I’ve been noting/complaining the police force in my town has been acting rather incompetent, not hostile or violent, or corrupt… just stupid. I didn’t know the full reason why until just now.
Burns out the police force here in Weirton, West Virginia did away with ranks at some point, for whatever stupid reason. I know they used to have them, I recall seeing them, still see a occasional marking when I look for them… but admit it was always a officer’s rank I saw. I just never noticed everyone was walking around with naked police collars. I’m embarrassed to say I just never noticed.
Their old excuse was the city had to get rid of it’s dispatcher at the police department, it was “consolidated” with the county (thus city straddles two counties, why Hancock and not Brooke county, I dunno, but Hancock handles the dispatches).
How it did, and continues to happen, which upsets me so much, is police would all respond at once to a call, no matter how minor… ALL OF THEM…anyone patrolling withing a couple miles descended, and there was absolutely NO MECHANISM to get the idea into their heads that hey… maybe if your the 8th or 9th cop in on a call a teenage girl is seen smoking, you should just continue on and patrol…
They would all dismount, and proceed to gagglefuck in the least tactical formation possible… backs to the crowd and the arrestee… only a few cops handle that situation… rest just talking idle. Meanwhile… rest of the neighborhood is NOT BEING PATROLLED. They’ve been doing this for years.
This also occurs when they are called in on a ad hoc raid… Police all descend in a clusterfuck, trying desperately to fit into narrow driveways, the bulk sprawled on the street, nobody bothering to drive around the back. Its called a cordon, your supposed to have guts on the sides and back.
My police force here thinks piling 11 cop cars in a side street, all on one side, is the better solution. The residence behind where I live us the most raided house in the city (welfare, lots of drug issues)… it’s a corner place, road on 3 sides, parking on the fourth… all cops MUST be on the same side! They block themselves in, and come running out confused, seeing that other cops have sense moved in, blocking them in, and people with minivans farther behind block them in, everyone buttfucking the other.
It happened again today, between 9-11 cars deep. Only 3 cars properly placed, all ununiformed. I usually take photos of these clusterfucks, but decided against it given they kinda were undercover.
One starts picking a fight with me, demanding to know who I was… I told him, said it wasn’t good enough, I said I was in the system, willing to give him info… he demanded I give up my ID… said I would cooperate fully with what I have, look me up in the system… I lived there, I was in my legally, easy to verify time and place… I was supposed to be there and was at a respectful distance.
He disagreed, demanded to know why I was watching. I told him the above… I coukdn’t figure out how the police force was usually competent, yet turned into a bunch of gagglefucking idiots once it came to my neighborhood, despite me seeing they have good highway tactics, responding to crashes with well trained responses. Why so smart and efficient in some cases, so dumb in others?
He said I didn’t know what I was talking about, what did I know about the police. I said I used to have a very similar job, Infantry, and knew how to do a proper police cordon… this pissed him off, saying “what does a cordon have to do with police” and I said “see back there, no cops, they can run off”… he responded “what does that have to do with police” and I asked if he knew what a cordon was… he responded again “what does that have to do with police” and I responded “Exactly, you don’t even know, and that’s scary”.
So he demanded my ID again, said I would fully cooperate give him whatever information off had… he demanded a picture ID, I said it’s in the DMV system, but I lost it. He said bullshit, go inside and “fetch it” and I said I am fully cooperating on my property, which he was on, within the constraints of the law, and my info was all he legally needed. He said "NO… your issued IDs, your supposed to always have them (only true if your driving, but I didn’t pick that point with him, too much awareness of the law all at once could hurt his head). I made certain the other cops wasting time watching him harass me head me say I lived HERE, this is my legal place and time that I’m supposed to be at, in full accord with the law, and that I would fully cooperate by giving you my information for dispatch.
He got my info, checked everything… then was told to move so another cop to pull out, and he never came back.
So I keep watching… cops running up and down the hill… nobody had the sense to park up top… a good cordon would of made this unneeded, cops would of been instantly in placs… once in a while, cops run out to drive off on another call… down to five cop cars… the three cars that made sense (undercover guys, or new, couldn’t decide), one parked to the side, one still blocking the road like a asshole, tying off traffic.
When I calked the city manager, he really shocked me to say it was the police force got rid of rank. They had a police chief and executive officer, but the cops all felt they were equal, so no one ever takes charge. They get funding apparently for the highway to respond to crashes, so look competent there, but can’t pull it off elsewhere.
When you gave so many police on a scene that it becomes necessary to start harassing people just watching from neighboring houses, it means you got too many cops on a scene. He would of been better off on patrol, or impressing everyone by shutting up and standing out back.
Instead, what we have is a situation where cops are not patrolling. In order to have a efficient, responsive police force, IRS crucial to have cops balanced out as roughly equal as you can manage, so they have statistically a better response time… one cop will always be nearby theoretically, or at least closer, than the rest.Theory is, more cops about, less crime. Quicker response time, less chaos and pain the community has to put up with. Also prevents roadblocks and cop car spamming.
While smart AI algorithms could theoretically keep pace, a police Sargent radioing the other cops on a patrol can do this for free, and fairly effective… and it costs nothing. You can’t do this though, unless you got police ranks. If you have police ranks, everyone will say “fuck off, we are all equals” and proceed to do their own thing.
End result is… we get chaotic gagglefucks in every call… ten cop cars pulling off, half doing nothing, no one able to say “go do something else”.
Yes… I believe the reason for getting rid of ranks was to reduce pay… fine. But… immediately afterwards, you repin them with some sort of rank, plop some printed manuals out for free class work, fill out the workbook for a grade while parked in a highway instead of screwing around on your phone…
There is no reason for a police force to devolve to this point.
They just passed a few guys to become police officers, they are working on getting some sargents. The city manager wants classes… fine, whatever… not opposed, just I see no reason why they gotta remain fucked up in the meantime instead of just having the senior guys say "stagger out the police patrols, don’t loiter unless it’s tactical relevant, and if you see half the police force on scene and it’s not a shootout, move along and go act police like on patrol far away from that place, but if you absolutely must pull in, park on the side, not the center, and don’t try to arrest people watching 20 yards away holding a philosophy book and notebook, in shorts. You got more important things to do than makeup laws and trying to get civilians to go fetch things for you like a dog.
50/50 chance my place gets raided now by that cop. Hope my cats scratch him in the eye. He will find laundry and philosophy books, and a litter box brimming with catshit. It will be hilarious when they piss test me to discover I’m cleaner than Fiji Water, and can defend myself competently in court, and will countersue them for being dumbasses.
We used to have a bunch of bad cops, but all but three of the former police force has left (baddies work casino/race track security now). You can’t flush stupid out of a police force easily though. New guys left with no guidance.
“What does that have to do with being a cop?” “EXACTLY!, You don’t know.”
