances.)

I have never said that to any other, despite some of them being worthy adversaries when my cases were presented at trial by the U.S. Attorney's office.